N.C. Congressman Says Internment of Japanese-Americans During World War II Was Appropriate

AP ^ | 2/5/03 | The Associated Press

[Jean S]

HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) - A congressman who heads a homeland security subcommittee said on a radio call-in program that he agreed with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

A fellow congressman who was interned as a child criticized Coble for his comment on Wednesday, as did advocacy groups.

Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., made the remark Tuesday on WKZL-FM when a caller suggested Arabs in the United States should be confined.

Coble, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said that he didn't agree with the caller but did agree with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who established the internment camps.

"We were at war. They (Japanese-Americans) were an endangered species," Coble said. "For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."

Like most Arab-Americans today, Coble said, most Japanese-Americans during World War II were not America's enemies.

Still, Coble said, Roosevelt had to consider the nation's security.

"Some probably were intent on doing harm to us," he said, "just as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us."

U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., a Japanese-American who spent his early childhood with his family in an internment camp during World War II, said he spoke with Coble on Wednesday to learn more about his views.

"I'm disappointed that he really doesn't understand the impact of what he said," Honda said. "With his leadership position in Congress, that kind of lack of understanding can lead people down the wrong path."

The Japanese American Citizens League called Coble on Wednesday and asked him to issue an apology, while the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee demanded that Coble explain his remarks.

It is "a sad day in our country's tradition when an elected official ... openly agrees with an unconstitutional and racist policy long believed to be one of the darkest moments of America's history," the group said in a statement.

AP-ES-02-05-03 1842EST

[DAnconia55]

BTW...

You're observant. You know I'm no BushBot.

Bush recently announced a pre-emptive strike doctrine, as you're aware. What I said isn't even assuming pre-emption, it's reaction.

I agree with pre-emption. If we have a good idea that North Korea is moving nuclear weapons online, and reasonable plans to use them against us..... take 'em out.

I am not a warmonger. I hate 90% of what we've made the Military do. Clinton's crap.... Kosovo, Somalia, Haiti...

Islam is a direct threat. It was 1,000 years ago until we - Europeans - developed sufficient technology to hold them at bay.

Well, Pandora's box is open. And the kindergarten kids have all the toys....

[F.J. Mitchell]

Yes and no. We double dealed with trent Lott and dealt off the bottom of the deck with him-but the jokers who twisted what he said, dealt themselves all wild cards.

I just can't drub up much respect for those who either are dumb enough or pretend to be dumb enough to believe that Lott was reminising of the days of segregation, Jim Crow, lynchings and Robert Byrds heyday of KKK, cross burnings and intimidation.

Every honest and rational person in America will admit that Trent merely got carried away in his eulogy of an icon of other times and ways, who adapted to more changes in society than most people ever live to see. The platform and purpose of the Dixiecrat party was ancient history to Lott as it was to almost everyone else. Trent's praise was aimed at the years of service and leadership ability of Strom Thurmond, not those days and acts of racism that the majority of Americans once were guilty of but have long since confined to the archives of history.

I refuse to respect the hypocracy and/or ignorance of those who condemn Strom Thurmond and damn Trent Lott's remarks, while purposefully ignoring the fact that KKK scum is at least one half of the Senatorial representation from West Virginia.

Call me a raciest if you wish-I'll just consider the source as stupid.

This isn't aimed at you mh, I just now noticed that my response is to you-I'll just add all after your name.

[meema]

This makes me soooo mad. I'm fed up with this PC c***!

The Japanese in America, mostly on the west coast, were considered by Japan to be THEIR citizens, whether they were naturalized Americans or not!
Some were working for their homeland, and many others were brought to camps for their own safety. I'm sure it was not done as sensitively we would do today. Sorry about that.

We were attacked by Japan. And we were afraid.

[Lee'sGhost]

It was a dumb thing to say -- in these times. But don't worry about it. In a few days the war will start and everyone will forget about Howard Coble.

[F.J. Mitchell]

I imagine their abuse and rejection varied a lot by locality.

[Trailerpark Badass]

We didn't do it to Germans because they were much more "like us."

Pearl Harbor.

[F.J. Mitchell]

I don't know your age, so I have way of knowing if you were alive during WWII or not. Your profile page asks: "Any questions." , so I say yes, what is your date of birth?

I would guess, post war sometime, or else you would be aware that everyone in America and the world, suffered in many ways-some more than others, but don't you think for a second that life for everyone in America went on as usual except for the troops and their loved ones, like the undeclared and un-won wars since.

That crap about borrowing someone's daughter for a few days makes you sound like some kind of preditor who should be registered with the Sheriff's department in your town.

[Mulder]

From what I've read about the subject, the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII had more to do with FDR wanting to seize their assets than anything else.

I also recall that this was opposed by J. Edgar Hoover, of all people.

[thedugal]

First of all, I was born after WWII though age has nothing to do with it. I will grant that having lived through something does give an original historical perspective, but it doesn't give one the ability to forge fact from fiction. I didn't live through the revolutionary war either, but I am educated enough to comment on it.

If I had lived through WWII, I would still know that internment and rationing are infinitely different. I would also understand that trivializing freedom trivializes those who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. Moral relativism isn't right when liberals do it, and it is no less wrong when conservatives do. All Americans sacrificed during WWII, but when you take away an American's freedom you take away everything they are willing to sacrifice for.

I have no problem with arresting foreigners and deporting them or putting them on military tribunal. I have no problem trying US citizens for treason. But if you are going to defend the illegal detainment of US citizens solely on the basis of their ancestry, then I have a problem with it.

As to the daughter comment, I find it interesting you are "clever" enough to look at my profile page and question my age as though it had relevance, but you are not intelligent enough to recognize hyperbole. Most people who are sympathetic to evil are able to more clearly recognize their error when confronted with a personal example.

[Travis McGee]

Please read #65 for the overlooked by history but true context of the decision.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I have too many friends whose parents were "interred" to confiscate their property. I think Congressman Coble statement was idiotic, but then he is supported by Earl Warren comments and contradicted by J. Edgar Hoover's.

[weikel]

Another Dem plant like Lott out to destroy the party. I hope the RNC puts a hit out on this moron.

[weikel]

Even if he is( debateable) he shouldn't have said it publically. I think this guy is another liberal Dem plant like Lott.

[VetsRule]

I wrote too quickly, and stand corrected. Under the earlier law, some of the Nissei were compensated at about 10 cents on the dollar for their property losses, but nothing for the imprisonment without charges.

The number of internees who were compensated in 1948-49 was an extremely small number, IIRC, and as you correctly note, it was for a very limited (and uniformly undervalued) amount of property.

But kudos to you, CBB, for remembering what America is supposed to stand for, yes, even in times of war. Especially in times of war. The Constitution is not a document to be casually discarded at the first sign of hardship. And not even Hawaii was in any real danger of invasion, much less the West Coast. That would have been a logistical impossibility, and every senior military and civilian official knew it.

VR

[Arpege92]

"Stupid fat lazy American image is based on reality"


Who's reality is that? You portray Americans like this because of the unfair acts done onto the Japanese Americans during World War II? It was wrong, but alot of wrong has been done onto alot of different people and in my opinion, the Japanese Internment Camps was not one of the worst.

Comparing Americans today with Americans of yesteryear proves how far we have come but I guess that's not enough for you being that we are fat and lazy!

[steve-b]

Nor were the relocations illegal. The Supreme Court said the relocations were legal.

Since the word of the Supreme Court settles the issue, forever and aye, I assume that you will be dropping in on every FR abortion thread from now on to tell people that the subject is closed and that they should shut up already.

[Phantom Lord]

Howard Coble is no left wing plant. That I can assure you of.

[steve-b]

There's also been a campaign to turn the internment camps into "concentration camps"

That is because, unless you're Bill Clinton or one of his minions, it is proper to call things by their right names. A "concentration camp" is a facility for concentrating people into one place. The term was originally coined for the facilities into which the British confined the Boers during the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the last century.

The attempt to substitute the name "internment camp" arose from the fact that some people are confused by the distinction between a "concentration camp" (e.g. Manzanar) and an "extermination camp" (e.g. Auschwitz). This sort of kow-tow to ignorance was stupid when a DC official was reprimanded for using the word "niggardly", and it is equally stupid in this case.

[steve-b]

Any competent intelligence service can set it up to look like information gleaned from a broken code was found elsewhere, thus denying the tip-off that the code was broken. The Brits did that with the Zimmerman Telegram, for example.

So much for that excuse.

[steve-b]

In those documents, deWitt made the incredible argument that 1) there were no known instances of Japanese-American sabotage, and 2) that lack of any sabotage was proof that they were "well organized" and therefore "dangerous."

This is the classic conspiracy-nut argument -- the absence of evidence proves that the Evil Conspiracy has a tentacle in every pie, and managed to destroy or suppress every clue.