Press Release

For immediate release: Contact: Stacy Kono, Nosei Network
February 17, 2003 (510) 325-8913 cellular

MEDIA ADVISORY

A Call for Wartime Parity and Justice 61st Anniversary of Japanese American Internment and E.O. 9066

WHO: Speakers will include:
· Congress Member Mike Honda (D-San Jose), who has sponsored a resolution to establish a National Day of Remembrance on February 19, 2003.
· Members of Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and the Nosei Network.
· Richard Konda, Executive Director of Asian Law Alliance
· Jimi Yamaichi, former Tule Lake detention center internee
· Kenzo Kimura, President of San Jose JACL
WHERE: Japanese American Resource Center/Museum, 535 North 5th Street, San Jose
WHEN: Tuesday, February 18, 2002, 9:30-10:30 AM
WHAT: In light of the impending war with Iraq, and post-9/11/01 attacks on civil liberties that specifically racially target Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities, the Nosei Network, Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and several other national community organizations protest Representative Howard Coble's (R-N.C.) recent statements justifying Japanese American internment.

On Tuesday, February 4, 2003, Congressman Howard Coble publicly supported Japanese American internment in a radio interview, implying that Japanese American internment was for their own "safety" and protection. Our community is outraged because his comments discredit and distort our community's history. His statements are dangerous, and taken as truth, groups of innocent people can be targeted and detained without due process for crimes they did not commit, as is the case with the current racial profiling of Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities after 9/11/01.

We call for:
(1) An immediate public apology and resignation of Representative Howard Coble as chairman of the committee on homeland security.
(2) We call on our elected officials to back the Wartime Parity & Justice Act (H.R. 779) that would (a) re-establish the Civil Liberties Education Fund to ensure the continued education and awareness of the injustice of Japanese American internment, (b) to ensure the just redress of Japanese American and Japanese Latin Americans who never received just redress.
(3) We call on Congress to support Representative Honda's bill to make February 19: Day of Remembrance Day.

We express our outrage on the day prior to the 61st Anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066, which incarcerated over 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese descent behind barbed wire and under armed guard.

The Nosei Network is comprised of communities of socially conscious, young people and adults of Japanese descent, both here in the United States and in Japan. Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) is a Japanese American community organization in San Jose and a founding member of the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations (NCRR).