DENNIS A. CARDOZA: “I rise today on this momentous occasion of honoring a great man, John Dingell. And as we do so, I remember another…”

“I rise today on this momentous occasion of honoring a great man, John Dingell. And as we do so, I remember another colleague who is no longer with us, Bob Matsui from California, whose wife, Doris Matsui, so ably serves with us today in remembering the work he did on the bill to establish reparations and to make sure that we never forget what happened in the past. President Roosevelt was a great President. He led us through a great war. But he did not do so without making some errors. Mr. Speaker, as it has been said, February 19, 1942, on that day, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 setting in motion the forced relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans. As a result, on May 7, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry were ordered to leave their homes and property, their farms, and take with them only what they could carry and report to a designated assembly center before 12 o'clock noon on Wednesday, May 13. This order was issued by the U.S. War Department and posted to telephone poles, store windows, placed across lawns of Japanese American's homes in Merced County, in my home city and throughout the West Coast. Nearly 4,700 Japanese Americans from over seven counties reported to a structure that had been built in just 11 days at the Merced County fairgrounds in my district. They entered the assembly center not as Japanese Americans but as prisoners. Families were searched for weapons and surrounded by barbed wire.”