September 29, 1989

              S 12220
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE
September 29; 1989
modestly with the allocation of funds
along this particular line.
Mr. President I consider it a privilege to serve in this body with Senator
Inouye whose heroism in World War
H is legendary, and really whose heroism in this Congress is also legendary.
I noted in USA Today a few months
ago that Senator Inouye had served 30
years in the Congress, was the first
Member of the House of Representatives from Hawaii when Hawaii received statehood was admitted to the
union, and sent its first Representatives to Washington, DC.
His activities are characteristic of
the contribution of his people. A great
injustice was done in World War H. It
is my hope that we will not be forced
to a vote on this issue. The Appropriations Committee has acted properly in
presenting the matter to the floor
today for the kinds of payments which
are required. I thank the Chair and I
yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who
wishes to be recognized? The Senator
from Hawaii,
MrJHQUY^ Mr. President, I thank
my.dear colleagues from New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. I have been
advised the Senator from New Mexico
wishes to be heard. He is not here.
May I suggest the absence of a
quorum?
Mr. BUMPERS. Will the Senator
withhold?   -
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
Senator from Arkansas.
Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I will
be yery brief. And when the Senator
from New Mexico arrives, I will yield
the floor.
We all know the eloquence of our
distinguished colleague from Hawaii
[Mr. Inouye] who surprisingly said
this is the first time he had spoken
publicly on the issue.
When I make speeches in my home
State, people often ask me who are the
best-liked Senators. That is easy. The
Senators from Hawaii, are easily two
of the most revered Senators in the
U.S. Senate, and both are decorated
many times for valor in World War H.
I rise to put a slightly different slant
on this because my State was the location of two Japanese internment
camps. I have heard from people who
lived in the area—the camps are not
there anymore—since I have been in
the Senate. We built a monument in
memory of those who died in those
camps, and there were many who did.
Many died because of the unspeakable
conditions under which they lived;
families, husbands, wives and children,
many families in one barracks with
scarcely a sheet hanging between
them. No privacy. Unbelievable indignities suffered. And who were they?
American citizens, not even aliens,
picked up because they were easily de-
fineable due to their physical characteristics.
There may have been people who
were even sympathetic to the Japa
nese, but as long as they were not Oriental nobody bothered them.
It sort of reminds me of when Hitler
sent word to Mussolini that he wanted
Mussolini to start discriminating
against Jews. This was very difficult
So they started trying to pick Jews out
in Italy based on physical characteristics. They wound up jailing a lot of
Italians. So they had to discontinue to
some extent the programs against the
Jews in Italy because they became
confused. But here it was fairly easy
to pick out people of Japanese descent
in this country.
So there they were, American citizens. And many of the people in Senator Inouye's unit suffered the highest
number of casualties of any unit, I believe, in the European Theater. There
they were dying, losing arms, and
limbs and their families were interned
in these unspeakable conditions all
over the country—in California and in
Arkansas.
Do you know my children know
nothing about this? I am old enough
to know it, but I did not know it at the
time. It is one of the most shameful
episodes in the history of our country.
My mail, unhappily, after the last
vote on this, asked: "How can you vote
for something for the people who
bombed Pearl 'Harbor or killed my
son?"
I write back and I say I am not
voting tor those people, but I am
voting for redress in a very small way,
for American citizens. Nobody here
would even suggest that a small pecuniary payment to these people could
ever come close to redressing the indignities which I have just described,
to say nothing of the humiliation of
being an. American citizen and being
interned.
So as the Senator from New Hampshire has correctly said, it is an issue
widely misunderstood even by people
who remember it. But it is a shame
that I will be happy to do my very best
to redress. And in the future when I
get mail from my constituents on this
issue, I intend to have copies of Senator Inouye's speech printed, and say,
"Enclosed is the reason I voted as I
did."
Mr. President I yield the floor.
Mr. BIDEN addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
Senator from Delaware [Mr. Biden] is
recognized.
Mr. BIDEN, Mr. President, I did not
intend to speak on this issue but I feel
I should say just a few things.
Mr. President the road of history of
most nations is paved with sometimes
incredible, startling, and unbelievable
paving stones. In this case we are
coming to an end of a road I hope, a
road that went from fear to justice
today.
Today, justice; at the outset, fear. Irrational fear, explicable, but irrational
fear on the part of a nation under
siege, which it is explainable how this
irrational fear could have erupted.
I was not born until November 1942.
I know nothing of this, other than
from an historical perspective. But
that road from fear and prejudice to
justice is a road that we heard this
morning, and it has been paved with
the bodies of American citizens, American citizens who had to prove not
only their loyalty by demonstrating a
commitment and a bravery beyond
what was expected of other Americans, but to do it at a time when there
must have been a feeling of a seething
anger and frustration, and I am embarrassed to say, if it were me, probably a little bit of hate, while all that
was being asked of every American
was being asked of them and then a
lot more.
Every once in a while when serving
in this body, one likes to think that we
will be able to be rational and just,
that we will be able to put aside, at
least on occasion, our petty—sometimes not so pretty—prejudices; that
we will be able to lay aside the hate
that exists in some quarters in this
country, just long enough to see the
facts, as they say in the law, "and do
justice."
Those of us who know Senator
Inouye and Senator Matsunaga, know
that they, unlike many of us that are
in the same circumstances, grew from,
this ordeaL
I believe one of the reasons why Dan
Inouye is the man that he is today in
the Senate is not merely because he
saw death; he came within a whisker's
hair of it himself. He obviously suffered greatly physically, as a consequence of his efforts. Not only because
of that, but because he was, asked or
felt he was obliged to do something at
a time and for a reason—I guess to be
more precise, for a reason no one
should have been asked,, and the
reason being, having to demonstrate
something that was put in question
that never should have been, put to
question. >.-r>   ,
I suspect that the reason why he is
held in such high regard, the reason
why he is able to act with such equanimity around this place in cases that
few of us can, is that what he undergoes here, as we all do, is not anything
compared to what he was weaned on
as a young man in World War II.
So I just hope, before change, we
can serve one of the purposes for
which this body exists, and that is to
educate our constiuency, as well as re-:
spond to them, to the fact that it is
time that we do justice, even if there
were only one Japanese American
alive, even if there were only one Japanese American alive who went
through the ordeal of what we have
heard others speak on, we, in my view,
would be obliged to summon the majesty of this government to speak to
the injustice that was done and demonstrate to that one person that we
understood and understand now what
we had done; and most important, it
seems to me, that in the future we will
I