The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, July 15, 1981-Page 5
'RACIAL PR EJUDICE' LED TO JAPANESE-AMERICAN PRISONS
WWII camps called an outrage
WASHINGTON (AP)-Former Supreme Court
Justice Abe Fortas testified yesterday that racial
prejudice, not national security, led to the mass in-
ternment of people of Japanese descent in World War
II. He called the episode a tragic error, an outrage,
an unconscionable and irrational deed.
"I think it is clear-perhaps it was always
clear-that the mass evacuation order was never
justified," Fortas told an official inquiry into events
that happened nearly 40 years ago.
"I CANNOT ESCAPE the conclusion that racial
prejudice was a basic ingredient," he said: "Even the
trauma of war does not excuse irrational and
needless assaults upon human beings and senseless
violations of our fundamental constitutional prin-
ciples."
Fortas, an undersecretary in the Interior Depar-
tment from 1942 to 1946 when 120,000 people of
Japanese ancestry were interned, said the camps
were humanely administered but "this fact does not
and should not absolve our nation or relieve the
national conscience." ned.
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), who lost his right The 9-member commission on Wartime Relocation
arm fighting in Italy as part of the famed, 442nd and Internment of Civilians was created by Congress
Regimental Combat Team, admonished the com- and signed into law by President Carter. It will hold
mission to: another hearing in Washington tomorrow then move
on to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, three sites
"I think it is clear-perhaps it was in Alaska, and finally to Chicago.
IT IS TO review the facts and circumstances of the
always clear-that the mass internment, which was ordered by President
evacuation order was never Franklin Roosevelt, and to determine what if any
utfe , redress is owed the people affected and their descen-
justified. "dants.
-A be Fortas, Inouye's colleague from Hawaii, Sen. Spark Mat-
Former Supreme Court Justice sunaga, called the holding of Japanese-Americans
"in what can only be described as American-style
concentration camps" one of the darkest pages in
"MAKE YOUR report one that will awaken this American history.
experience enough to haunt the conscience of this Among those supporting the internment, he said,
nation-haunt it so we will never forget that we are was the late Earl Warren, then a prosecuting attor-
capable of such an act." ney and later governor of California and Chief Justice
Hawaii's large Japanese population was not inter- of the United States.
Oral Roberts 'U'in
dispute with ABA
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Oral Roberts
University and the American Bar
Association, each claiming the U.S.
Constitution in its corner, are headed
for federal court in a fight over ac-
creditation of ORU's new law school.
The ABA contends the university -
which attracts most of its students from
the charismatic Christian constituency
of television evangelist Oral Roberts,
the school's founder - practices
religious discrimination.
ORU COUNTERS that the ABA has
no right to wield a "spiritual ther-
mometer" in judging the quality of a
law school.
The law school's! first class of 47
students is scheduled to graduate next
May. But without at least provisional
approval from the ABA, the graduates
cannot practice law in this country.
A hearing is scheduled for today in
U.S. District Court in Chicago, where
the ABA is heddquartered, on ORU's
lawsuit challenging the right of the
0
It's almost that time ...
The Staff at the
would like to wish you
a great BREAK!
ABA to withhold accreditation on
religious grounds.
AT ISSUE is the Tulsa school's "Code
of Honor." Upon admission all students
pledge, in part, "to seek the will of God
for my life and to exemplify Christlike
behavior."
The ABA's "Standard 211" prohibits
accreditation of any school that
discriminates on the basis of race,
color, religion, national origin, or sex.
The university was informed six
weeks ago, in a letter signed by ABA
legal education consultant James
White, that the Accreditation Commit-
tee had denied the school's application.
White said ORU requirements "impose
an admission qualification that is in-
tended to prevent the admission of ap-
plicants on the ground of religion."
THE ACCREDITATION Committee
met this past weekend to reconsider the
ORU application before preparing a
final recommendation to the ABA's
House of Delegates, which makes the
actual decision in August.
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