North Carolina Republican Congressman Howard Coble has drawn fire for suggesting that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was justified. Coble, the newly appointed chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, made the statement during a radio program in response to a caller who suggested that Arab Americans should be confined to internment camps. Coble claimed that the internment was for the safety of the detainees.

"We were at war. [Japanese-Americans] were an endangered species. For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the Street."

The remark drew immediate fire from a number of people. David Wu, the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus noted that on the upcoming 60th anniversary of President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 authorizing the round up and internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans, it is important not to re-write history. Wu noted that Japanese Americans were not rounded up into internment camps for their own protection. "Japanese American, Arab American or otherwise, there is nothing to justify interning Americans because of their ancestry,” said Wu in a publicly released statement. Wu, along with fellow Congressmen Mike Honda and Robert Mitsui are demanding a meeting with Coble.