Recognizing the Significance of the 65th Anniversary of Executive Order 9066 and Supporting and Recognizing a Nation Day of Remembrance

RECOGNIZING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 AND SUPPORTING AND RECOGNIZING A NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H. Res. 122 which recognizes the tragic significance of Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to authorize the internment of Japanese Americans at the beginning of World War II. The resolution also highlights the injustices forced on Italian Americans and German Americans during this same period.

In 1942, President Roosevelt authorized the Army to evacuate more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast States, including Washington, Oregon, and my home State, California, and also Arizona. This grossly blunderbuss approach to maintaining America's security serves, especially today, as a continuing reminder that the civil rights of American citizens should never be lost in the midst of the chaos of war, not even in a war on terror.

President Roosevelt authorized the mass expulsion and incarceration of Japanese Americans, and these are American citizens, by signing Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. A few minutes ago, I spoke about the prodding of this body, the prodding about the Presidency and the prodding of the courts. This ill-fated action unfortunately was supported by this body, the one on the other side of the Dome and, yes, the U.S. Supreme Court. Had any of us recognized our burden of freedom and democracy and taken it to heart, this could not and would not have happened.

The tragic misuse of this power was met with an equally powerful response, but unfortunately, it was too late.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford issued Proclamation 4417, in which he said, ``Learning from our mistakes is not pleasant, but as a great philosopher once admonished, we must do so if we want to avoid repeating them.' We recently put to rest President Gerald Ford, but there was no action that Gerald Ford ever did as President more significant than this one. President Ford, in apologizing and taking back the misconduct perpetrated on American citizens so long ago, has set a high standard for it ever happening again.

Today, we have just those threats among us and amidst us, so I am happy to support this to join with the ACLU and all the other organizations that daily fight this and recognizing that this should never happen again.

Last but not least, we are joined with our colleague, the widow of Bob Matsui, and I might note that as a freshman it was Bob Matsui who was on the Democrat side speaking about this issue firsthand. I am sorry that he is not with us today. I look forward to the statements of my colleague and his widow, because I believe that, in fact, this is something we must do every year so that it never, never, never happens again in my America.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

I would like to thank Congressman Honda. Mike and I came into this Congress together. We came in at a time of peace. We came in at a time in which remembering 59 years earlier the history of the Japanese internment was a little abstract and yet necessary. I think that it is no longer abstract, and I thank the gentleman from California, because Mr. Honda made it very clear that we have a clear and present danger in the same way.

It is easy to blame the Muslim community. It is easy to look at Arab Americans and say can we trust them.

I might point out something that is not in the body of the resolution but I know that Mr. Honda and I have talked about in the past. During the time in which we were incarcerating women and children and old men of Japanese ancestry, the young Japanese Americans were in Europe fighting and dying in record numbers, defending our country in the most decorated way of any unit of World War II. That is a separate remembrance but it cannot be separated from the fact that today Arabs and Muslims are fighting in the war on terror in Afghanistan, in Iraq and around the world.

They are in fact doing exactly the same thing. And I link the two because I believe that you don't respect history the way we are trying to today, if you don't link it to the present and the future, and you don't say we will learn from this terrible mistake. We can't undo what was done to the Japanese, Italian, and German Americans, but we can dedicate ourselves to ensure that this shall not happen again in this great Union.

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