LOS ANGELES, CA - Asian American internet watchdog Yellowworld.org has launched an online petition (
http://removecoble.yellowworld.org) to demand the resignation of Congressman Howard Coble from his position as Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security for comments made this week in which he expressly justified the Japanese American internment.
On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, Congressman Coble told listeners of WKZL-FM in North Carolina that our country's exclusion, removal, and detention of 120,000 Japanese-Americans was justified in light of concerns for national security.
In 1983, the Congressional Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concluded that there was no probative evidence that any Japanese-American posed as a threat to our nation's security. Still, Congressman Coble insisted to the listeners that "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."
"The Congressman's comments this week are an affront to the intelligence of all law-abiding Americans," said Elbert Oh, Founder and President of Yellowworld.org. "He's clearly unfit to serve in a position that demands a clear perspective of past discrimination in order to keep our nation secure today."
Indeed, the United States District Court in 1984 decision of Korematsu v. United States, issued the following warning:
"It stands as a caution that in times of distress the shield of military necessity and national security must not be used to protect governmental actions from close scrutiny and accountability. It stands as a caution that in times of international hostility and antagonisms our institutions, legislative, executive and judicial, must be prepared to exercise their authority to protect all citizens from the petty fears and prejudices that are so easily aroused."
Please visit
http://removecoble.yellowworld.org for more information.