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N.C. Congressman OK With Internment Camps
AP ^

Posted on 02/06/2003 11:19:44 AM PST by Barney Gumble

N.C. Congressman OK With Internment Camps

HIGH POINT, N.C. - 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.

Rep. Howard Coble (news, bio, voting record), R-N.C., made the remark Tuesday on WKZL-FM when a caller suggested Arabs in the United States should be confined. Another congressman who was interned as a child criticized Coble for the comment, as did advocacy groups.

Coble, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said 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."

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 asked Coble to apologize and said he should be removed from his committee chairmanship.

"We are flabbergasted that a man who supports racial profiling and ethnic scapegoating" chairs the subcommittee, the group's national executive director, John Tateishi, said in a statement Wednesday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded that Coble explain his remarks. Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the comments were "particularly disturbing."

In 1988, President Reagan signed a bill authorizing reparations of $20,000 for each surviving camp veteran.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: internment; japanese; media; murray; republican
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This, of course, got blasted to the front of AP stories. Watch in the next few days. Every major news source will pick up on this. People will be screaming for apologies. Of course, where was the big coverage about Patty Murray?

Now people forget some history regarding this. Some Japanese were spies and out to get us. There were several spies in Hawaii in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor. What he said was the most Japanese-Americans were good, but some were out to get us. True? Why should he be apologizing.

However, debating the internment camps isn't why I posted this. It's because it's being blasted to the spotlight of the media because the congressman is a Republican, yet Patty Murray's praise of Osama went generally unreported. The same thing with Trent Lott versus Robert Byrd! The double standard continues!!!!

1 posted on 02/06/2003 11:19:44 AM PST by Barney Gumble
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To: Barney Gumble
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.

Not For Long!

2 posted on 02/06/2003 11:24:45 AM PST by Station 51
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To: Barney Gumble
Interesting that a Republican can get in trouble for agreeing with a Democrat policy.
3 posted on 02/06/2003 11:25:01 AM PST by ambrose
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To: Barney Gumble
[sigh] Foolish man who does not even know the history of internment camps and who authorized and pushed for them (hint: Warren and FDR)
4 posted on 02/06/2003 11:27:37 AM PST by amused (Behold, the power of FREEP!)
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To: Barney Gumble
Some Japanese were spies and out to get us

There are/were/ and will be plenty of white people who are spies in the US (then, now and in the future). I don't see any calls for interning white people. Plus, I would like to know all the WWII spies who were actually convicted of something.

But on the subject of a double standard. I don't care that republicans are held to a high standard, we should be. The dems should be held to a high standard too but if they are not, then let them wallow in defeat at the ballot box. If they refuse to clean house, we will do it for them.

PS. The Japanese internment was as much about taking their property in California as anything else. It's not like any trustees were appointed to oversee their stuff until the war was over, it was basically "you have 1 week to sell all your stuff for whatever you get".

5 posted on 02/06/2003 11:28:36 AM PST by staytrue
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To: staytrue
i know howard coble personally....his commnets were reflective upon the time...not as a policy matter
6 posted on 02/06/2003 11:33:47 AM PST by rrrod
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To: Barney Gumble
"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."

After the news of Batan ....The Death March...the rape of the nurses and missionaries... The Japanese Americans that were interned probably had their lives saved... To confiscate their property however, was evil imo

7 posted on 02/06/2003 11:37:34 AM PST by joesnuffy
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To: Barney Gumble
In times of war, where you aren't really sure if you're going to come out on top or not, you have to make some tough choices.  We took a hell of a beating at Pearl Harbor.  Our leaders had a duty to ensure as best as they could the safety of the west coast and military assetts.

We interned our Japanese American citizens.  I'll take a neutral stance on that for now.  What disturbs me more than anything is that we confiscated their assetts.  Their homes, businesses and vehicles were liquidated.  As far as I know, they never got them back or adequate financial restitution.  That makes me mad. $20k would have likely taken care of the assetts in the age when they were taken.  By 1985 standards, it was a drop in the bucket.  Still it was something.

It's one thing to do something unpleasant for national security.  It's another to do it without taking care not to do mental, physical or financial harm to the subjects.  Why didn't we liquidate assetts, but them in bonds and hold them in escrow for the interned families?

Some families were split up.  Dad was sent to one camp, children and mothers to another.  I'm not convinced that was necessary.

My main beefs are the inhumane ways some of this was carried out, not so much that it wasn't called for, or should be outside the bounds of reasonable reactions to a war-time setting.

The left will always be yapping around like a bunch of terriors.  Big deal.

8 posted on 02/06/2003 11:38:55 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Freeper Caribbean Cruise May 31-June 6, Staterooms As Low As $610 Per Person For Entire Week!)
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To: staytrue
Well like I said I didn't want to get into a debate regarding internment camps. It probably would fall under the category of the "ends not justifying the means."

However, in the objective media, they should hold both parties to the same standards. Why should Democrats dumb or inappropriate comments get swept under the rug by national media while Republicans are constantly villified across most major news outlets. It's the media that hypes the story with repeated story and headline. If it had been a Democrat, you never would have heard about Trent Lott's comment. Guaranteed. Barely FR and the opinionjournal carried anything about Patty Murray. We know about it, but Joe Six Pack and Soccer Mom don't.

9 posted on 02/06/2003 11:45:59 AM PST by Barney Gumble ((fighting for a objective media))
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To: Barney Gumble
I have long favored an internment camp for congressmen.
10 posted on 02/06/2003 11:46:16 AM PST by T'wit
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To: ambrose
What Ambrose said:
"Interesting that a Republican can get in trouble for agreeing with a Democrat policy."

It's Not About Party - It's About Principle.

:) JL


11 posted on 02/06/2003 11:53:57 AM PST by JusticeLives
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To: Barney Gumble
Round them up and expell them.
12 posted on 02/06/2003 11:54:38 AM PST by Hermann the Cherusker
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To: Barney Gumble
I'm all for it. We could start filling them with the 9 million illegals.
13 posted on 02/06/2003 11:54:56 AM PST by taxed2death
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To: DoughtyOne
Their homes, businesses and vehicles were liquidated. As far as I know, they never got them back or adequate financial restitution.

The Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act, passed by Congress in 1948 provided $38 million for property losses. How much did the Japanese government compensate American citizens for forcing them into slave labor camps?

As for your distress over the "inhumane" way the relocation was handled; Somebody had to do something quickly. If the Emporer had told us in 1940 that he was going to attack Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941, there would have been adequate time to come up with a "humane" plan.

The only families split up, that I'm aware of, were the ones that had members sent to Tule Lake, California. That camp consisted of people who asked to be repatriated to Japan, or answered "no" to a loyalty questionaire, or who the FBI had evidence of disloyalty against.

19,000 Japanese or Japanese-American citizens asked for repatriation and 8,000 actually went back. 3,500 renounced their American citizenship. 1942 was not the time to be politically correct.

14 posted on 02/06/2003 11:57:46 AM PST by jackliberty
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To: joesnuffy
After the news of Batan ....The Death March...the rape of the nurses and missionaries... The Japanese Americans that were interned probably had their lives saved... To confiscate their property however, was evil imo



Rep. Coble isnt just blowing smoke here.

Although CA liberals like to harp their "progressive" state, CA was one of the most racist states around. For many decades Asian-Amer were discrimninated against....and even were being discriminated by the left in more modern times when the left did not include Asian-Amer in the Affirmative action and quota laws.

It wasnt just Asian-Amer either. LA had the big Zoot Suit riots in 1943 (or was it 1944) where many Mex-Amer and Asian-Amer businesses were burnt to the ground...as well as a number of people killed in the riots.

Although it was wrong to seize Japanese-Amer property....I wouldnt just rule out the safety factor.

Also...this issue will blow away quickly. Asian-Amer are not really adored by the left and its constituency.
15 posted on 02/06/2003 11:57:58 AM PST by UCFRoadWarrior (UN = Unpunished Nazis)
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To: JusticeLives
howard coble is a fine and honorable man ...have known him for years and he doesnt deserve these comment.
16 posted on 02/06/2003 11:58:50 AM PST by rrrod
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To: jackliberty
The Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act, passed by Congress in 1948 provided $38 million for property losses. How much did the Japanese government compensate American citizens for forcing them into slave labor camps?



Good question! The Japanese were awful in the treatment of US prisoners of war (and other POWs). I dont recall any compensation to those interned there...or to the families who lost loved ones in those camps

17 posted on 02/06/2003 12:01:13 PM PST by UCFRoadWarrior (UN = Unpunished Nazis)
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To: joesnuffy
Agree.
18 posted on 02/06/2003 12:02:08 PM PST by JusticeLives
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To: Barney Gumble; aristeides
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."

Makes sense to me.

19 posted on 02/06/2003 12:04:19 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: Fred Mertz; swarthyguy; Grampa Dave; sailor4321
Coble is right. David D. Lowman, Magic: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents from the West Coast during WW II.
20 posted on 02/06/2003 12:08:50 PM PST by aristeides
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