Legislative Issues

Pritchard Park

Inslee Condemns Colleague's Remarks on Internment Camps

5 February 2003

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, whose legislation to memorialize the internment of Japanese-Americans was recently signed into law by President Bush, today reacted to U.S. Rep. Howard Coble's statement that he agreed with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

“It is flat-out wrong for Rep. Coble to agree with the internment of Japanese-Americans. During WWII, the U.S. Army rounded up Japanese-Americans who had not been charged with nor tried for any crime, took them away from their homes, and forced them into camps for the duration of World War II. Because our country surrendered to a wave of fear, we forced thousands of good citizens to live behind barbed wire for years. The internment of Japanese-Americans occurred because we as a nation temporarily forgot the values of liberty, and succumbed to the power of fear.”

“I cannot understand how, sixty years later, a member of Congress would support this horrible transgression in our nation's history. Endorsing a past policy of repression can serve only to legitimate the policy in today's world. Despite Representative Coble's remarks, I believe that the United States Congress recognizes the importance of America's fundamental freedoms.”

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee wrote the successful "Bainbridge Island Japanese-American Memorial Act," and represents an area from which the very first Japanese-American families in the United States were sent to internment camps by the U.S. Army during WWII. Inslee's hometown, Bainbridge Island, was the inspiration for the book and movie "Snow Falling on Cedars."