[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 15, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H3723-H3725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT EDUCATION ACT

  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 1931) to provide competitive grants for the promotion of 
Japanese American confinement education as a means to understand the 
importance of democratic principles, use and abuse of power, and to 
raise awareness about the importance of cultural tolerance toward 
Japanese Americans, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1931

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Japanese American 
     Confinement Education Act''.

     SEC. 2. JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT EDUCATION GRANTS.

       Public Law 109-441 (120 Stat. 3290) is amended--
       (1) in section 2, by adding at the end the following:
       ``(4) Japanese american confinement education grants.--The 
     term `Japanese American Confinement Education Grants' means 
     competitive grants, awarded through the Japanese American 
     Confinement Sites Program, for Japanese American 
     organizations to educate individuals, including through the 
     use of digital resources, in the United States on the 
     historical importance of Japanese American confinement during 
     World War II, so that present and future generations may 
     learn from Japanese American confinement and the commitment 
     of the United States to equal justice under the law.
       ``(5) Japanese american organization.--The term `Japanese 
     American organization' means a private nonprofit organization 
     within the United States established to promote the 
     understanding and appreciation of the ethnic and cultural 
     diversity of the United States by illustrating the Japanese 
     American experience throughout the history of the United 
     States.''; and
       (2) in section 4--
       (A) by inserting ``(a) In General.--'' before ``There are 
     authorized'';
       (B) by striking ``$38,000,000'' and inserting 
     ``$80,000,000''; and
       (C) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(b) Japanese American Confinement Education Grants.--
       ``(1) In general.--Of the amounts made available under this 
     section, not more than $10,000,000 shall be awarded as 
     Japanese American Confinement Education Grants to Japanese 
     American organizations. Such competitive grants shall be in 
     an amount not less than $750,000 and the Secretary shall give 
     priority consideration to Japanese American organizations 
     with fewer than 100 employees.
       ``(2) Matching requirement.--
       ``(A) Fifty percent.--Except as provided in subparagraph 
     (B), for funds awarded under this subsection, the Secretary 
     shall require a 50 percent match with non-Federal assets from 
     non-Federal sources, which may include cash or durable goods 
     and materials fairly valued, as determined by the Secretary.
       ``(B) Waiver.--The Secretary may waive all or part of the 
     matching requirement

[[Page H3724]]

     under subparagraph (A), if the Secretary determines that--
       ``(i) no reasonable means are available through which an 
     applicant can meet the matching requirement; and
       ``(ii) the probable benefit of the project funded outweighs 
     the public interest in such matching requirement.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Grijalva) and the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona.


                             general leave

  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arizona?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 1931, the Japanese American Confinement 
Education Act, introduced by my colleague, Representative Doris Matsui.
  In 2006, Congress established the Japanese American Confinement Sites 
grant program for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. 
confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World 
War II.
  These grants are awarded through a competitive process to entities 
working to preserve historic Japanese American incarceration sites. 
They require a 2:1 Federal to non-Federal match.
  H.R. 1931 would authorize increased and much-needed funding for the 
program within the National Park Service, ensuring that the lessons and 
history of the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans is not 
forgotten, and that we continue to learn from the transgression of the 
past.
  The bill will also establish a new competitive grant within the 
program that would support nonprofits to create and share educational 
materials about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World 
War II.
  I congratulate my colleague, Representative Matsui, for championing 
this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1931 extends the authorization of the Japanese 
American Confinement Sites grant program and establishes a new 
competitive grant program to award grants to Japanese American 
organizations to create and disseminate educational materials about the 
history of Japanese American confinement during World War II.
  In 2006, Congress established the Japanese American Confinement 
Sites, or JACS grant program to preserve and interpret U.S. Confinement 
Sites during World War II. However, the program will soon run up 
against the end of its authorization cap.
  The program has supported valuable projects across the country, 
including at least 12 in my home State of Arkansas, where important 
projects have been funded at my alma mater, the University of Arkansas 
at Fayetteville, as well as Arkansas State University, the University 
of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Central Arkansas, and the 
Central Arkansas Library System, and the McGehee Industrial Foundation.
  These projects include archiving, creating educational exhibits, 
hosting workshops and lectures, preserving cemeteries, and recording 
oral histories.
  I appreciate Representative Matsui's work on this important 
legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support extending the program.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to 
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Matsui), sponsor of the 
legislation.
  Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the 
Japanese American Confinement Education Act. This bill builds upon one 
of my earliest achievements, reauthorizing the Japanese American 
Confinement Sites program established in 2006.
  The Japanese American story is an important one. It needs to be told 
and retold. It is a story that cannot afford to be lost in time.
  This year marks the 80th anniversary of the authorization of 
Executive Order 9066. Yet, too many Americans do not know the history 
of the Japanese American community.
  These Americans were stripped from their homes and sent to remote 
camps. Families were put behind barbed wire and guarded by armed 
soldiers.
  Today, I speak to you on the floor of the people's House as a Member 
of this esteemed Chamber. Yet, my first 3 months of life were part of 
that pained experience. My parents were among those who lived in these 
appalling conditions, incarcerated solely because of their ancestry. 
This also included many people from the Sacramento region, including my 
late husband, Congressman Bob Matsui, who was only 6 months old when he 
was sent to one of these camps.
  Those of us in the Japanese American community know all too well if 
we do not learn from history, we risk the chance of it repeating. That 
is why we must continue to lift up these stories. That is why we must 
continue to listen to those who came before us and teach this history 
to our future generations. These are the voices that my bill seeks to 
preserve.
  There are still some people who think that by walling off our country 
from the less fortunate, that we will somehow make ourselves safer; 
that by making people feel like the other, that we will be more secure.
  But that is not who the American people are. We have this wonderfully 
diverse Nation and it is together that we stand the strongest.
  The story of Japanese Americans is something that Bob and I felt a 
responsibility to preserve; the history of individuals and families in 
the Japanese American community. And really, it is truly an American 
story of perseverance, persistence, and the love of this country.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on educating our 
public about this important, painful piece of American history.
  Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Hawaii (Mr. Case).

  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1931, 
the Japanese American Confinement Education Act, as well as H.R. 6434, 
the Japanese American World War II History Network Act, which we will 
consider later today.
  I am honored and humbled to cosponsor these measures, and I sincerely 
thank my colleagues from California, Representatives Matsui and 
Obernolte, for their work in crafting both pieces of legislation to 
ensure that the inexcusable injustices faced by our Nation's Japanese 
American community during World War II are never forgotten.
  The memory of World War II evokes one of the darkest periods of our 
history as a country, the mass internment of Japanese Americans. Over 
the course of the war, our Federal Government forcibly relocated and 
incarcerated about 120,000 Japanese Americans, the majority of whom 
were U.S. citizens, in barbed wire enclosed camps.
  H.R. 1931 and H.R. 6434 both strengthen our ability, if not 
necessity, to tell what happened in these confinement sites, and to 
ensure that future generations learned what happened so it never occurs 
again.
  I urge my colleagues to honor and remember the Japanese Americans who 
were incarcerated at still-infamous sites like Manzanar, Tule Lake, 
where my wife's uncle and aunt, simple truck farmers from Sacramento, 
were interned, Heart Mountain, and the Honouliuli Internment Camp in 
Honolulu by voting ``yes'' on both H.R. 1931 and H.R. 6434.

                              {time}  1500

  Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I encourage passage of this bill.
  I have friends back in Arkansas who, like Representative Matsui, at a 
young age, were in some of these internment camps, and they are great 
Americans, very patriotic. We owe it to them to recognize what happened 
and to support this program.

[[Page H3725]]

  Mr. Speaker, I, again, urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I urge approval of H.R. 1931. The sponsor 
of the legislation, Representative Matsui, and also Representative Case 
have made, I think, the profound argument for the legislation and its 
support.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1931 the 
Japanese American Confinement Education Act that would provide 
education to elevate understanding about the confinement of Japanese 
Americans during World War II. In addition to a museum-based 
educational program, this bill would permanently reauthorize the 
Japanese American Confinement Sites Preservation Program.
  H.R. 1931 will direct the Department of the Interior to establish a 
program of grants to Japanese American museums to educate about the 
confinement of Japanese Americans as a means to understand the 
importance of democratic principles, the use and abuse of power, and to 
raise awareness about the importance of cultural tolerance toward 
Japanese Americans.
  Two months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, President 
Roosevelt signed an Executive Order that authorized the relocation of 
Japanese Americans, most of whom were U.S. citizens, to designated 
camps nationwide.
  Teaching about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII 
would emphasize the importance of understanding the terrible social 
injustices that have been inflicted upon racial and ethnic minority 
groups in the United States.
  Highlighting this subject would create a thoughtful, deep awareness 
about our community, our world, and ourselves.
  We must teach that the incarceration of Japanese Americans was wrong, 
and that racism is wrong.
  This sort of hysteria may occur again, and people must do their part 
to make sure that it never happens again.
  Iluminating and confronting the tragedy inflicted upon Japanese 
Americans during WWII can help shape the citizens who will lead us into 
a more socially aware future.
  Keeping the memories of incarceration alive also gives Japanese 
Americans the ability and responsibility to speak out when other groups 
are unfairly targeted on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, 
sexuality, or other identity.
  My former colleague Congressman Norman Mineta, who represented the 
constituents of California's 13th and 15th Congressional districts, is 
a survivor of the Heart Mountain internment camp near Cody, Wyoming.
  In his remarks during a House debate on the passage of the Civil 
Liberties Act, he exclaimed that he, and all the other prisoners, 
``lost [their] most basic human rights. [Their] own government had 
branded [them] with the unwarranted stigma of disloyalty which clings 
to [them] still to this day.''
  Secretary Mineta helped lead the efforts to pass the Civil Liberties 
Act, which offered a formal apology from the United States Government 
for its policies toward Japanese Americans and paid each of the 80,000 
living survivors $20,000 in compensation.
  His tenacity and faith led him to become a member of Congress for 20 
years, Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and 
Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush.
  It is our duty as Members of Congress to honor and commemorate 
Secretary Mineta, and all other survivors of this unjust racial attack, 
by passing this bill and educating everyone on these atrocities to 
ensure nothing like this will ever happen again.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 1931, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________