Endangered species

Make sure you read the comments on the article.

Coble under fire for remarks on Japanese-American internments

The office of North Carolina congressman Howard Coble, who came under fire for comments he made earlier in the week approving the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans, defended his position Friday. "It was both for national security and for their protection," his spokesperson at his Washington office said. Coble, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, made the remarks Tuesday on a call-in radio show in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"In light of the threat to our national security, the fear that the west coast could potentially have been invaded, you know he (Coble) could understand how Roosevelt arrived at his decision," the spokesperson said. Roosevelt interned 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Coble said during the radio program that Roosevelt's decision to intern Japanese-Americans "was appropriate at the time. 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."

=> http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=248837&display=all

I have very strong feelings on this subject that clearly differ from Coble's line of thinking. It's unfortunate that in this day and age, certain people still feel the crushing underfoot of civil liberties of an entire segment of the population was warranted. Much has been written on this subject and I suspect that the attack on Pearl Harbor exposed a nerve in the American psyche at the time making the internment more conducive and palatable to the American public. Even former members of the Supreme Court who ruled at the time that the act was Constitutional in hindsight have said since then for the record that they were not proud of what transpired and that it is considered a dark blot in America's history. Even now, one does not have to look far since post 9/11 and with the current state of affairs both domestically and abroad to see similar shades of suspicion towards the Arab-American community. Slippery slope indeed.

agreed