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House committee approves funding restoration of WWII Camps
Associated Press
Wed, May. 18, 2005

WASHINGTON - The House Resources Committee on Wednesday approved spending $38 million to restore and preserve internment camps used to hold Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The legislation by Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, was approved on a voice vote and now goes to the full House. It faces opposition from the Bush administration, which objects to the expenditures because the National Park Service faces a tight budget and maintenance backlogs at parks.

Thomas' bill would authorize spending for the 10 internment camps that were established throughout the country, including two in California, Tule Lake and Manzanar. The money could also go for other sites where people were assembled.

The internment happened after President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 authorizing removal of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans and others of Japanese ancestry, including many living in California, to "assembly centers" and then to the camps.

The camps were closed in 1945 and 1946, and President Ronald Reagan and Congress formally apologized in 1988 for the treatment of the people held there.

"The clock is ticking," Thomas said in a statement. "As we move further in time from the period in which over 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forced from their homes to internment camps, we are increasingly losing not only the infrastructure of the camps, but more importantly, those people who were detained."

Thomas' support for the measure stems in part from a longtime friendship with former Democratic state legislator Fred Mori, past president of the Japanese American Citizens League based in San Francisco.

Comment: Coming at this particular time, as America descends ever further into a totalitarian regime, this report is more than a little unsettling in its symbolism.
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