LA congressman seeks GOP action over colleague's remarks

LOS ANGELES (AP) 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.''

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)