[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2362]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNIZING THE DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 64th 
anniversary of the Day of Remembrance, a day that commemorates the 
signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, by President 
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  Executive Order 9066 authorized exclusion and internment of all 
Japanese Americans living on the West Coast during World War II. Rather 
than focus on the plight of Japanese Americans in this country during 
World War II, I would like to place the internment experience into a 
broader historical context.

                              {time}  1645

  Our Nation has always battled the dual sentiments of openness and 
freedom, on the one hand, and fear and apprehension of perceived 
outsiders on the other.
  Giving into fear and apprehension, in 1798 the Alien and Sedition 
Acts were enacted by the federalist-controlled Congress, allegedly in 
response to hostile actions of the French Government. In actuality, 
these laws were designed to destroy Thomas Jefferson's Republican 
Party, which had openly expressed its sympathies for the French 
revolutionaries.
  Contrary to our notions of freedom, the Alien Act and the Alien 
Enemies Act gave the President the power to imprison or deport aliens 
suspected of activities posing a threat to the national government or 
the national security.
  Undermining our belief in openness, the Sedition Act declared that 
any treasonable activity, including the publication of ``any false, 
scandalous and malicious writing,'' was a high misdemeanor, punishable 
by imprisonment.
  Later, almost predictably, when the economy in this country took a 
downturn in the 1880s, the Asian community became the target of 
politicians looking for someone to blame. In 1882, Congress passed the 
Chinese Exclusion Act to keep out all people of Chinese origin.
  During World War II, Japanese Americans were the well-known target of 
the government's submission to fear, apprehension, and greed.
  Also, during this time, which is not very well-known, 10,000 Italian 
Americans were forced to relocate, and 3,278 were incarcerated while 
nearly 11,000 German Americans were incarcerated.
  German and Italian Americans were restricted during World War II by 
government measures that branded them enemy aliens and required 
identification cards, travel restrictions, seizure of personal property 
as well.
  In the post-9/11 world, we need to protect our Nation and our civil 
liberties more than ever.
  I am concerned that rather than learn from our past we are 
progressively weakening our civil liberties for tokens of security as 
evidenced by the PATRIOT Act, the NSA wiretapping, and our treatment of 
so-called ``enemy combatants'' in Guantanamo. These are just a few of 
today's troubling trends.
  Mr. Speaker, we live again in a time of fear and apprehension. Our 
civil liberties have not been as threatened since World War II. As 
political leaders, it is our duty to uphold constitutional principles.
  Let us remember what Benjamin Franklin said during his time of fear 
and apprehension. He said, Those who would give up a little bit of 
security, a little bit of liberties for a little bit of security 
deserve neither.

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