ICYMI: Bennet Urges Senate to Establish WWII Japanese American Incarceration Facility Amache As Part of the National Park System

Washington, D.C. – Last week on the Senate floor, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet asked for unanimous consent (UC) to pass his Amache National Historic Site Act, which he introduced with U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) in April 2021. U.S. Representatives Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed by 416-2 in July 2021.

“If it were up to me, Madam President, every student in Colorado and throughout the American West, and for that matter, in our entire country, would come to this site and learn about the Americans of Amache,” said Bennet in his speech. “The men and women who held onto hope year after year, who supported one another, who forged a community behind the barbed wires of this site, who never gave up on the United States of America, even if it was interning them on their own soil.”

Bennet continued: “We fight for a lot of things on this floor. But there’s a bipartisan tradition going back to Teddy Roosevelt of both parties coming together to protect places that matter to our heritage as a nation. Amache matters, Madam President, to Colorado and it matters to America. This is about whether we’re going to ignore the worst parts of our history, or lift them up and give future generations the opportunity to learn from them, so that we can move this country closer to our highest ideals.”

Bennet and Hickenlooper’s bill would designate Amache –– a World War II era Japanese American incarceration facility located in Southeast Colorado –– as a National Historic Site and make it part of the National Park System. This effort would dedicate federal resources to preserve and protect the site, and ensure that America never forgets about the nearly 10,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants who were detained at Amache. Survivors of Amache sent a letter to Senate leadership urging passage of this legislation and over 65 Colorado and national organizations have expressed their support.

The full exchange is available HERE. A full transcript is available below.

SENATOR BENNET

Thank you, Madam President. 

Eighty years ago this month, President Franklin Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it led to some of the most disgraceful chapters in our nation’s history: the forced dispossession, relocation, and concentration of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War Two. Two thirds of them were citizens of this country, forced out of their homes and into internment camps by their own government. They were our neighbors and they were parents and shopkeepers and students, doctors and factory workers. They were Americans in every sense of the word. But racist fear forced them into these camps, crowded, squalored, and at war with everything we stand for as a nation. 

One of those camps was Amache in Colorado, where nearly 10,000 Japanese-Americans were detained against their will. This is a photo of that camp, Madam President. I’ll mention, just because I looked it up, I figured this might be true, because we’ve got senators from Nevada and Texas here, there were five such places in Texas as well: internment camps. But this is one that was in southeastern Colorado, and these children are among the first arrivals at Amache, and they were forced to build the camp where their own families were interned for the duration of the war. I can’t tell exactly the ages of the children in this photo, Madam President, but I would be surprised if the pages on this floor are any older than them, you know. And I’d say to the present, in front of the pages, to ask them to imagine a time when our country interned people the age of the people that are pages on the floor of the United States Senate. 

I’ve had the opportunity to visit Amache a few years ago with John Hopper, who’s a high school teacher, a principal out there near the camp, who, along with his students, created the Amache Preservation Society. There wasn’t anybody else to do it, it was just a high school teacher and his students. They recognized how much how much this site meant to Colorado, how much this site meant to the country, and acting completely on their own, they worked year after year after year to restore the site so that the next generation of Coloradans and Americans, the young people sitting on this floor today, would have the opportunity to learn about what happened. If it were up to me, Madam President, every student in Colorado and throughout the American West and for that matter, in our entire country would come to this site and learn about the Americans of Amache, the men and women who held onto hope year after year, who supported one another, who forged a community behind the barbed wires of this site, who never gave up on the United States of America, even as it was interning them on their own soil. 

And if they did go to Amache, they could learn about one of my heroes, Colorado’s former Governor Ralph Carr, who spoke out against what was happening at a time when most politicians in the West and in this country, going all the way up to our President, Franklin Roosevelt, were either not speaking out or allowing this to happen. At that time, many western governors opposed internment camps. Not just because they were unjust…I’m sorry, at that time, many western governors were comfortable locking up their fellow citizens, so long as they were locked up in someone else’s state – because there was an anti-Japanese-American prejudice in the land. And some Coloradans in nearby communities gave way to shameful fear of their fellow citizens and objected to their presence, to say the least, they objected to their presence. Speaking to an angry crowd one day on the Eastern Plains – I’d say to my colleague from Texas, this is where my colleague Senator Cory Gardner was from, his part of the state of Colorado – Governor Carr said “I am talking to all American people, whether their status be white, brown, or black, when I say that if a majority may deprive a minority of its freedom, contrary to the terms of the constitution today, then you as a minority may be subjected to the same ill-will of the majority tomorrow.” he went on “the Japanese are protected by the same constitution that protects us. An American citizen of Japanese descent has the same rights as any other citizen. If you harm them” he said “you must first harm me.” He went on to lose his next election, I think it was to the United States Senate. And I shudder to think what would have happened if people like Governor Carr hadn’t been there to stand for our highest ideals as a country. Or if survivors and their descendants, and community leaders, many of whom have close connections to Colorado to this date, who live in Colorado to this day, hadn’t worked for decades to preserve this site and the memory of what happened there. Thanks to their work, we now have the opportunity to give Amache the recognition and resources it deserves.

That’s why I introduced this bill, along with my colleague Senator Hickenlooper, to make Amache a part of the National Park System. This would ensure Amache has the legal status and funding to preserve this site and the memory of what happened there for years to come. In the House, Congressman Ken Buck and Joe Neguse introduced the bill. Not everyone here would know that, but I know Congressman Buck would know that. He and I ran against each other in 09 and 10, that was a tough tough tough election, and I barely barely won, I barely won. But I’m proud to serve with Congressman Buck in the House and Congressman Neguse in the House who have also come together, just like me and Senator Hickenlooper, to support this bill. This site is in Ken Buck’s district in Prowers County, Ken won 74% of the vote there in 2020, by the way, I think I won 33% in 2016, so Ken is outpacing me there. We don’t agree on a lot, but we agree 100% that this matters to our state and the legacy we want to pass on to the next generation. I have a list of 65 groups that support this bill: the Asian Chamber of Commerce, the Colorado Council of Churches, the Colorado Municipal League. If that weren’t enough, the bill also has the support of the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee. 

But today there’s one Senator out of ninety-nine, and it’s not the Senior Senator from Texas who’s objecting to this bill, this bill passed the House of Representatives with all but two votes, we have ninety-nine senators on one side who support this and one objecting. I have absolutely no idea why that one senator is objecting and I hope that it’s just a misunderstanding of some kind. We fight for a lot of things on this floor but there’s a bipartisan tradition going back to Teddy Roosevelt of both parties coming together to protect places that matter to our heritage as a nation. Amache matters, Madam President, to Colorado, and it matters to America. This is about whether we’re going to ignore the worst parts of our history, or lift them up and give future generations the opportunity to learn from them, so that we can move this country closer to our highest ideals. So I hope that the senator who is objecting to this, to this bipartisan bill with massive support in both the House and Senate, that’s of critical importance to the state of Colorado, that doesn’t touch and concern any other state of the union, except to the extent that people from those states of the union might someday like to come here and learn an important episode in our country’s history. I feel strongly about this in part Mr. President…Madam President, because my own mom and her family were dislocated by the same war. They were living on the other side of the world, in Poland, and the entire family was killed, except for an aunt and my grandparents and my mom and she got here when she was eleven years old, probably the same age as the young children here who were picked up from their homes all across the western United States and brought to a place that they never had known before and it seems to me the least we can do with this massive bipartisan support is to pass this bill. So:

As if in legislative session, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 255 HR.2497, further that the committee reported amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to be reconsidered be considered made and laid upon the table.

CHAIR

Is there an objection?

SENATOR CORNYN

Madam President.

CHAIR

Senator from Texas

SENATOR CORNYN

Madam President, reserving the right to object. Due to the winter storms that are shutting down airports around the country, Senator Lee, the Senator from Utah who objects to this unanimous consent request, is not here, and I had the bad luck to be here when he communicated to me his desire that I make an objection on his behalf. I would say to my friend from Colorado: I’m a noncombatant on this issue. I didn’t hold his bill but I know Senator Lee does have an amendment, I believe he wants to offer, and certainly he wants to be here to participate in the discussion and vote on the bill. So, on his behalf, I object. 

CHAIR

Objection is heard.

SENATOR BENNET

May I? Madam President?

CHAIR 

Senator from Colorado

SENATOR BENNET

I thank the Senior Senator from Texas, who is in fact a non-combatant in this effort, and I’m sorry that he’s had the misfortune of having to come out here and object. I will say, Madam President, that Colorado and Utah are right next to each other, and I face the same travel issues that the Senator from Utah faces. I guess, I hope he gets where he’s trying to go. But I stayed here this evening, not because I objected to this, but because I thought it was so incredibly important for us to get this work done. And I want the record to reflect that I actually didn’t name the senator who objected, but the Senator from Texas did. My fervent hope is that we can work this out because, really importantly, we are having the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to intern these young people, this month. And if we don’t get this back to the House of Representatives, we may miss that anniversary, and people in Colorado would miss the chance to be able to demonstrate that they’re carrying this really important legacy forward, you know. And when I think about my mom’s experience and experiences here, the country that these young men and women are growing up in, who are with us today, it just makes me think even more how important all of this is, and Madam President, I can’t think of anybody I would have rather had this discussion with than with you sitting in this chair.