Rep. Doris Matsui Criticizes Park Service for Erasing Japanese Internment History

Erasing Historical Truths

• 📌 Rep. Doris Matsui criticizes the National Park Service's decision to remove references to the incarceration of Japanese Americans, calling it "deeply reckless."
• 💡 Matsui states that history is not just remembered but also teaches, and stripping away truth removes crucial warnings.

Personal Connection to Internment

• ⛓️ Matsui shares her personal experience, being born in the Poston, Arizona internment camp where her parents and grandparents were unjustly held due to Executive Order 90066.
• 🗣️ She emphasizes that the injustice began with fear, racist rhetoric, and leaders who singled out an entire community.

Parallels to Current Events

• ⚠️ Matsui draws a parallel between the historical internment and the current administration's actions, citing Fort Bliss being used as both a detention center for Japanese Americans and a current detention center for children.
• 🚫 She highlights the repetition of dehumanizing and scapegoating language at the highest levels of power, which leads to normalized fear and excused injustice.

Preserving Civil Liberties and History

• 🏛️ Matsui advocates for preserving and protecting the Japanese-American confinement sites grant program, ensuring these places are accessible and not hidden or sanitized.
• ✊ She asserts that civil liberties and democracy require active work and that history only protects us if we are willing to tell it honestly.
• 🌟 Matsui concludes by stating her commitment to confronting the past and refusing to let fear dictate the future.