[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4499-4504]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




RECOGNIZING A NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE TO INCREASE PUBLIC AWARENESS 
 OF EVENTS SURROUNDING INTERNMENTS OF JAPANESE AMERICANS DURING WORLD 
                                 WAR II

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. HONDA. Before I get started, let me just compliment the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania for his patience in being here this evening. I 
appreciate your presence, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss House Resolution 56, a 
resolution I introduced earlier this month. This is a resolution 
supporting the goals of the Japanese American community and recognizing 
a national day of remembrance to increase the public awareness of the 
events surrounding the restriction, exclusion, and the internments of 
individuals and families during World War II.
  Let us be clear about this. In 1942, more than 120,000 people were 
rounded up in this country, primarily from the west coast, and 
incarcerated. Families were torn apart. Hardworking people had to sell 
their businesses for pennies on the dollar. Everything these people 
worked so hard for evaporated overnight. I spent part of my childhood 
in a camp in southeast Colorado, an internment camp called Amache. 
House Resolution 56 also recognizes that some in the German and the 
Italian communities experienced deprivation during this period as well.
  This resolution has been referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
and has currently over 60 cosponsors. This year marks the 61st 
anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signing of executive 
order 9066 on February 19, 1942; and it is the 15th anniversary of the 
Civil Liberties Act of 1988 signed by President Reagan.
  The day of remembrance is as important now as it has ever been. We 
are again living in perilous times. Our country is at war against 
terrorism. We may soon be at war with Iraq. The history of World War II 
demonstrated that our Constitution is tested in times of trauma, 
tension, and turmoil. In 1942, our political leaders failed. Therefore, 
today we must work to educate the public about the internment of 
Americans today in order to prevent similar injustices to be forced 
upon other Americans. Our civil liberties have not been in as much risk 
since

[[Page 4500]]

World War II, and this time we as political leaders cannot fail.
  Many might be aware of the comments made by one of our colleagues 
earlier this month on a live radio call-in show. Our colleague said 
that he agreed that President Roosevelt's decision to sign executive 
order 9066 was appropriate. He said, with the information the President 
had at the time, he made the best decision he could. He also stated 
that the incarceration of Japanese Americans was for their own safety. 
In addition, statements were further made that some Japanese Americans 
during World War II were probably intent on doing us harm just as some 
Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us today. Such 
statements are inaccurate and simply wrong. As my father always said to 
me when I was a child, if we were put in camps for our own protection, 
then why were we the ones behind barbed wires and why were the machine 
guns pointed inwards toward us?

                              {time}  2030

  Furthermore, such statements from a government official are 
disturbing and dangerous, as they appear to endorse a policy of racial 
and ethnic profiling that has long been discredited. Saying that the 
internment of Japanese Americans was appropriate is simply unacceptable 
and factually inseparable.
  One of the most concise rebuttals that I have read to the notion that 
Japanese Americans were placed in camps because they either posed a 
threat to national security or for their own safety comes from a law 
professor, Eric Muller, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill in a letter dated February 7, 2003. And I would like to, Mr. 
Speaker, submit this letter into the record at this point without 
reading its full content. However, most importantly though, we must 
remember that the Commission on Wartime Relocation found that it was 
not a military necessity that the Japanese American community be 
rounded up from the west coast, but it was rather based upon race 
prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure, and I will repeat, a failure of 
political leadership. This was probably the largest single act of 
racial and ethnic profiling conducted by our government in modern 
times.
  True to the democratic process, however, our Nation has been able to 
look back and admit errors from its past. I can think of no greater 
evidence to show why the United States, with all its flaws, still is 
looked to worldwide as the Nation with the strongest and fairest form 
of government. By admitting that the government did wrong in its 
treatment of its citizens and legal residents who were aliens during 
World War II, Congress and the President reaffirmed our Nation's 
commitment to the principles founded in the Constitution. However, we 
must always be vigilant in the protection of our civil liberties, and 
in this time of tension as we wage a war against terrorism, we must 
again reaffirm our commitment to the principles in the Constitution. 
While national security is always a paramount concern for those of us 
making the laws as well as executing and interpreting the laws, we see 
that there are those in government who continue to pursue policies once 
again that target our civil liberties.
  I find it disturbing that none of my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle have come out against the statements of this gentleman from 
North Carolina. But now more than ever, we must strive to balance our 
cherished civil liberties with the need to protect our homeland. 
Finding this balance is the enduring lesson that the Day of Remembrance 
resolution teaches and the lesson that cannot be lost on our Nation's 
policy makers and our citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Case) who 
represents probably a good portion of the population not only in the 
mainland, the U.S., but also in Hawaii.
  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for 
yielding, and I bid him and my colleagues here in the House a very fond 
aloha from my home State of Hawaii.
  As the gentleman has noted, my home State of Hawaii is a State that 
has a tremendous representation of people of Asian descent. Pacific 
islanders and Asians make up more than 50 percent of the composition of 
my State. So in areas of ethnic issues, we are particularly sensitive 
for both our history and for our modern day; and my State is a State 
that is very proud of many things, many things about it, from our 
fantastic environment which so many people have enjoyed, to our native 
Hawaiian culture which has brought really to the world a spirit of 
aloha, a spirit of how to live together in harmony with both nature and 
with each other.
  But I think the one thing that we are the most proud of in Hawaii and 
certainly that I am the most proud of in Hawaii, as somebody whose 
family goes back for four generations there, is our multiethnic 
tradition. We are again easily the most diverse ethnic composition of 
any State in the entire country. No ethnic group of the many that we 
have in Hawaii has a majority. The highest ethnic group in Hawaii has 
only about 26, 27 percent; the second highest, 24, 25 percent. So we 
are very conscious of our relationships with each other from an ethnic 
perspective, a State where over 50 percent now of all marriages are 
multiethnic marriages; over 50 percent of all births are multiethnic 
births, including my own children who carry the blood of eight separate 
ethnic groups in their own veins and carry it without anybody giving 
any thought to it whatsoever; and where Americans of Japanese ancestry 
have long been a very significant minority in our history.
  So for all of us in Hawaii, all of us, whether we are of Japanese 
ancestry or Caucasian ancestry or Portuguese ancestry or Chinese 
ancestry or Korean or some of the more recent immigrant groups such as 
Marshallese, Laotian, Vietnamese, Thai, when we read of comments by one 
of my colleagues on the internment of Japanese Americans during World 
War II, the Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Homeland Security, 
the very subcommittee that is being called upon to make judgments on 
behalf of all of us in this country on matters of internal security, 
how we treat our citizens during a time of war, our reactions range 
from puzzlement, frankly, in some cases to outrage. And, Mr. Speaker, I 
must confess I do not really know myself what to make of those 
comments, because those thoughts expressed are so foreign to my own 
thinking and to the thinking of those in my State.
  And as I went back to my district over the district work period and 
talked to my constituents, they brought up these comments. It was not 
really always a matter of outrage, although some were outraged. It was 
more a matter of puzzlement. What was it that was occurring? What was 
it that this colleague was thinking? What exactly was it? Was it just a 
slip of the tongue? We all make slips of the tongue, and we all are 
willing to forgive a slip of the tongue. Was it ignorance of the facts, 
or was it a reflection of more deliberate thinking? And unfortunately 
we do not know which one it is because, to this day, there has been no 
good explanation offered.
  Personally I am willing to accept, and I think most of the people in 
my State and perhaps in the country are willing to accept, that it was 
ignorance; willing to accept, as my State legislature right now is 
resolving, that what is needed here is not any kind of accusations, not 
any kind of harsh words. What is really needed is education and 
sensitization to the fact, and that while we need to get beyond this 
specific incident, nonetheless it again tells us that we must remember 
that sometimes well-intentioned people can act inexcusably, out of 
simple ignorance, and that by constant remembrance we can avoid 
repeats.
  So I want to remember today what happened in my own State during the 
time of the Second World War, during the time when 100-some-odd 
thousand-plus Americans of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and 
interned in internment camps on the U.S. mainland. I want to remember 
what happened in Hawaii because that is a part of this story that is 
not often told. What happened in a State where 37 percent of the 
population on December 7, 1941, 37

[[Page 4501]]

percent were Americans of Japanese ancestry? What happened in a State 
which was the very site of the attack that put us into World War II? 
Again 37 percent, and this was not just an isolated population on the 
mainland. There were a number of Americans of Japanese ancestry mostly 
living in the smaller communities, not always but mostly. They were not 
quite as integrated into the society. In Hawaii it was a full 
integration. We had lived there. They had lived there for over 100 
years. For decades they had been fully integrated into the society. In 
1941 many were already serving in our U.S. Armed Forces. They had 
already been drafted. They were already serving in the famous 100th 
battalion, which was formed out of draftees prior to World War II, 
including my own former boss right here in this Chamber, my political 
mentor, the former U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Hawaii, Spark 
Matsunaga. They were the vanguard of what became a legend in U.S. 
military history in the second world war because the 100th battalion 
and later the 442nd regimental combat team, which later merged, in 
which 3,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry from Hawaii volunteered, a 
unit which went on throughout the Second World War to become the most 
decorated unit for its size in the entire history of the United States 
military; a number of medals of honor including my colleague, the 
senior Senator from Hawaii, Daniel K. Inouye; a number of Distinguished 
Services Crosses, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars, French Croz de Guerres; 
649 killed in action, 67 missing, 9,486 Purple Hearts.
  These were people obviously that were dedicated to their country, and 
yet on December 8, 1941, 1,500 of them were rounded up, Japanese 
ancestry Americans living in Hawaii were rounded up and interned in 
Hawaii on Sand Island and interrogated. Some were released; but some, 
over half of them, were sent to the mainland and interned for the 
duration of the war. And not only did it affect them, it affected their 
families. In many cases they went to the mainland to become interned. 
Why? They were American citizens. Their families had lived in the 
United States in Hawaii. They were interned because they were 
educators, because they were Buddhist priests, because they were 
business leaders. If they were in positions of leadership in the 
Japanese community in Hawaii, they were suspect just because of that. 
And there was more than one case in which a son would serve his country 
in World War II on Anzio and other locations up and down Italy and 
France while his own father was interned in an internment camp in the 
United States. Imagine a son, imagine the dedication to a country of a 
son going into battle when his own father was interned. Yes, it was not 
as serious as the mainland Americans of Japanese ancestry.
  And there were heroes in this story, and one of the heroes was the 
FBI agent in charge in Hawaii during this period, a gentleman by the 
name of Robert Shivers. It is a little known fact that Robert Shivers 
arrived in Hawaii in 1939, probably, we would suspect, with perhaps the 
same sentiments as others that had come from the mainland to a strange 
place where Americans of Japanese ancestry were 38 percent of the 
population, at a time when the United States knew it was going to war 
with Japan and all Americans of Japanese ancestry really were suspect 
in some people's eyes, and yet only 1,500 were rounded up. Why was 
that? Because Agent Shivers spent 2 years trying to understand the 
community, because he went out into the community. He said that after 
conferring with people in Hawaii, citizens that had lived in this 
multiethnic society, he said this: ``It was not until I conferred with 
you that I began to understand the complex racial conditions in Hawaii. 
You gave me a group of loyal citizens of Japanese ancestry who proved 
invaluable in helping me shape my course.'' And it is obvious to all of 
us now in retrospect, after the action of this Congress in issuing an 
apology and in the actions to evaluate the work of our government 
during the Second World War in cases such as Koramatsu, it is obvious 
that had Agent Shivers not been the person that he was, no doubt 
Americans of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii would have met the same basic 
conditions as occurred to their colleagues and their family members on 
the mainland.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I give these words. I give these words because again 
I say that what we can all take out of the occurrence of the remarks by 
our colleague is not to drag him over the coals. I think we are way 
beyond that. That is not what this is about. This is simply an 
opportunity again for us to remember, all of us to remember, that good 
people can sometimes have thoughts that are just not right, and it is 
simply a matter of not knowing.
  So we can look to history in this case. We can look to the history of 
the Americans of Japanese ancestry. They were not unique. The same 
thing happened to Americans of German ancestry, Americans of Italian 
ancestry. And we can say to ourselves that there is absolutely no 
reason in the whole world why the same thing could not happen again 
under similar circumstances to ethnic groups in our country other than 
those three.
  So as we consider this resolution which I have been very proud to co-
sponsor, as we consider the motivation behind the resolution, and I 
commend the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) for introducing this 
resolution, let us consider again that this is a time simply for us to 
all pause, let us take a deep breath, and let us just remember what 
happened and think to ourselves is there any reason whatsoever to 
assume that without constant vigilance, constant caution, and constant 
remembrance could it not happen again? That is the lesson for us to 
carry outside of this unfortunate occurrence, and that is the lesson 
that my own home State of Hawaii can offer to our country and the rest 
of the world.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Case) 
for his words and the experiences that he has shared with us because I 
think that at times the lesson is sometimes missed, that Members from 
Hawaii who are of Japanese ancestry volunteered for the service with 
the 101st battalion and joining forces with the 442 here in the 
mainland.

                              {time}  2045

  One of the things that they learned, the Japanese Americans from 
Hawaii, was that when they became part of the 442 with the mainland 
Japanese Americans, they often wondered why they were different from 
the Japanese Americans from Hawaii, because they grew up on a pretty 
predominant and highly populated island with a lot of Japanese 
Americans, whereas the Americans of Japanese descent on the mainland 
were a little different. Their attitude and view of life was different.
  It was not until some of the Members from Hawaii visited the camps, 
along with their colleagues whose parents were incarcerated, that they 
truly understood the unfairness and injustice of executive order 9066.
  So we say we did not know, and so it is that House Resolution 56 is 
to educate and to further educate our communities in this country and 
also other members of this globe.
  Mr. Speaker, if I may ask the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) 
if he would mind sharing some of his thoughts.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership on 
this issue, bringing this to our Nation's attention with this 
resolution. The reason I have come to join the gentleman this evening 
to talk about this important national matter is I represent the first 
district in the State of Washington, in the Seattle area; and I live in 
a place called Bainbridge Island, a little island directly across Puget 
Sound from Seattle.
  Back in the 1940s, pursuant to an order of the American President, 
the United States Army marched 277 Americans of Japanese American 
descent down to the Taylor Landing dock and at bayonet point 
essentially sent them to camps for the duration of the war.
  These were our neighbors on Bainbridge Island, good people, great 
people, some of whom still live on Bainbridge Island; and we think it 
is appropriate and important for the Nation to

[[Page 4502]]

remember that injustice, that mistake, where an America did succumb to 
fear, and this day of remembrance is one way to do that.
  The reason I think it is important for America to do that is two-
fold: first to honor those individuals who went through this 
experience, but had their sons and daughters serving in the military 
during World War II, and then returned, a lot of them, to Bainbridge 
Island to become important parts and leaders of the community, and we 
want to honor their commitment and contributions to our national and 
local communities.
  But I also think it is very important for us in the future for us to 
learn from this experience, because we are undergoing some similar 
strains right now. We understand what fear is again like, like we 
experienced in the 1940s; and it is very important for us to realize 
what can happen if you succumb to fear, what can happen to civil 
liberties, what can happen to civil rights, what can happen to your 
basic freedoms. So learning from that experience is important that we 
not replicate it and we not again give in to our sense of fear that the 
Nation may hold.
  I should alert the gentleman, as you know, we are doing some things 
on Bainbridge Island. We are starting a national park, a national 
memorial, we hope, in a bill the gentleman helped pass the last session 
of Congress that the President has now signed, which will memorialize 
this event at the very site where the very first Japanese Americans 
were interned. These were the first Americans who were subjected to 
this, the very first detainees.
  Some great people on Bainbridge Island, a fellow named Clarence 
Moriwaki is doing tremendous work, Frank Kinamoto, to memorialize this 
event and to teach Americans for future generations about what can 
happen when we succumb to fear. So this is one part of telling this 
story, and I am happy to be able to.
  I will tell you just one good story, if I can, about Bainbridge 
Island, though. There was a lot of sorrow and sadness, and I have 
always been so impressed with people who went through this experience 
but came home willing to be good Americans and leaders in their local 
community and got over, maybe did not get over, but surmounted the 
sense of bitterness that certainly must have been there. I have just 
been so admiring of that sense of courage and true commitment to 
America.
  But another little spirit that I saw, we dedicated a county park to a 
place where a radio interception facility was on Bainbridge that 
actually intercepted the December 7 radio transmission to the Japanese 
ambassador in Washington D.C.
  One of the fellows intercepting those messages on the day that my 
neighbors were interned, he took a day of furlough and went down to one 
of his buddies to get his refrigerator and his pickup truck to make 
sure he protected them all during the war for his pal. He took a day's 
furlough to do it. That is part of the American spirit too.
  I want to thank the gentleman for his leadership to make sure that 
America knows this story.
  Mr. HONDA. I thank the gentleman from Washington, especially for his 
leadership and having set aside Bainbridge Island as an educational 
activity and also in memory and commemorating the folks who were 
interned from that community.
  Also I think it is appropriate to mention that there have been many 
stories that come to light when we talk about the day of remembrance, 
one of which is the story of a young man by the name of Ralph Laso from 
East L.A. whose friends were Japanese Americans, and when they were 
being incarcerated he argued this is not right; they are not enemies. 
He himself decided to join a family and to be incarcerated himself 
along with the family.
  But there are many other stories that can be told if we move forward 
with the resolution on the Day of Remembrance.
  I would like to ask the gentlewoman from the gem of the Pacific, the 
great territory of the Island of Guam (Ms. Bordallo), to share her 
thoughts.
  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his very, very 
wonderful description of my island home.
  I am pleased to join my colleagues this evening in this most 
important dialogue. I want to thank our colleague, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Honda), for his leadership on these issues, and in 
particular for his sponsorship of House Resolution 56, which seeks to 
increase our awareness and further public understanding of the 
internment of American citizens during World War II.
  The internment of the Japanese Americans, German Americans, and 
Italian Americans was a grave injustice and a violation of their civil 
rights. There are lessons to be learned from this experience, and these 
lessons cannot be learned without discussing and understanding the 
circumstances surrounding the enactment of executive order 9066.
  We must be cognizant of the fragile nature of our civil rights, which 
have been won on the battlefield and in the halls of Congress. We must 
always be mindful of the threats to our freedom and security, and 
likewise we must be mindful of how our own perceptions of our fellow 
Americans and our own prejudices affect our very freedom.
  These are not academic issues in a history book. These are 
experiences that must be understood in the context of the current 
debate on homeland security. It is now more important than ever because 
of the many issues that have arisen concerning security in the 
aftermath of September 11.
  As we reflect on these events of World War II, we are appalled at our 
actions toward fellow citizens. We must be mindful that our actions 
today will be subjected to the same hindsight. As we wage the war on 
terrorism and face the possibility of war with Iraq, the need for 
awareness and education is especially important. We must ensure that we 
have an understanding of who among us is the threat, not based on race, 
color or religion, but based on facts that will withstand the scrutiny 
of history. As we fight for our freedom and security, let us not cast 
aside our own humanity.
  Mr. Speaker, as difficult as it is, we must come to terms with our 
national mistakes, just as we celebrate our national achievements. We 
must acknowledge our misgivings in the past if we are to strengthen our 
ability to avoid mistakes in the future.
  As President Ford said in 1976 when he formally rescinded executive 
order 9066, learning from our mistakes is not pleasant, but we must do 
so if we want to avoid repeating them.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for this opportunity to be here 
tonight to support this resolution.
  Mr. HONDA. I thank the gentlewoman. The gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. 
Bordallo) continues the great legacy of Guam, of social justice and 
constitutional protection.
  Mr. Speaker, if I may yield to a colleague of mine from Santa Clara 
County, a very personable person, someone who always does not mind 
speaking up when things need to be addressed, a long time friend and 
colleague, the gentlewoman from Santa Clara County, California (Ms. 
Lofgren).
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Honda) for organizing this Special Order.
  Mr. Speaker, on February 19, 1942, then President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt issued executive order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War 
to define military areas in which ``the right of any person to enter, 
remain in or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions are deemed 
necessary or desirable.''
  By the spring of 1942, California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona 
were designated as military areas. In May of 1942, Santa Clara Valley 
Japanese Americans were ordered to ``close their affairs promptly and 
make their own arrangements for disposal of personal and real 
property.''
  Official government fliers were posted around parts of California 
instructing families to report to the area's assembly center, the Santa 
Anita Racetrack, with just the bare necessities, leaving behind their 
homes, their lives and most personal belongings. Because permanent 
camps were yet to be built,

[[Page 4503]]

the Santa Anita Racetrack was home to Santa Clara Valley's internees 
for at least 3 months. Santa Clara Valley Japanese Americans were 
forced to live in horse stables until a permanent camp was built for 
them.
  In America, 110,000 Japanese Americans and others, not aliens, people 
of German and Italian descent who were Americans, were evacuated from 
their homes and incarcerated throughout the duration of the war. Three 
thousand of those interned were Japanese Americans from Santa Clara 
Valley.
  By the fall of 1942, most Santa Anita internees were transported to a 
camp far away from home, the Heart Mountain Internment Camp in northern 
Wyoming. Most remained there until the end of the war, 3 long years 
later.
  The horror for Santa Clara County Japanese Americans did not end 
there. Upon release, approximately 7,000 people moved back to Santa 
Clara County. Most had no shelter, food, money, much less a job. Some 
returned to find their homes looted and destroyed. The San Jose 
Buddhist Church offered what it could, shelter and hot meals for most 
families. In Santa Clara County, the family of Bob Peckham, later to 
become Federal District Court Judge Bob Peckham, took title to the 
property of some Japanese American neighbors and was able to preserve 
that property and return it at the end of the internment so some people 
in our area did not lose their homes and businesses.
  All of this happened before I was born, but I remember very well 
learning about it even before it was added to the history books. My 
mother was a young woman in 1942. My dad was in the Army, and she was 
building airplanes at the Douglas aircraft factory for the war effort.
  She told me when I was young about driving past the race track and 
how ashamed and guilty she felt. There were people locked up at the 
race track living in horse stables who she knew had done nothing wrong. 
People who had been her neighbors had been rounded up suddenly and 
taken away.
  My mother told me how helpless she felt. She knew what her government 
was doing was wrong, but she did not know how to change it. She felt 
powerless, but she also felt guilty and ashamed because of what the 
United States Government had done. She was a life-long Democrat and 
cast her first Presidential vote for FDR, but she never agreed about 
what he did to her neighbors.
  There was no apology, no financial support, no help from the Federal 
Government until many years later. On February 19, 1976, President 
Gerald Ford formally rescinded executive order 9066.

                              {time}  2100

  And in 1980 Congress funded the adopted legislation, establishing the 
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment. August 10, 1988, the 
Civil Liberties Act was signed into law, authorizing payments of 
$20,000 to each person that suffered from internment and established 
the Office of Redress to identify, locate, and pay these individuals. 
Most importantly, an apology was finally given.
  By then, my neighbors and my parents' neighbors who had been unjustly 
incarcerated, our friend, Ed, Jimmy, dad's neighbors, Ted, Raiko, Sam, 
and many others, received at long last an apology. Some lived long 
enough to receive the compensation provided for in the law.
  These efforts were celebrated in the community of Japanese Americans. 
But they were also celebrated in the broader community, because 
Americans who were not incarcerated, like my mother, felt the shame and 
the guilt. And while an apology could not undo the injustice and the 
compensation did not fully cover the loss, it helped that our country 
admitted the mistake and tried to make amends.
  I am proud to say that on February 5 of this year, my colleague from 
Santa Clara County (Mr. Honda) introduced H. Res. 56, a resolution 
supporting the goals of the Japanese, German, and Italian American 
communities in recognizing a national day of remembrance and to 
increase public awareness of the events surrounding the restriction, 
exclusion, and internment of individuals and families during World War 
II. This resolution has been referred to the House Committee on the 
Judiciary on which I serve and currently has over 60 cosponsors.
  Today, I support the resolution of the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Honda) to recognize February 19 as a Day of Remembrance. It is the 
least we can do, spend one day per year reflecting on the horrors of 
internment, remember those who suffered, and work to find ways never to 
repeat that page in history. I would urge the chairman of the Committee 
on the Judiciary, my colleague, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Sensenbrenner), to quickly schedule action for this important 
resolution so that the country can, once again, engage in healing, and 
I honor my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) for his 
efforts in helping all Americans to heal.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Santa Clara 
County for especially sharing the experience of her interactions with 
her mom and the way her mom felt when the Japanese were taken away, and 
then the sense that this country can make amends for the wrongs that 
have occurred. The signing and the final recognition of wrongdoing by 
this government through the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed by 
President Reagan when he said, upon signing he said, ``This is a great 
day for America.'' And when President Ford rescinded 9066, he 
indicated, as the gentlewoman from Santa Clara said, that it was an 
ordinance that should have never been there.
  The whole point of the Day of Remembrance resolution is about 
learning, is about being persistent about the lessons that we have 
learned from the Japanese American experience that is really an 
American lesson on the Constitution and is also a lesson of the 
American character, where, upon reconciliation, there is a healing. 
There is a healing among not only those who were incarcerated, but also 
healing among those who were affected but maybe not necessarily 
incarcerated. So victims are both those who were directly victimized 
and those who were indirectly victimized by a bad action of our 
government.
  Also, the further learning, when we talk about the Day of 
Remembrance, is that other communities get to reflect upon their own 
experience at that time and project into the future whether this kind 
of thing should happen again.
  For example, a few years ago when we did this in the State of 
California, there was also a movement and discussion among the Italian 
communities and there was a reawakening of the experiences that they 
experienced in World War II when Executive Order 9066 was applied, was 
applied to Italian Americans and German Americans. And upon reflection, 
they found out that they too were subjected to embarrassment, to 
ridicule. One of the stories that came out, because of the order by 
General DeWitt that no persons who are aliens in the United States may 
live west of highway 1, which is along the coast, forced families to 
separate themselves, Italian American families who were engaged in the 
fishing industry whose parents and grandparents had to live in tents 
across the road while the children lived in the homes. It was things 
like this they started to remember and started to chronicle among 
themselves and to teach their children that these kinds of actions by 
government is not acceptable. Upon the receipt of the apology, we found 
that there was healing and there was teaching going on among, not only 
among themselves, but among the greater population of this country.
  As a teacher, I want to reemphasize the necessity for this 
resolution, that it continues to teach us the old maxim that those of 
us who do not learn from the mistakes of our past are doomed to repeat 
them.
  So in today's current light, I just want to personally reemphasize 
that national security is my highest priority, is our highest priority, 
and I support efforts to fight our war against terrorism. But we also 
understand that in doing so, we must not have a failure among our 
political leadership, we must not fall back on more hysteria, we must 
not fall back to racial prejudice and discrimination and profiling.

[[Page 4504]]

  So today, it is critically important, more than ever, to speak up 
against possible unjust policies that may come before this body, and we 
must also be able to speak to it. And it is even more important than 
ever to educate Americans of the Japanese American experience during 
World War II, as well as the experience of other groups like the 
Japanese Latin Americans who were extricated from Latin America, 
brought over here, had their documents taken away from them, and 
becoming individuals without a country to be used as pawns in exchange 
for POWs. And then the German and Italian Americans who were also 
victimized.
  In order to learn the important lessons from our own history, I did 
introduce H.R. 56, the Day of Remembrance resolution here in this body. 
Teaching the lessons of those dark days is more important today than it 
ever was, remembering Executive Order 9066, signed on February 19, 1942 
and then rescinded on August 10 of 1988, there are many events that 
flowed from those two orders and that we must continue to learn from 
our history.
  There is a maturity in this country that I am very proud of. That 
maturity says we can learn from our mistakes of the past and we can 
also teach others of our lessons that we have learned from our past. We 
have learned that the Executive Order 9066 was not signed out of 
military necessity, was not signed out of national security, was not 
signed out of personal safety and security of the Japanese American, 
but the Commission on Wartime Internment and Relocation of Civilians 
said, and they concluded, that it was a result of racial prejudice, war 
hysteria, and the failure of political leadership.
  Today, as we heard from our colleagues today, Mr. Speaker, that this 
leadership must not fail again. and to that end, we must continuously 
teach ourselves and reteach ourselves and remember the lessons of the 
past so that we do not repeat them again. It is a country like the 
United States, it is a country like this country that my father, 
although he was interned with the rest of his family, and although he 
even volunteered for the military intelligence service to teach 
language to the naval intelligence officers, that he held this sense of 
loyalty to this country, even though the families were incarcerated. 
And he taught us that in spite of these experiences, that we, his 
children, must be a good reflection of his loyalty and that we, as we 
grow up, must become more American than anybody else that we could run 
into, and that we must be 110 percent American. Part of that 
Americanism is to never, ever make the same mistakes again.
  We learned from that experience in 1942, and we learned from the 
experience of 9/11, that this Constitution of this country is never 
tested in times of tranquility, that our Constitution is always tested 
in times of trauma, tragedy, terrorism, and tension, and that the very 
principles of our Constitution need to be, continuously need to be 
taught until it is ingrained in our own character, so that every 
decision we make as a citizen, as adults, as children, as students and 
as policymakers, that we will always be true to the principles of our 
Constitution. For it is for those reasons why people around this world 
fight to come to this country and be part of this country, struggle to 
be a part of this democracy, because they know that the protection of 
this Constitution is the American dream. The protection of our 
Constitution is that which our forefathers and our veterans have shed 
their blood and sacrificed their limbs and lives so that our 
Constitution may live and really be reflected in every action that we 
have, not only in this body, but by every action of every citizen of 
this country.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for this opportunity to bring 
Resolution 56, the Day of Remembrance, before this body.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my dear friend and fellow 
Californian Congressman Mike Honda in support of H. Res. 56, 
commemorating the suffering of the Japanese-American, German-American, 
and Italian-American communities during World War II by recognizing 
February 19 as a National Day of Remembrance. It is my sincere hope and 
belief that by establishing a National Day of Remembrance, Congress 
will increase public awareness of the wholesale exclusion and 
internment of individuals and entire families in this country during 
World War II.
  Following the issuance of Presidential Executive Order No. 9066 on 
February 19, 1942, tens of thousands of Americans were evicted from 
their homes, rounded up, and sent to internment camps across the 
western United States. In San Francisco, this program began in earnest 
on April 1, 1942, when all persons of Japanese ancestry--whether they 
were American citizens or not--were notified to report for 
``relocation.'' In my own district, 7,800 people were assembled against 
their will in the San Bruno Tanforan Racetrack. Seven-thousand eight 
hundred human beings were confined there for months, living in horse 
stables. Today, we realize that such a policy was outrageous.
  But Mr. Speaker, I submit that it is not only in retrospect that the 
internment of the Japanese appears absurd and unacceptable. As early as 
1946, Harold Ickes, President Roosevelt's own Secretary of the 
Interior, characterized the mass detention of Japanese Americans as 
``mass hysteria over the Japanese''; he noted that ``we gave the fancy 
name of `relocation centers' to these dust bowls, but they were 
concentration camps.'' Mr. Speaker, the way we treated Japanese 
Americans was inexcusable. Moreover, any purported national security 
benefit derived from the government's internment policy was vastly 
outweighed by the enormous human suffering and the violation of civil 
liberties that policy caused and the hatred it sowed.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit to you that the internment of Japanese 
Americans during World War II is one of the most ignominious and 
repugnant acts our nation has committed. Our government has taken 
cautious and gradual steps toward recognizing the insidiousness of its 
World War II internment policy, but it is not enough to apologize or to 
pay reparations for the wrongs committed by the United States 
government during that period. The internment was so evil that its 
commemoration merits more than the customary apologies and financial 
compensation. Indeed, we ought to be reminded on a regular basis of the 
dangers of fanaticism, and that is what this resolution is about.
  In addition to making amends for our country's inhumane treatment of 
Japanese Americans, Mr. Speaker, we must acknowledge the anti-
democratic policies adopted by our government against Italian Americans 
and German Americans. Though their communities were not rounded up en 
masse as the Japanese Americans were, in many cases property owned by 
Italian Americans and German Americans was expropriated, and Italian- 
and German-American citizens were unlawfully detained and questioned, 
their patriotism ignored and their civil rights denied. While the 
Wartime Violation of Italian Americans Civil Liberties Act of 2000 
represents an important measure of progress on this issue, it is my 
heartfelt belief that more needs to be done.
  And that, Mr. Speaker, is why it is my privilege to proclaim my 
support for my dear friend Mr. Honda's bill, which would make room for 
a day of mourning, reflection, and remembrance of the chain of 
egregious injustices against Japanese Americans, Italian Americans, and 
German Americans that was officially begun by our government on 
February 19, 1942.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill takes a day that is already a day of mourning 
in the Japanese-American community and reconsecrates it as a day of 
American remembrance. It also acknowledges the real and acute suffering 
of the Italian- and German-American communities during the war. I urge 
my colleagues to follow their conscience and join in commemorating this 
American tragedy.

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