Interior secretary's flippant remark mars hearing on funding for WWII internment camps

Rep. Coleen Hanabusa corrects Sec. of the Interior Ryan Zinke, "But, that's OK."

HAWAII'S Rep. Coleen Hanabusa's plea for funding for the WWII internment camps almost went off the rails when Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke responded in a manner that surprised everyone in the room.

Hanabusa shared the incidentl Thursday (March 15) morning in a hearing with the interior secretary, trying to persuade him to restore around $2 million in grant funds for organizations dedicated to preserving the memory of that ugly chapter in American history.

“I sit before you the granddaughter of two internees, both of my grandfathers were interned during World War II,” Hanabusa said. “It is essential that we as a nation recognize our darkest moments so that we don’t have them repeat again.”

“My grandfather was born in Hawaii and is a citizen by birth,” Hanabusa noted during the hearing. Despite being a U.S. citizen, however, he was imprisoned in an Oahu camp called Honouliuli ― though the prisoners there used a different name: “jigokudani,” or “Hell’s Valley.”

“Are you committed to continue to grant programs that are identified, I believe, as the Japanese American Confinement Sites grants program which were funded in 2017? Will we see them funded again in 2018?” Hanabusa asked.

For reasons that remain unclear, Zinke replied, “Oh, konnichiwa,” a Japanese greeting typically used in midday

After an awkward pause, Hanabusa, who is a 4th-generation American, broke the tension with a terse, “I think it’s still ‘ohayo gozaimasu’ [good morning], but that’s OK.”

The lone Asian/American in the hearing audience reacted to Sec. Ryan Zinke's remark - jaw drop

Zinke's odd remark later drew the reaction from Hawaii's Sen. Mazie Hirono. the first U.S. senator born in Japan and the first Asian/American woman elected to the chamber.“The internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans is no laughing matter, @SecretaryZinke,” tweeted the senator.

“What you thought was a clever response to @RepHanabusa was flippant & juvenile,” Hirono wrote on Twitter.

After the brief exchange at the hearing, Zinke said funding for the grants “probably got caught up” by larger 2018 budgetary items, and vowed to work with Hanabusa on the matter.

The Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, which Congress established to preserve sites where Japanese/Americans were detained during World War II, a time of rampant anti-Japanese sentiment. As the congresswoman mentioned, Trump’s 2019 budget proposal, unveiled in February, would eliminate funding for the program ― a move widely criticized by Asian/American activists.

“I will look at it and I will work with you on it because I think it is important,” Zinke told her.

“The JACS grant program is an important component of our country’s recognition of the egregious wrong that was done, and the need to remember and preserve that history so that it not be repeated,” stated the Japanese-American Citizens League in a letter.

Rep. Hanabusa's appeal and Ryan Zinke's odd response is the first 14 minutes.

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