EXTENSIONS of REMARKS June :23, 1982 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS CONGRESSIONAL TAX BREAK Salaries Has Decreased by Nearly 50 Finally, in Mid-February of 1942
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15006 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS June :23, 1982 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS CONGRESSIONAL TAX BREAK salaries has decreased by nearly 50 Finally, in mid-February of 1942. President percent. It is neither appropriate nor Franklin D. Roosevelt. under pressure from fair that the purchasing power of con the Pacific coast states. signed Executi\·e HON. MORRIS K. UDALL Order 9066. which put into motion the ma OF ARIZONA gressional salaries should fluctuate so widely over time. Nor should the set chinery that put us in concentration camps. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES In the next few weeks and months e\·ents ting of congressional salaries become Tuesday, June 22, 1982 took place in rapid succession to deprive an annual game of political hide and Japanese-Americans of social, ci\·ic. political • Mr. UDALL. Mr. Speaker, a few seek. Let us restore integrity to the and economic rights as 110.000 men. women days ago, I joined with other Members process and respect for the institution and children were displaced from their of this body in voting to instruct the by making whatever reforms are nec homes and taken to temporary assembly conferees to the bill H.R. 5922 to essary. centers and then on to the relocation cen accept an amendment repealing the Maybe if we can depoliticize some of ters inland. the congressional pay and benefits Japanese-Americans were too immature. automatic $75-a-day tax deduction al politically, to do anything to prevent their lowed Members for Washington-relat issues, we can attend more readily to evacuation and incarceration. Religious and ed living expenses and reinstating the the really critical national issues that social organizations came to their aid. but 1952 law allowing Members to deduct confront this Nation, the issues that these groups were not large or powerful. up to $3,000 for such expenses. really impact upon the jobs and in and their members· voices were drowned out Prior to that vote, I voted in favor of comes of average Americans.e by the anti-Japanese campaign. a procedural motion. It failed. Had it As Japanese-Americans had to leave their homes on extremely short notice-a matter passed, it would have put Members of AMERICAN NIGHTMARE Congress on an equal footing with of weeks-property has to be sold and dis posed of in a hurry, and crops were left un other taxpayers. It would have al harvested. Many people lost titles to their lowed Members of Congress to deduct HON. SIDNEY R. YATES OF ILLINOIS homes. Several figures have been cited as to for tax purposes only those away the approximate ecomomic losses to Japa from-home living expenses that are IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES nese-Americans. but all the figures ha\·e reasonable, necessary, and substantiat Wednesday, June 23, 1982 been underestimated. It would. indeed, be ed-the same requirements imposed on extremely difficult to place dollar figures on •Mr. YATES. Mr. Speaker, the relo the property losses sustained by Japanese all business men and women. I see no cation and internment of Japanese reason that Members should be treat Americans. Federal Reserve Bank figures es Americans by our Government during timated conservatively that the Japanese ed as a separate class, distinct from World War II stands as a dark period Americans. in 1941 dollar rates. lost about other taxpayers, on this matter. Mem in our national history. An old friend $400 million. Accumulations of a lifetime bers of this body are neither first-class from Chicago, John Yoshino, has writ were swept away by the government act. nor second-class citizens; we are ten a most thoughtful article about Lands. homes. household appliances. garden merely citizens and should be treated that tragic time for the current issue tools, furniture. automobiles and many accordingly. other items used in the domestic household of Loyola magazine. I cannot remem were sold at bargain rates. given away or. at In all matters such as these, it is im ber a more compelling presentation of portant that Members of Congress the last minute. abandoned. Because of Cali the effects of the internment action fornia's anti-alien land laws. which prohibit deal openly and fairly with the issues. on Japanese American families. The ed noncitizens from owning land. many Jap The public resents-and justifiably need for our Government to provide anese built houses on rented land. When so-backdoor attempts to adjust the redress for the wrongs done to these the e\•acuation came. the owners of the land taxation or pay of Members. And the families is made very clear and I ask in many instances sold these houses. result manner in which the Congress last De that the article be included in the ing in complete loss to the e\·acuee. cember approved the automatic tax My family operated a dry cleaning busi deduction for Members of Congress RECORD. ness in Alameda. My father started it in the was just such a backdoor approach. AMERICAN NIGHTMARE horse and buggy era; it was a small. family There was no floor discussion of the <By John Y. Yoshino> enterprise that we maintained until evacu provision in this body. Nor was there a SAN FRANc1sco. December 7. 1941-1 was ation. And it was on rental property. When listening to the radio with friends when the we left for the camp. we just closed the separate vote. Because of the backdoor news of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor was shop and. for all intents and purposes. aban means by which this measure was ap broadcast. As quickly as I could I headed for doned the business. proved, I voluntarily abided by the home-across the bay, in Alameda-to await We lived in an old, 2-story frame house on former limitation and did not take ad developments. the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Walnut vantage of the automatic $75 a day de The Japanese attack, which devastated Street. My father had purchased it in the duction in filing my 1981 tax return. Pearl Harbor in a crushing military defeat, late '30s. The house had many rooms. for There is another, related, issue that sparked fear of the Japanese military the family was large-parents and 10 chil concerns me. Congressional pay. For forces. The sense of alarm escalated. and in dren. When we left for the camp. I just the early months of 1942, as the war hyste locked the front door and left the key with years now, we have allowed the issue ria gripped the nation. Japanese-Americans the real estate owner in town. He managed of congressional pay to become a polit became the victims of hate campaigns the house for us for the duration of the war. ical football, setting off a yearly politi whipped up by the media. I have said that Japanese-Americans were cal scramble at authorization and ap Military necessity was frequently used as politically immature. They were also politi propriation time. It is time to blow the the reason behind a proposition that would cally naive. Many of us believed. until we whistle on this game. Let us set con soon take concrete form: the wholesale re got into the buses to be driven to the assem gressional salaries at appropriate moval of Japanese-Americans-citizens and bly center. that the U.S. government would levels of purchasing power and freeze aliens alike-from the west coast. Possible not, could not deprive us of our freedom and dangers of espionage and sabotage were also throw us into concentration camps. I recall them at those levels by automatic cited, although not a single instance of espi a Japanese-American woman. the head cost-of-living adjustments, the same as onage or sabotage was uncovered. <Docu nurse of a surgery ward. telling me that she we do for Federal judges or social se mentation that the Japanese-Americans had abiding faith in the United States. and curity recipients. Since March of 1969, posed no threat was presented by the FBI that all of this was some terrible mistake the purchasing power of congressional and US Naval Intelligence after the war.> that would not happen. It happened to her. e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. June 23, 1982 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 15007 to me and to thousands of other loyal Amer loneliness and, in their despair. committed with me in Topaz; my fourth brother. icans. What a shock it was and what a rude suicide. Many of the old and the infirm, Henry, had previously enlisted at the time awakening. We were betrayed by our coun unable to adjust to the harsh environment, the government drafted young men to enlist try. suffered greatly and died prematurely. and train for the army and navy. My Japanese-Americans living in the San This was also a period in the lives of camp mother was a 4-star service mother. with all Francisco Bay area were rounded up and residents when social disorganization of the four of her sons in the U.S. military. herded into temporary camps-assembly family became evident. With the govern Many years have passed since the closing centers. My family and I went to the Tan ment providing shelter, clothing, medical of the relocation centers. Thousands of the foran Assembly Center in San Bruno, a few care and food, fathers were no longer looked internees have already died. The second miles south of San Francisco. Tanforan was upon as the head of the family and children generation of Japanese-Americans who a race track, and we lived in the stables.