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.
