On Feb. 4, 2003, Representative Howard Coble, chairman of the House Committee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, said on a radio show, “We were at war [World War II]. They [Japanese Americans] were an endangered species. For many Japanese Americans, it wasn’t safe for them to be on the street. Some probably were intent on doing harm to us, just as some of the Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us.”
He later defended his comments saying, “I was just stating historical fact.” Mr. Coble was referring to Executive Order 9066 issued in 1942 which ordered the military, in the interest of national security, to exclude anyone from anywhere without trial. This was followed by Executive Order 9102, which ordered the building of detention camps in the desert, into which 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated without a determination of individual disloyalty. The internment is a fact, but the legality of the order was questioned soon after it was issued.
On Dec. 18, 1944, the United States Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, upheld the conviction of Korematsu, who had refused to report to a camp. The majority ruled only on his refusal to leave a prohibited military area and did not consider the constitutionality of the camps the primary reason of “the military urgency of the situation.”
Three justices dissented. Justice Robert H. Jackson denied that the government could simply declare all members of a racial group guilty and imprison them because “guilt is personal and not inheritable.”
Justice Owen J. Roberts condemned the imprisonment of a citizen “without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty.”
Justice Frank Murphy called the majority opinion “this legalization of racism.” See Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944).
On the same day, the Court, in a companion case, ruled that the Executive Order and the enforcement law passed by Congress only authorized the removal of the Japanese Americans from military areas, not their imprisonment. See Ex parte Endo, 323 U.S. 283 (1944).
Within a month of the Endo decision, the military released 50,000, but about 20,000 remained interned, mostly in Tule Lake, the camp designated for those suspected of disloyalty. Yet others remained in camps until after the war ended.
In 1949, Congress passed the Japanese-American Evacuation Claims Act, which authorized compensation to internees who could prove property losses by records. In 1976, President Ford, in Proclamation 4447, formally rescinded Executive Order 9066.
In 1980, a special commission appointed by President Carter concluded that the decisions to remove Americans of Japanese ancestry to prison camps occurred because of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” In 1984, a federal judge agreed that Korematsu did not get a fair trial and set aside his conviction because the government had withheld material facts during his trial.
In 1988, the Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, which offered $20,000 reparation and a letter of apology to each of the internees still alive.
When our nation is in fear because of war or threat of secret attack, the simplistic gut reaction is to shoot first and ask questions later. The Bill of Rights is forgotten for the need for national security.
The challenge is to attain what Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist calls “a proper balance” between civil liberties and national security. A few months after Sept. 11, 2001, 82-year-old Fred Korematsu reminded students at Stanford University that he never lost faith in the American system of justice. “You have to fight for your rights,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
Therefore Representative Howard Coble is wrong to label any American “an endangered species” and to justify the existence of relocation camps as being for the safety of those interned.
Mr. Coble must not forget the admonishment of President Ford: “I call upon the American people to affirm with me this American Promise – that we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated” (http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/ 760111p.htm.).Copyright 2003