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

[aristeides]

Hawaii was put under martial law right after Pearl Harbor, and remained under strict military rule for the duration of the war. Thus, conditions were not the same as on the West Coast, which was not under martial law.

[aristeides]

NONE of those interned on the Mainland was ever convicted of any crime of espionage or sabotage.

Lowman deals with that claim in his book.

[Phantom Lord]

He is right.

And I loved Cobles bumper stickers...

Can't Feed 'Em, Don't Breed 'Em

[Congressman Billybob]

They were NOT "rightfully compensated." Those who died before 1990 got NOTHING. Those who lived long enough got $20,000 for four years of wrongful imprisonment, plus having all their property -- homes, farms, cars, etc. -- stolen from them.

And the Japanese-Americans are NOT complaining about anything. Given their culture, they just buckled down, worked hard, and achieved in excess of any other racial group in the US, including Caucasians.

Your post is off base on both points.

Congressman Billybob

[aristeides]

According to Lowman, there was compensation for property losses in 1948 or so.

[Phantom Lord]

How does 400,000 to 800,000 -- in our country -- potential killers sound?

Stupid.

You could make precisely the same argument about gun owners, with hand-waving percentages pulled out of thin air.

There is a huge difference between gun owners and Islamists. Charlton Heston, Wayne LaPierre, and other 2nd Amendment leaders are not calling on gun owners to kill non gun owners wherever they are found.

You do however have a virtually uncountable number of Islamic Clerics around the world calling for their followers to kill as many Americans as possible wherever they find the Americans.

[Publius6961]

If there are 400,000 Islamist killers in this country they're remarkably lazy and unmotivated.

First of all, leaving out the word potential enables your near-hysterical response.
Would "not yet activated" satisfy your semantic perfectionism?

You sound almost disappointed!

[Phantom Lord]

Still doesn't make the internments any less illegal and wrong.

Did not the Supreme Court determine that that internment of these poeple was legal? It may have been wrong, but it was legal if the Supreme Court said so.

[socal_parrot]

Doesn't seem like that had much choice in the matter.

C. E. Order 92

WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY
WARTIME CIVIL CONTROL Administration
Presidio of San Francisco, California

INSTRUCTIONS
TO ALL PERSONS OF
JAPANESE
ANCESTRY

LIVING IN THE FOLLOWING AREA:

All that portion of the Counties of Sacramento and Amador, State of California, within the boundary beginning at a point at which California State Highway No. 16 intersects California State Highway No. 49, approximately two miles south of Plymouth: thence southerly along said Highway No. 49 to the Amador -Calaveras County Line; thence westerly along the Amador-Calaveras County Line to the Amador-San Joaquin County Line; thence northerly along the Amador-San Joaquin County Line to the Sacramento-San Joaquin County Line; thence westerly along the Sacramento-San Joaquin County Line to the easterly line of the right of way of the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Lodi to Sacramento; thence northerly along said easterly line to its crossing with California State Highway No. 16; thence easterly along said Highway No. 16 to point of beginning.

Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 92, this Headquarters, dated May 23, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above area by 12 o'clock noon, P.W.T., Saturday, May 30, 1942.

No Japanese parson will be permitted to move into, or out of the above area after 12 o'clock noon, P.W.T., Saturday, May 23, 1942, without obtaining special permission from the representative of the Commanding General, Northern California Sector, at the Civil Control Station located at:

Masonic Hall,
Elk Grove, California.

Such permits will only be granted for the purpose of uniting members of a family, or in cases of grave emergency.

The Civil Control Station is equipped to assist the Japanese population affected by this evacuation in the following ways:

1. Give advice and instructions on the evacuation.
2. Provide services with respect to the management, leasing, sale, storage or other disposition of most kinds of property such as real estate, business and professional equipment, household goods, boats, automobiles and livestock.
3. Provide temporary residence elsewhere for all Japanese in family groups.
4. Transport persons and a limited amount of clothing and equipment to their new residence.


THE FOLLOWING INTRUCTIONS MUST BE OBSERVED:

1. A responsible member of each family, preferably the head of the family, or the person in whose name most of the property is held, and each individual living alone, will report to the Civil Control Station to receive further instructions. This must be done between 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. on Sunday, May 24, 1942, or between 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. on Monday, May 25, 1942.
2. Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the Assembly Center, the following property:

(a) Bedding and linens (no mattress) for each member of the family;
(b) Toilet articles for each member of the family;
(c) Extra clothing for each member of the family;
(d) Essential personal effects for each member of the family.

A11 items carried will be securely packaged, tied and plainly marked with the name of the owner and numbered in accordance with instructions obtained at the Civil Control Station. The size and number of packages is limited to that which can be carried by the individual or family group.
3. No pets of any kind will be permitted.
4. No personal items and no household goods will be shipped to the Assembly Center.
5. The United States Government through its agencies will provide for the storage, at the sole risk of the owner, of the more substantial household items, such as iceboxes, washing machines, pianos and other heavy furniture. Cooking utensils and other small items will be accepted for storage if crated, packed and plainly marked with the name and address of the owner. Only one name and address will be used by a given family.
6. Each family, and individual living alone wi11 be furnished transportation to the Assembly Center. Private means of transportation will not be utilized. All instructions pertaining to the movement will be obtained at the Civil Control Station.

Go to the Civil Control Station between the hours of 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M., Sunday, May 24, 1942, or between the hours of 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M., Monday, May 25, 1942, to receive further instructions.

J. L. DEWITT
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army
Commanding

May 23, 1942

See Civilian Exclusion Order No. 92.

Graphic

[socal_parrot]

oops! that=they

[cynicom]

Coble is 100 per cent correct and I hope he does not turn PC and retract what is the truth.

[Congressman Billybob]

I have read the US Military documents about these camps. I got some of the WW II documents declassified in order to write my book on this subject. The US Army labeled these "concentration camps," until we found out what the Germans meant by the same phrase.

Only then the Army changed the name to "internment" or "relocation" camps. And nobody got out to "go to college" or "work on the East Coast." In my book is an Ansel Adams photograph of a soldier in the 441st, the "Christmas-tree Regiment" for its many decorations, visiting with his family behind the barbed wire of Manzanar, with fellow US soldiers in the same uniform guarding the perimeter.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column for UPI, "Those in Peril on the Sea" (Now up on UPI wire, and FR.)

As the politician formerly known as Al Gore has said, Buy my book, "to Restore Trust in America"

[ErnBatavia]

Not a discriminating bone in his body.

Nor much in the way of memory banks either? I guess the Trent Lott fiasco has already just sort of drifted away.....

[CasearianDaoist]

They did include Germans (and Italians.) 36,000 were interned, of those 14,000 were Japanese. At the outbreak of the war 12,000 Japanese renounced their US citizenship. This was so unprecedented they had to change the law to allow them to do it. Most of the interned Japanese were from this group. This whole Japanese internment business is yet another Leftist hoax built out of half truths and distortions, Do you really think that there were only 14,000 Japanese citizens in 1940?

[cynicom]

Someone should ask Honda to explain away the "Niihau Affair" on Dec. 7 1941. This prompted the internment. There was nothing else FDR could do. If asked, Honda will disavow the Niihau affair as nothing.

[meia]

A few weeks ago, when the Trent Lott controversy was going on, Freepers were repeatedly bringing up the fact that Roosevelt imprisioned Japanese Americans and pointing this out as an example of how racism was part and parcel of the Democratic party. Now Freepers are defending a Republican congressman because he agrees with that policy.

By the way, I personally know Howard Coble. He is a very nice man. But I just can't believe he would make a statement like this. I have to wonder if this mistake on his part stems from the fact that his Chief of Staff, Ed McDonald, who has been with him since he was first elected, and was always with him and giving him great advice, recently left to go to work for the Maryland Governor. This could be fatal blow as far as his career goes.

[cynicom]

Bob..

I dare say you have never read of the Niihau affair???? If you have not, then your condemnation is in error.

[Red Jones]

I read that some of the american intelligence peole said that there was evidence of some japanese americans plotting on the japanese side. Some of these people did go back to fight with the japanese. So, under the circumstances I think that what we did was understandable. I don't think they were mis-treated. They did get out. And we all remember that many young japanese american men did volunteer to fight in the American Army. They went to Europe and you know distinguished themselves in Italy.

[metesky]

There was just a thread posted the other day from declassified documents of the era saying that there were many active Japanese agents among the J-A community, especially on the west coast.

I don't think any east coast J-A were interned, but I'm not sure.

I'll dig around for that thread.

[k2blader]

Honolulu Star Bulletin - Niihau feared Japan attack during WWII:

PUUWAI, Niihau -- Military presence on Niihau dates back at least to Dec. 7, 1941, when a Japanese Zero bomber made a crash landing not far from here.

The plane, riddled with bullets, had just bombed Pearl Harbor.

The pilot had no choice but to land in a rock-stubbled pasture because the Robinsons had spent eight years plowing 2-feet-deep cross-hatched furrows in the flatlands throughout the island.

Keith Robinson, co-heir of Niihau, says an Army Air Corps major warned the family in 1933 the Japanese might try to seize the island as an advance base for a takeover of the Hawaiian Islands.

Mules pulled the plow for four years until a tractor was purchased. The project was completed the summer of 1941, Robinson says.

The bomber's landing gear was destroyed and Niihauans captured the dazed pilot. He was locked in a storage room until a second-generation Japanese schoolteacher on Niihau set him free and gave him a gun. The pilot terrorized the village for several days until he was killed by a Niihauan.

Most of the plane was quickly confiscated by U.S. forces, but remnants of the wing remain hidden under lantana trees. The cross-hatchings in the land are still easily visible from the air.

Over the years Niihauans have stripped off the plane's aluminum skin and re-fashioned it into eyes for their fishing nets.

This article certainly proves the Niihauans disliked Japanese kamakazis just as much as the next guy.