Politicians are at it again.

I'll blog more on this later. Read it for yourself and consider the ramifications of a bunch of politicians writing your history.

No point in having scholars if this is how American history is written.

109th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2296

To establish a fact-finding Commission to extend the study of a prior Commission to investigate and determine facts and circumstances surrounding the relocation, internment, and deportation to Axis countries of Latin Americans of Japanese descent from December 1941 through February 1948, and the impact of those actions by the United States, and to recommend appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

February 16, 2006

Mr. INOUYE (for himself, Mr. STEVENS, Mr. LEVIN, and Mr. LEAHY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To establish a fact-finding Commission to extend the study of a prior Commission to investigate and determine facts and circumstances surrounding the relocation, internment, and deportation to Axis countries of Latin Americans of Japanese descent from December 1941 through February 1948, and the impact of those actions by the United States, and to recommend appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent Act'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) Findings- Based on a preliminary study published in December 1982 by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Congress finds the following:

(1) During World War II, the United States--
(A) expanded its internment program and national security investigations to conduct the program and investigations in Latin America; and
(B) financed relocation to the United States, and internment, of approximately 2,300 Latin Americans of Japanese descent, for the purpose of exchanging the Latin Americans of Japanese descent for United States citizens held by Axis countries.

(2) Approximately 2,300 men, women, and children of Japanese descent from 13 Latin American countries were held in the custody of the Department of State in internment camps operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1941 through 1948.

(3) Those men, women, and children either--
(A) were arrested without a warrant, hearing, or indictment by local police, and sent to the United States for internment; or
(B) in some cases involving women and children, voluntarily entered internment camps to remain with their arrested husbands, fathers, and other male relatives.

(4) Passports held by individuals who were Latin Americans of Japanese descent were routinely confiscated before the individuals arrived in the United States, and the Department of State ordered United States consuls in Latin American countries to refuse to issue visas to the individuals prior to departure.

(5) Despite their involuntary arrival, Latin American internees of Japanese descent were considered to be and treated as illegal entrants by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Thus, the internees became illegal aliens in United States custody who were subject to deportation proceedings for immediate removal from the United States. In some cases, Latin American internees of Japanese descent were deported to Axis countries to enable the United States to conduct prisoner exchanges.

(6) Approximately 2,300 men, women, and children of Japanese descent were relocated from their homes in Latin America, detained in internment camps in the United States, and in some cases, deported to Axis countries to enable the United States to conduct prisoner exchanges.

(7) The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians studied Federal actions conducted pursuant to Executive Order 9066 (relating to authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe military areas). Although the United States program of interning Latin Americans of Japanese descent was not conducted pursuant to Executive Order 9066, an examination of that extraordinary program is necessary to establish a complete account of Federal actions to detain and intern civilians of enemy or foreign nationality, particularly of Japanese descent. Although historical documents relating to the program exist in distant archives, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians did not research those documents.

(8) Latin American internees of Japanese descent were a group not covered by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (50 U.S.C. App. 1989b et seq.), which formally apologized and provided compensation payments to former Japanese Americans interned pursuant to Executive Order 9066.
(b) Purpose- The purpose of this Act is to establish a fact-finding Commission to extend the study of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to investigate and determine facts and circumstances surrounding the relocation, internment, and deportation to Axis countries of Latin Americans of Japanese descent from December 1941 through February 1948, and the impact of those actions by the United States, and to recommend appropriate remedies, if any, based on preliminary findings by the original Commission and new discoveries.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMISSION.

(a) In General- There is established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese descent (referred to in this Act as the `Commission').

(b) Composition- The Commission shall be composed of 9 members, who shall be appointed not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, of whom--
(1) 3 members shall be appointed by the President;
(2) 3 members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, on the joint recommendation of the majority leader of the House of Representatives and the minority leader of the House of Representatives; and
(3) 3 members shall be appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate, on the joint recommendation of the majority leader of the Senate and the minority leader of the Senate.

(c) Period of Appointment; Vacancies- Members shall be appointed for the life of the Commission. A vacancy in the Commission shall not affect its powers, but shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment was made.

(d) Meetings-
(1) FIRST MEETING- The President shall call the first meeting of the Commission not later than the later of--
(A) 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act; or
(B) 30 days after the date of enactment of legislation making appropriations to carry out this Act.
(2) SUBSEQUENT MEETINGS- Except as provided in paragraph (1), the Commission shall meet at the call of the Chairperson.

(e) Quorum- Five members of the Commission shall constitute a quorum, but a lesser number of members may hold hearings.

(f) Chairperson and Vice Chairperson- The Commission shall elect a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson from among its members. The Chairperson and Vice Chairperson shall serve for the life of the Commission.

SEC. 4. DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION.

(a) In General- The Commission shall--
(1) extend the study of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, established by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act--

(A) to investigate and determine facts and circumstances surrounding the United States' relocation, internment, and deportation to Axis countries of Latin Americans of Japanese descent from December 1941 through February 1948, and the impact of those actions by the United States; and

(B) in investigating those facts and circumstances, to review directives of the United States armed forces and the Department of State requiring the relocation, detention in internment camps, and deportation to Axis countries; and
(2) recommend appropriate remedies, if any, based on preliminary findings by the original Commission and new discoveries.
(b) Report- Not later than 1 year after the date of the first meeting of the Commission pursuant to section 3(d)(1), the Commission shall submit a written report to Congress, which shall contain findings resulting from the investigation conducted under subsection (a)(1) and recommendations described in subsection (a)(2).

SEC. 5. POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.

(a) Hearings- The Commission or, at its direction, any subcommittee or member of the Commission, may, for the purpose of carrying out this Act--
(1) hold such public hearings in such cities and countries, sit and act at such times and places, take such testimony, receive such evidence, and administer such oaths as the Commission or such subcommittee or member considers advisable; and
(2) require, by subpoena or otherwise, the attendance and testimony of such witnesses and the production of such books, records, correspondence, memoranda, papers, documents, tapes, and materials as the Commission or such subcommittee or member considers advisable.

(b) Issuance and Enforcement of Subpoenas-
(1) ISSUANCE- Subpoenas issued under subsection (a) shall bear the signature of the Chairperson of the Commission and shall be served by any person or class of persons designated by the Chairperson for that purpose.
(2) ENFORCEMENT- In the case of contumacy or failure to obey a subpoena issued under subsection (a), the United States district court for the judicial district in which the subpoenaed person resides, is served, or may be found may issue an order requiring such person to appear at any designated place to testify or to produce documentary or other evidence. Any failure to obey the order of the court may be punished by the court as a contempt of that court.

(c) Witness Allowances and Fees- Section 1821 of title 28, United States Code, shall apply to witnesses requested or subpoenaed to appear at any hearing of the Commission. The per diem and mileage allowances for witnesses shall be paid from funds available to pay the expenses of the Commission.

(d) Information From Federal Agencies- The Commission may secure directly from any Federal department or agency such information as the Commission considers necessary to perform its duties. Upon request of the Chairperson of the Commission, the head of such department or agency shall furnish such information to the Commission.

(e) Postal Services- The Commission may use the United States mails in the same manner and under the same conditions as other departments and agencies of the Federal Government.

SEC. 6. PERSONNEL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.

(a) Compensation of Members- Each member of the Commission who is not an officer or employee of the Federal Government shall be compensated at a rate equal to the daily equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay prescribed for level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, United States Code, for each day (including travel time) during which such member is engaged in the performance of the duties of the Commission. All members of the Commission who are officers or employees of the United States shall serve without compensation in addition to that received for their services as officers or employees of the United States.

(b) Travel Expenses- The members of the Commission shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, at rates authorized for employees of agencies under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code, while away from their homes or regular places of business in the performance of services for the Commission.

(c) Staff-
(1) IN GENERAL- The Chairperson of the Commission may, without regard to the civil service laws and regulations, appoint and terminate the employment of such personnel as may be necessary to enable the Commission to perform its duties.
(2) COMPENSATION- The Chairperson of the Commission may fix the compensation of the personnel without regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5, United States Code, relating to classification of positions and General Schedule pay rates, except that the rate of pay for the personnel may not exceed the rate payable for level V of the Executive Schedule under section 5316 of such title.

(d) Detail of Government Employees- Any Federal Government employee may be detailed to the Commission without reimbursement, and such detail shall be without interruption or loss of civil service status or privilege.

(e) Procurement of Temporary and Intermittent Services- The Chairperson of the Commission may procure temporary and intermittent services under section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, at rates for individuals that do not exceed the daily equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay prescribed for level V of the Executive Schedule under section 5316 of such title.

(f) Other Administrative Matters- The Commission may--
(1) enter into agreements with the Administrator of General Services to procure necessary financial and administrative services;
(2) enter into contracts to procure supplies, services, and property; and
(3) enter into contracts with Federal, State, or local agencies, or private institutions or organizations, for the conduct of research or surveys, the preparation of reports, and other activities necessary to enable the Commission to perform its duties.

SEC. 7. TERMINATION.
The Commission shall terminate 90 days after the date on which the Commission submits its report to Congress under section 4(b).

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

(a) In General- There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act for fiscal year 2007.

(b) Availability- Any sums appropriated under the authorization contained in this section shall remain available, without fiscal year limitation, until expended.

Insulting the memory of FDR

Now that February 19th is rolling around, what a good time to re-read a piece from last year by Les Kinsolving.

Hope you'll also take time to reflect on the battle of Iwo Jima which began February 19, 1945 from which 6,000 United States Marines never returned.

Insulting the memory of FDR by Les Kinsolving

http://www.leskinsolving.com/

The Associated Press reporter in the House of Representatives told me, "we didn't report the passage of the Honda resolution because it was done with a voice vote, with just a handful of members on the floor."

But this resolution was introduced by Rep. Michael Honda, a Democrat of California, whose website advertises him as having "spent his early childhood with his family at Amache, Colo., concentration camp during World War II."

This is an insult to the U.S. Supreme Court's liberals such as Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black and Willaim O. Douglas, who, in the 1944 Korematsu case, ruled emphatically against the "concentration camp" libel. They also ruled constitutional the relocation of all Japanese resident aliens and Japanese-Americans from the three West Coast states and parts of Arizona.

This resolution, passed by that device of non-accountability the voice vote, also insulted the memory of our great wartime president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as Johns Hopkins University President Milton Eisenhower, director of the War Relocation Authority.

This resolution calls for a "National Day of Remembrance to increase public awareness of the events surrounding the restriction, exclusion and internment of individuals and families during World War II."

Congressman Honda claims this is a "shameful chapter in U.S. history," ordered by President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 signed on Feb. 19, 1942 – the day this Honda resolution designates as a National Day of Remembrance.

What is really shameful is the fact that most of U.S. media today refuses to report the historical fact that our U.S. intelligence code-breakers who broke the Japanese code discovered hundreds of Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans in those West Coast states who were functioning as spies for Imperial Japan.

They were watching all of our Naval shipping and had infiltrated many of our defense plants. But had they been arrested, this would have compromised and ended our breaking of that Japanese code – which later helped the United States win the decisive Battle of Midway.

The hundreds of Japanese spies on our West Coast had to be stopped without any revelation that we had broken the Japanese code.

For this reason, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 – for which the Honda resolution is now defaming him.

Dr. Roger McGrath has been professor of history at both UCLA and California State University at Northbridge. He is also a major in the U.S. Marine Corps, Reserve Intelligence. He has also been a technical adviser and participant on television's A & E, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, TNT, ABC and Disney.

He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Harpers, the Encyclopedia of the American West and the American Conservative, in which he wrote the following in the March 15th issue about Honda's resolution passed by the House:

Honda's resolution contains a series of misrepresentations that have passed for fact for so many years that they are now generally accepted without question. Moreover, the resolution posits President Jimmy Carter's Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment and its report, "Personal Justice Denied," as the final authority on the subject. After "20 days of hearings" and "over 750 witnesses," the commission concluded that E.O. 9066 was not justified by military necessity but was the result of "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership."

That conclusion, however, is contrary to the facts as revealed by MAGIC, the decryptions of coded Japanese transmissions. The commission ignored MAGIC entirely in its original report, as it did witnesses who were available to proffer information supporting Roosevelt's order. The few witnesses who attempted to testify in support of E.O. 9066 were drowned out by an unruly mob of spectators.

This commission's incredible behavior, as well as the reparations voted by Congress of $20,000 to each of 82,000 evacuees ($1.6 million) were termed "shameful" by California's U.S. Sen. S.I. Hayakawa. He also described "a wolf pack of dissident young Japanese-Americans making an unconscionable raid on the U.S. Treasury."
(The senator was, in turn, denounced by these people as "a banana: yellow on the outside, white on the inside.")

Dr. McGrath also reports:

John J. McCloy, the assistant secretary of war in 1942, who monitored the evacuation and relocation, said the proceedings were "a horrendous affront to our tradition for fair and objective hearings. ... Whenever I sought in the slightest degree to justify the action ... ordered by President Roosevelt, my testimony was met with hisses and boos such as I have never, over an experience extending back to World War I, been heretofore subjected to. Others had similar experiences ... it became clear from the outset of my testimony that the commission was not at all disposed to conduct an objective investigation."

The officer in charge of the evacuation, Karl R. Bendesten, was subjected to similar treatment and simply stopped in the middle of his testimony. "I knew it would be fruitless," said Bendesten. "Every commissioner had made up his mind before he was appointed."
One of U.S. media's most inexcusable wrongs is the widespread confusion of the words "internment" and "relocation."

There were only 17,000 Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans interned. They were quite justifiably interned, because those who were U.S.-born declared their loyalty to Emporor Hirohito. One-third of these were Japanese-Americans who renounced their American citizenship.

There was no need to relocate any Japanese aliens or Japanese-Americans from the Territory of Hawaii – because immediately after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army quite justifiably imposed martial law.

Dr. McGrath reports:
The great majority of Japanese were not interned but required only to relocate outside of the Western Defense Zone, an area that included California, the western halves of Oregon and Washington, and a small portion of Arizona. Those who were not able to move were eventually taken to relocation centers, built with the same materials and on similar patterns as Army bases.

Japanese could leave a relocation center if they could re-establish themselves outside of the Defense Zone, and some 35,000 did so. Those who relocated on their own by the end of March 1942 did not go to the centers.

Among those who relocated on their own and never went to any relocation center were the Toguris of California. They moved to Chicago and opened a food store.

Their daughter, Iva, UCLA Class of 1940, had moved to their homeland along with thousands of other U.S.-born Japanese. This daughter is still alive. She was known to many as "Tokyo Rose." She was found guilty of treason. But instead of being hanged (like the British hanged "Lord Haw Haw"), she was sent to the Women's Federal Prison in Alderson, W.Va. – from which she was released after being pardoned by President Gerald Ford on his last day in the White House.

The relocation centers to which the great majority of Japanese resident aliens or citizens were sent were relatively easy to leave if one could obtain a job anywhere outside the West Coast states. Dr. McGrath reports:

More than 4,300 Japanese left to go to college at government expense and thousands left to work on farms. Meanwhile, in the relocation centers the death rate was lower and the birth rate higher than that of the general American population. So, too, was the graduation rate from high school. At the time, the Japanese-American Citizens' League (JACL) praised the government for providing the relocation centers. Dillon Myer, the director of the War Relocation Authority, said, "Nothing was done regarding the relocation centers without the approval of the JACL."

And by contrast to the wonderfully humane treatment of those in relocation centers – who, later, received $20,000 apiece – U.S. prisoners of the Japanese, including survivors of the Bataan Death March, were paid just $1 per day for being in that Hell-On-Earth.

One of the many references which thoroughly discredit Congressman Honda's defamatory resolution is "MAGIC: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence And The Evacuation of Japanese Residents From The West Coast During World War II."

The author is the late David Lowman, former special assistant to the director, National Security Agency.

Dr. McGrath also notes that the American Japanese Claims Act of 1948 led to the provision of $35 million paid on thousands of Japanese-Americans claims for lost or damaged homes, or even crop loss, as a result of their being called away from their homes during a national emergency – just as so many millions of American men were called away from their homes to serve in our armed forces where half a million of them were killed fighting our national enemies.

McGrath concluded his article with a notation I hope the U.S. Senate will use in seeking to set aside and properly expose Congressman Honda's defamatory and history-distorting Day of Remembrance resolution:

If I were a loyal American of Japanese descent, I would not have been pleased with the evacuation order. Nor would I have been thrilled with having to uproot myself from my home on the Pacific Coast. However, as an emergency wartime sacrifice, it is hardly the greatest.
Just ask those Marines who regard February 19 as their Day of Remembrance. On that date in 1945 they stormed ashore on Iwo Jima, where more than 6,000 of them died. That's a sacrifice to remember – and honor.