This is a test.

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By Will Shuck
Capitol Bureau Chief
Published Wednesday, February 19, 2003

SACRAMENTO -- As the state Assembly marked the 61st anniversary of the internment of Japanese Americans, Lodi Republican Alan Nakanishi readied a letter to a North Carolina congressman whose dismissive remarks about the infamous wartime imprisonment campaign conjured the specter of similar action against Americans of Middle Eastern descent.

Nakanishi, who spent four years in the Tule Lake relocation camp as a boy, said he wanted to tell Rep. Howard Coble, R-North Carolina, "how I felt about it." Coble's remarks, he said, were "one of two things -- either ignorant or something else."

Nakanishi said he was "sure" that what happened to his family would not be visited on Arab-Americans, largely because the nation was determined to the learn the lessons of its history.

Nakanishi declined to provide a copy of his letter to Coble, calling it "personal" and "between him and me," but said it followed closely the statement he made to the Assembly on Tuesday afternoon. He spoke in support of a resolution calling for a Day of Remembrance on the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, by which President Franklin D. Roosevelt consigned 120,000 men, women and children to wartime imprisonment.

The resolution, by Torrance Democrat George Nakano, was adopted unanimously Tuesday.

California's action came just weeks after Coble remarked on a radio call-in program that he agreed with Roosevelt's action and that it served to protect Americans of Japanese ancestry who might otherwise have become targets of rage in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

"We were at war. They were an endangered species," Coble said. "For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."

Few people agree with that view, and the U.S. government has admitted the error and apologized for the internment policy. Coble, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, stunned civil libertarians with his comments, especially since they came in response to a caller's question about the possibility of internment for Arab-Americans.

Nakanishi, who was confined to a government camp from the age of 4 until he was 8, chose Tuesday to make his first speech on the Assembly floor.

"I experienced it personally, and it should not have happened," he said of the internment. "I remember barbed wire and guard posts, and soldiers with rifles lining us outside our barracks as they searched for contraband."

His father, a prosperous merchant, was forced to sell his two grocery stores before his family was relocated.

"After the war, we returned home and had lost everything," Nakanishi said. "My father never regained what he had lost and spent the remainder of his life working at the local cannery until his death."

Nakanishi was circumspect in his criticism of Coble, a fellow Republican. He noted, too, that the 1942 order that began the internment campaign "came from a Democrat."

On Tuesday, his voice cracking a bit with emotion or nervousness, Nakanishi said his father, like so many others, "would be proud that two of their sons are seated in this illustrious body, speaking on their behalf and for the American values and ideas that they held dear. ... Let us not forget the past."

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By Cecilia Kang
Mercury News

Rep. Mike Honda of San Jose and Bay Area Japanese-American advocates called on Rep. Howard Coble of North Carolina on Tuesday to step down as chairman of a subcommittee on homeland security, continuing to assail him for saying this month that he agreed with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

One day before the Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the internment of Japanese, Germans and Italians between 1942 and 1946, Honda said that Coble's failure to apologize and the lack of response by Republican leaders have been "extremely frustrating.''

Honda, a Democrat, called for GOP leaders to respond to Coble, a Republican, in the same manner the party reacted to comments made by former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott in support of Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 bid for the presidency as a segregationist.

"It's interesting that when Trent Lott made those comments, it created such an uproar among our leadership,'' Honda said in a press conference at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. "My question is, why aren't we seeing the same now?''

Coble made the comments on a radio call-in program when a listener suggested that Arabs in the United States be confined.

Though he didn't agree with the caller, he said the internment of Japanese-Americans was in their best interest.

"We were at war,'' Coble said, calling Japanese-Americans "an endangered species.'' "For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street.''

He said some Japanese-Americans "probably were intent on doing harm to us . . . just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us.''

Honda, who was in a Colorado internment camp as a child, and other Democratic leaders have sharply criticized Coble's remarks and have called for his resignation as chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security.

Under pressure, Coble last week responded: "I regret that many Japanese- and Arab Americans found my choice of words offensive because that was certainly not my intent.''

Coble didn't respond to requests for an interview.

But Honda and other Japanese-American leaders said Coble's response falls short of an adequate apology.

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February 16, 2003 - In the nearly two weeks since N.C. Representative Howard Coble issued his now-infamous endorsement of the WWII internment of Japanese Americans, thousands of Asian-Pacific American organizations and individuals have mobilized for his removal from an influential post on a House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. One manifestation of this mobilization has been a flurry of petitions on the Web or in emails. One might almost call it the "battle of the petitions," as these come from a variety of sources and can be confusing.

E-mail petitions carry little weight with politicians and public officials relative to other forms of expression such as personal letters (in paper form), faxes, and phonecalls. However, the collective buzz around these online actions does help the Asian-American community convey to already sympathetic officials and to mainstream media its earnest resolve to see Coble removed from his chair-ship. Therefore, should you wish to convey a message about Coble's remarks or Subcommittee post, the Village Editors provide below a brief run-down of four main online petition options -- each with a slightly different address and pressure tactic -- and offer a personal strategy for maximizing the impact of your message.

The Petitions: Summarized

The Japanese American Citizens League, the nation's oldest and largest Asian-American civil rights advocacy organization, responded immediately to Coble's remarks by issuing a statement of condemnation and creating a petition using CapWiz technology that automatically searches out a signatory's local representatives using a highly detailed government contact database.

The P.A.C. 80-20 Initiative, whose tactics generally entail applying pressure directly to individual politicians or candidates through concerted bloc-fundraising and voting, created a petition that targets the message of removal directly to the four top members of the Republican leadership: President George W. Bush; Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert; House Majority Leader Tom DeLay; and RNC Chair Marc Racicot.

A petition by the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans delivers a collective message for 13 organizations, addressing it directly to Representative Coble himself. The thirteen signatories represent a diverse range of South, Southeast, and East Asian American membership organizations whose missions range from political action to community healthcare to legal aid.

A fourth online petition hosted on the Yellowworld.org web site is broadly addressed "to Congress," and allows signatories to insert short customized messages that are displayed on the web page, forum-style, where the petition is stored.

full story

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A Japanese-American congressman stepped up the pressure on a North Carolina colleague, calling for Republican leaders to condemn comments made by Rep. Howard Coble that suggest Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II for their own protection.

Rep. Michael M. Honda, D-San Jose, on Saturday compared the statements made by Coble with those made by Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who was forced to resign in December as Senate majority leader after praising a 1948 presidential campaign that promoted racial segregation.

Honda said he was "outraged" that GOP leaders have made no move, despite requests from Japanese-Americans, to persuade Coble to step down as chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing homeland security.

Coble said during a North Carolina radio show Feb 4. that Japanese-Americans were interned for their own safety, but disagreed with a caller who said Arab-Americans should be confined.

"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."

Coble later released a statement saying the internment was "the wrong decision and an action that should never be repeated." He has refused to step down from the subcommittee post.

Speaking at a news conference Saturday in Los Angeles, Honda said calls by the Asian-American congressional caucus and Japanese-American groups for Coble to step down from his chairmanship of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security have been ignored by Republican political leaders.

"They're notably silent on this," said Honda, who was interned along with his family during World War II.

A U.S. government study after the war called the internment "a grave personal injustice" to people of Japanese ancestry that was the result of "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership." Starting in 1990, the government began paying survivors $20,000.

Honda said the issue has taken on increased urgency because Coble is in a key position to affect national policy.

"Since 9/11, there have been many, many civil liberties eroded away," he said. "Howard Coble has not learned the lesson. ... When you set aside the Constitution, bad things happen."

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By L.A. Chung
Mercury News

When North Carolina congressman Howard Coble made his incendiary remarks last week supporting the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans, reaction from San Jose and the Bay Area was swift and angry.

That wasn't so surprising. The South Bay has elected two congressmen who were interned as children, and the decades-long campaign for redress galvanized the Japanese-American community and taught others on the West Coast about the abrogation of civil liberties for an entire ethnic group.

But what is surprising now are the aging voices of German-American internees, almost overlooked nationally, who have begun to weigh in.

"I reminded him that Germans were interned . . . and including Italians and others, that was about 15,000 people,'' said 77-year-old Eberhard Fuhr, a Chicago-area retiree who e-mailed Coble's chief of staff over the weekend.

As a parting thought, Fuhr urged Coble to support Rep. Mike Honda's new resolution, introduced last week, recognizing Feb. 19 as a "Day of Remembrance.'' Feb. 19, 1942, was the day President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the wartime internments.

Remembering for a purpose

The resolution tells how the freedoms of Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, Italian-Americans and legal resident aliens were constricted by limits on travel, seizure of property and internment. It supports the goals of the three communities to recognize the day as a way to increase awareness of this chapter of history and its lessons.

German-American internees, in fact, are newly regarding Honda as a banner-carrier in their fight for recognition of the nearly 11,000 Germans and German-Americans who were interned in camps throughout America during World War II.

Not only did Honda level criticism at Coble for condoning the internment, but he also included groups that had been overlooked in history.

"Everyone is excited for it to be introduced,'' Karen Ebel, a New Hampshire woman whose father was interned in North Dakota, said of Honda's bill. "What's great is it's the first time there's been federal legislation that has included all the affected ethnic groups.''

And it's about time.

During these anxious times, when it seems the possibility of detentions, roundups and internments of Arabs or Muslims is raised, it would help to have some authentic voices of Germans, Italians and other Europeans interned during World War II.

Testing our foundation

"The more people who understand what happened, the more people understand that this is an American lesson,'' Honda said. "Our Constitution is never tested in times of tranquillity; it's tested during times of trauma and tragedy.''

So it would help if these groups' internment was better-known. The camps were spread all over the country, and the total number of internees was a little more than one-tenth of the number of Japanese and Japanese-Americans interned. Even in major newspapers, the internment of Germans and Italians is not mentioned when historical reference to World War II internment is made.

Fuhr was 17 when he was hauled out of his Cincinnati high school class and imprisoned in Crystal City, Texas, in March 1943. His parents -- German nationals -- and younger brother had been taken six months earlier. He and his older brother were sent to join them in camp until September 1947 -- 2 1/2 years after the war in Europe was over, he wrote Coble. They lost their house and up to five years of their lives.

Now, nearly 60 years later, Fuhr was moved to write to Coble -- chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security -- not just to be counted as a casualty in history, but for the internment's lessons for the future. "The real danger is that it could be applied to anybody.''

To anybody. Sixty years ago or today.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/5153900.htm

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By DEBORAH KONG
AP Minority Issues Writer

Asian-American groups rankled by a North Carolina congressman's remarks suggesting Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II for their own protection want him to resign his subcommittee chairmanship.

Activists are circulating online petitions calling for Rep. Howard Coble to step down from his post as chairman of the House Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security subcommittee. Others are making similar demands in fax and e-mail campaigns.

The groups say the Republican's comments are a reminder of a dark chapter in American history, when 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced into 10 U.S. internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some say Coble's comments could have political repercussions for Republicans, who were criticized after GOP Sen. Trent Lott made remarks deemed racially insensitive last year.

"The psychological damage of the internment had lasting effects," said John Tateishi, national executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League. "We don't intend to just let this one go."

Last week, Coble indicated on a radio show in Greensboro, N.C., that Japanese-Americans were interned for their own safety, but disagreed with a caller who said Arab-Americans should be confined.

"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."

"Some probably were intent on doing harm to us," Coble said, "just as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us."

On Monday, Coble released a statement saying the internment was "the wrong decision and an action that should never be repeated."

"I regret that many Japanese and Arab-Americans found my choice of words offensive because that was certainly not my intent," he said. The congressman has said he won't resign from the subcommittee post.

On Tuesday, a petition being circulated by Yellowworld.org, an online Asian-American advocacy group, had attracted more than 1,000 signatures demanding Coble apologize and resign from the subcommittee.

Coble's comments are an example of how Asians are "portrayed as constantly the outsiders," said Yellowworld.org president Elbert Oh.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the internment. Japanese-Americans were allowed to bring only what they could carry, and some were given as little as 24 hours to sell or store their possessions.

Between 1942 and 1946, they were kept behind barbed wire at the camps, under the watch of armed guards in towers. Tateishi, now 63, recalls seeing a teenager who tried to leave the camp get shot and killed by guards.

Tateishi called Coble's comments insulting and inaccurate, noting that historical records show there were no widespread incidents of violence against Japanese-Americans before their detention, and that no Japanese-Americans in the United States were accused of espionage against America during World War II.

A U.S. government study later called the internment "a grave personal injustice" to people of Japanese ancestry that was the result of "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership." Starting in 1990, the government began paying survivors $20,000.

Kimberly Chen, 30, is among those who signed the online petition.

She recalled skipping school on Pearl Harbor Day because teachers would "point to me, 'You're the Japanese one, you be the representative,'" said Chen, of Portland, Ore.

She signed the petition out of "fear that something like this can happen again."

S.B. Woo, president of the nonpartisan Asian political action committee 80-20, said the group is urging people to fax Republican leaders demanding Coble's resignation from the subcommittee. Republican National Committee officials declined to comment Tuesday on Coble's remarks.

"If we don't get satisfaction, then I think very few of us will be voting for Republicans," Woo said.

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, attempting again to clarify his remarks of last week, said Monday that the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was wrong and should not be repeated.

"I regret that many Japanese and Arab-Americans found my choice of words offensive because that was certainly not my intent," Coble, R-N.C., said in a statement.

On Feb. 4, Coble appeared on a radio call-in show in Greensboro and disagreed with a call who said Arab-Americans should be sent to internment camps during the war on terrorism.

He added that the camps served the nation's security needs during WWII because a few Japanese Americans might have been intent on harming America, "just as some Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing us harm today."

Coble said it was "a very, very cruel thing to do" to Japanese-Americans but that he believed the decision was right for those times.

Besides removing a possible security threat, the government sought to protect Japanese-Americans from harm by other Americans seething about Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Coble said.

On Monday, Coble said he was trying to show that President Roosevelt made a decision that he believed was in the best interest of national security, based on the circumstances at the time and the information available.

"Today we can certainly look back and see the damage that was caused because of this decision," Coble said. "We all now know that this was in fact the wrong decision and an action that should never be repeated.

"It is my sincere hope that this situation will be a reminder to us all that while we have made great strides to improve diversity, acceptance and understanding since 1941, there is much work left to be done."

The Japanese American Citizens League in San Francisco did not immediately return a phone call Monday seeking comment on Coble's latest statement. In a letter to Coble last week, the league's president called on Coble to resign as chairman of a House Judiciary Committee panel overseeing homeland security.

"To suggest that the government locked up 120,000 innocent people for their own protection is not only patronizing and offensive, but it is patently incorrect," president Floyd Mori wrote.

Coble has said he won't resign as the panel's chairman.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - U.S. Rep. Howard Coble said he won't apologize for comments this week defending the U.S. government's decision to force Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II.

The Greensboro Republican also said he won't resign as chairman of a new House subcommittee with responsibility for homeland security. "I was just stating historical fact," Coble said Friday. "If those comments were offensive to anyone, I apologize for that. I did not intend to be insensitive or uncaring."

On Tuesday, Coble appeared on a Greensboro radio call-in show and disagreed with a caller who said Arab-Americans should be sent to internment camps during the war on terrorism.

He added that the camps served the nation's security needs during World War II because a few Japanese-Americans might have been intent on harming America, "just as some Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing us harm today."

Coble said it was "a very, very cruel thing to do" to Japanese-Americans, but that he believed the decision was right for those times.

Besides removing a possible security threat, the government sought to protect Japanese-Americans from harm by other Americans seething about Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Coble said.

The Japanese American Citizens League and Muslims for a Better North Carolina called on Coble to resign as chairman of a House Judiciary Committee panel overseeing homeland security.

"To suggest that the government locked up 120,000 innocent people for their own protection is not only patronizing and offensive, but it is patently incorrect," Floyd Mori, president of the Japanese American Citizens League, said in a letter to Coble.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat in the House said Coble seemed to try to turn "injustice into a virtue."

"His remarks demonstrated an appalling disregard for civil liberties and inexcusable ignorance of history," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

The state Arab-American group's leader, Badi Ali of Greensboro, decried remarks by Coble and Republican Rep. Sue Myrick, who represents the Charlotte area. In remarks last week about domestic security threats, Myrick said, "Look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country."

Ali compared Coble's and Myrick's comments to those made in December by Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who was forced to quit as Senate majority leader after praising retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond's segregationist presidential campaign of 1948.

"Trent Lott's racially charged comments led to a political firestorm against him," Ali said. "But when Coble and Myrick express racial bias and prejudice against Arab-Americans, little more than a rustle of discount is heard. Prejudice against Muslims and Arab-Americans seems to be more readily acceptable in this country."

Coble said he won't give up the subcommittee gavel.

"I don't think what I said in any way makes me unfit to chair that committee," he said.

http://newsobserver.com/nc24hour/ncnews/story/2183302p-2067371c.html

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By JOHN WAGNER, Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON -- The highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House on Friday took U.S. Rep. Howard Coble to task for comments this week suggesting that internment of Japanese-Americans was warranted during World War II. "His remarks demonstrated an appalling disregard for civil liberties and inexcusable ignorance of history," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. "He even stated that Japanese-Americans were interned for their own protection, thus attempting to turn injustice into a virtue."

Pelosi said she and several colleagues had decided to sponsor a resolution calling for a National Day of Remembrance on Feb. 19, the anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1942 authorization of the internment of Japanese-Americans and legal immigrants of Japanese ancestry.

Pelosi said the resolution would "help educate Americans about the shameful interning of Japanese-American citizens during World War II."

Coble, a Greensboro Republican who is the new chairman of a House Judiciary Committee panel overseeing homeland security, on Tuesday told Greensboro radio station WKZL-FM that Roosevelt's decision made sense at the time because Japanese-Americans' lives were in danger.

"We were at war," Coble said. "They were an endangered species. For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."

Coble's office declined to comment Friday.

http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2181598p-2065913c.html

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U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose) is sponsoring a resolution setting aside February 19 as an annual "Day of Remembrance" for the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942.

The order authorized incarceration of more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry who were living in the U.S. during World War II. Americans of Italian and German descent also faced severe restrictions by measures that branded them enemy aliens and included required identification cards, travel restrictions, seizure of personal property, and internment.

As a child, Rep. Honda was interned in Colorado.

"Executive Order 9066 is nothing to be proud of," Mr. Honda says. "Today, our country is again in a time of war. It is important for us all to realize that gross violations of civil liberties and disregard for constitutional rights are always possible if we are not vigilant."

The former San Jose mayor says the need for raising the awareness of what he calls "this shameful chapter in U.S. history" is more apparent than ever, responding to reports that Rep. Howard Coble, a Republican congressman from Greensboro, N.C., agreed with the internment of Japanese Americans.

Mr. Coble was recently appointed chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

"We were at war. They (Japanese-Americans) were an endangered species. For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street," Mr. Coble said during a talk show Tuesday on WKZL, a Winston-Salem, N.C., radio station, according to the High Point, N.C., Enterprise newspaper.

He was reacting to a comment of a caller who suggested Arabs in the United States should be confined, the newspaper says.

"Some probably were intent on doing harm to us, just as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us," the newspaper reported Mr. Coble said.

Mr. Honda dismissed the remarks as preposterous. "If we were incarcerated for our safety, why were we inside the barbed wire fences, and why were the gun towers facing us?" he says.

February 19 should be neither a day to celebrate, nor a day to mourn, Mr. Honda says. "Rather, it is a day for reflection, dialogue and education."

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(AP) A congressman meant no disrespect when he made comments this week approving of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

Rep. Howard Coble "was trying to make the point that the internments were as much for the Japanese-Americans' own safety as for national security," said Missy Branson, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Republican.

Americans during the war, said Branson, "weren't as tolerant and understanding of other cultures as we are today... He didn't mean it in any way discriminatory to Japanese-Americans at all. I think he's made that clear."

Coble, who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, angered Arab-Americans and Japanese-Americans for comments he made Tuesday during a radio call-in show.

The Republican disagreed with a caller who suggested putting all Arabs in the United States into prison camps, but said he agreed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to put 120,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II.

In the 1980s, the United States apologized for the internments and gave surviving internees $20,000 each in reparations.

Coble has said his remarks were not intended to insult any ethnic or religious groups. But neither his nor his spokeswoman's explanation Thursday satisfied Mary Frances Berry, chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who said Coble should apologize.

"For a public official to be speaking this way could send a signal to people about how they might be treated," said Berry, a Democrat who was in Charlotte on Thursday for a briefing on the effect education reforms have had on civil rights.

Arab-American groups have decried Coble's remarks, as well as comments made last week by Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C. In talking about domestic security threats, Myrick referred to Arab-Americans by saying, "Look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country."

Democrats have stepped up their criticism of Republicans on civil rights since December, when Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., appeared to praise Strom Thurmond's pro-segregation 1948 presidential campaign. Lott was forced to give up the Senate majority leader post he was about to reassume.

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By Cecilia Kang
Mercury News

Comments by a North Carolina congressman that he agreed with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II sparked outrage Wednesday by San Jose Rep. Mike Honda and Bay Area Japanese and Arab Americans.

Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., who heads a homeland security subcommittee, made the comments Tuesday on a radio call-in program when a listener suggested that Arabs in the United States be confined.

Some Japanese-Americans "probably were intent on doing harm to us,'' Coble said, "just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us.''

Honda, who as a child spent time in a Colorado internment camp, called Coble's remarks "preposterous'' and said he spoke with Coble on Wednesday to learn more about his views.

"The need for raising awareness of this shameful chapter in U.S. history is more apparent than ever,'' Honda said in a statement.

Coble could not be reached for comment.

Japanese-American and Arab and Muslim groups demanded an apology and explanation from Coble.

Helal Omeira, executive director of the Northern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Coble's views are cause for concern in light of recent events.

The national GOP is still recovering from the statements by Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott that suggested he supported segregation -- remarks that led to his resignation as Senate Republican leader. And last month a prominent Californian Republican, Bill Black, apologized for having distributed an article lamenting the outcome of the Civil War.

"These comments are obviously very ignorant and misinformed,'' Omeira said of Coble's comments. He said the internment of Japanese-Americans has "already been deemed unconstitutional and un-American.''

Though Coble said he did not agree with the caller on the radio show, he said he agreed with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's establishment of internment camps for Japanese-Americans.

"We were at war,'' Coble said, calling Japanese-Americans "an endangered species.'' Coble, who is chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, added that "for many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street.''

Honda balked at Coble's suggestion that the U.S. government had safety in mind when it created the internment camps.

"If we were incarcerated for our safety, why were we inside the barbed wire fences, and why were the gun towers facing us?'' Honda asked.

Coble made similar remarks about internment camps in 1988, when he voted against paying reparations and extending a national apology to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II.

For Japanese-Americans, Coble's comments this week reopened old wounds.

San Jose resident Jimi Yamaichi said such views are dangerous and could be used against Arabs and Muslims in the United States.

"It's really scary to hear these kinds of comments because he can twist people's arms into treating Muslims unfairly,'' said Yamaichi, 80, whose family of 11 lived in the Heart Mountain, Wyo., relocation center and Tule Lake internment camp from 1942 to 1946.

On Wednesday, Honda introduced a resolution in Congress that would recognize Feb. 19 as a "Day of Remembrance'' for the signing of the executive order that led to the forced internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans.

"Today, our country is again in a time of war,'' Honda said. "It is important for us all to realize that gross violations of civil liberties and disregard for constitutional rights are always a possibility if we are not vigilant.''

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North Carolina congressman Howard Coble has been chosen to lead an important subcommittee that puts him on the front lines of the battle against terrorism.

Coble was picked as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security that supervises the U.S. Department of Justice, including laws aimed at preventing terrorism.

"I think we'll be in the eye of the storm. ... It's going to be challenging," the Republican congressman said Wednesday.

Among other things, the subcommittee oversees such agencies as the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Prisons and administrative aspects of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Coble was named to the post by U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin congressman and fellow Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee that includes Coble's crime panel.

"His experiences in the Coast Guard, as an assistant U.S. Attorney, and as a member of Congress will prove invaluable in his key, new role assisting in the war on terror," Sensenbrenner said.

Coble said that he didn't know for sure what issues the crime subcommittee might tackle in the new Congress. But he said that tightening prohibitions against child pornography might return this year after occupying much of the subcommittee's time last session.

The panel also likely will revisit efforts to stop drug smuggling and examine the use of federal prisoners to make furniture and textiles that compete with private companies, Coble said.

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