Aloha - I would like to thank Librarian of Congress James Billington and the staff of the Library of Congress for providing me with this opportunity to participate in your 2005 Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month observance. I am honored to share with you my thoughts as we commemorate APA Heritage Month and recognize the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. As a member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the only Chinese American in the U.S. Senate, and sole Native Hawaiian in the U.S. Congress, I am proud to stand here to honor the accomplishments and diversity of the AAPI community.
As many of you know, in 1978, my friends and dear colleagues Representatives Frank Horton and Norman Mineta, joined by Hawaii's Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, introduced the first resolutions establishing Asian Pacific American Heritage Week to recognize the ongoing contributions to our nation of the AAPI population. Representatives Horton and Mineta worked with their colleagues in the 102nd Congress to make the week into a month-long celebration, and succeeded in doing so with enactment of Public Law 102-450 in 1992. I look back with pride over the past 27 years since our great nation first observed Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.
This year's theme for APA Heritage month is "Liberty and Freedom for All." I would like to take the time this morning to recognize the ways in which the AAPI community has contributed to the preservation of liberty and freedom within the United States. First, I would like to remember the bravery of soldiers of AAPI descent who have served in our military. I extend my gratitude to these patriotic men and women, including over 60,000 serving in active duty, as well as 28,000 in the Reserves and National Guard. I also commend the 351,000 AAPI veterans, 57,000 of whom are of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander heritage, for their excellence in defending our nation.
Our celebration of AAPI history includes remembrances of the challenges and hardships that have been overcome. For example, we will never forget the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It would be remiss to mention this sad era in our country's history, without discussing the passing of two beloved members of our community who were affected by it: U.S. Representative Robert T. Matsui and Mr. Fred Korematsu. Both serve as examples of the triumph of liberty and freedom against adversity.
After his childhood internment, Bob Matsui could have chosen to dwell on the discrimination and challenges he faced in his younger years. Instead, he chose to give his life to public service, working to improve the lives of those in his congressional district and all Americans. He did not lose faith in the U.S. government, but rather, he indulged the promise of opportunity that came with being a U.S. citizen.
He was first elected to Congress in 1978, and spent the past 26 years representing the citizens of Sacramento, California, with distinction and pride. He served as a senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means, and took a particular interest in complex public policy issues including tax, international trade, Social Security, healthcare, and welfare reform.
Congressman Matsui's dedication to the well-being of America's children earned him the Congressional Advocate of the Year award from The Child Welfare League of America in 1992 and 1994. The Congressman was also honored with the Anti Defamation League's Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to human rights. We all miss Bob dearly, but we know that his loving wife, and my friend, Doris, has taken up the banner and is ably serving a constituency she knows very well.
Mr. Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland, California, on January 30, 1919, and was the third of four sons of Japanese immigrants. An American citizen by birth, Mr. Korematsu was nonetheless among the Americans of Japanese heritage ordered to report to World War II internment camps in 1942. He defied the order, because he believed that his Constitutional rights had been violated by the forced internment order, given without evidence, specific charges, or a trial.
Mr. Korematsu sued the U.S. government and appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although he lost the landmark 1944 Korematsu v. the United States decision by a vote of 6 to 3, in the early 1980s, Peter Irons, a professor of Political Science at University of California, San Diego, discovered documents and reports describing government claims of Japanese American spying as "intentional falsehoods."
On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the San Francisco Federal District Court overturned Mr. Korematsu's conviction and held that the orders maintained were tainted by racism and that the U.S. Government had illegally suppressed, altered and destroyed evidence critical to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision. In 1998, President Bill Clinton acknowledged Mr. Korematsu's role by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian award. Both Congressman Matsui and Mr. Korematsu are exemplars of the perseverance and dedication required to secure our liberty and freedom as U.S. citizens.
Throughout this month, federal agencies and AAPI and other organizations will hold events in celebration of the diversity of the AAPI population that range from cultural dances to samplings of Asian cuisine, and policy lectures by distinguished speakers. Each event will work to commemorate the contributions that AAPI individuals have made to our country. I commend agencies and organizations for sponsoring such events to increase public awareness of such contributions.
This month also affords us time to reflect on the various social needs that exist in the AAPI community. Its population enriches our culture linguistically through a range of languages, such as Chinese, Hawaiian, Korean, Japanese, Malay, Samoan, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese, and various Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian languages. Our nation benefits from this linguistic diversity in our ability to compete in the global economy, and U.S. national security is strengthened by increasing the pool of individuals fluent in critical languages. Fluency in foreign languages is one of the vital skills necessary for the United States to exercise international leadership economically and politically. However, according to the Census Bureau, slightly less than half of the 7 million AAPI who speak a language other than English at home report that they speak English "very well." We need to better address the educational needs of all limited English proficiency students, children, and adults.
AAPI cultural and linguistic diversity, entrepreneurship, public service, and scientific endeavors illustrate a number of the ways that our nation excels. The United States is the most energetic and innovative country because of the combination of these AAPI strengths with the diverse abilities and skills of our nation's other ethnic and racial groups. The U.S. is also a leader in the world because of our ability to acknowledge, celebrate, and utilize the potency of our combined, diverse citizenry, including the contributions from every member of our AAPI community. In the world that is all too frequently wracked by ethnic and religious conflicts, we can demonstrate to others how racial and ethnic harmony in the U.S. provides a balance that encourages a stable democracy, provides for well-functioning societies, and sustains the most powerful economy in the world.
In closing, I extend my deepest aloha to all in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and I urge the staff of the Library of Congress to participate in commemorations of this month at their work place and their home communities. Mahalo nui loa.
