The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation ("HMWF") expresses grave concern about the House Homeland Security Committee’s decision to investigate "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and the Community’s Response." We speak as a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the lessons of that mass violation of civil liberties for Americans today and in the future.

We recall with great sadness the investigation of the extent of the supposed disloyalty of Japanese Americans that the House Committee on Un-American Activities launched in 1941 under the leadership of Representative Martin Dies, Jr. That investigation turned up all sorts of purported "evidence" of danger in the Japanese American community -- all of which turned out to be false. A few months later, after Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, those who wished to force Japanese Americans from their homes and strip them of their civil rights, sending them into confinement at places like the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, were able to rely on the groundwork laid by the Dies Committee.

Congressional investigations focusing on feared, unpopular, or misundestood minority groups have played tragic rather than helpful roles in American history. They are inconsistent with our best American traditions, and they do not make America stronger or safer. We call on the House Homeland Security Committee to conduct its inquiry mindful of the mistakes of the past, including the mistreatment of Japanese Americans for which the President and Congress have apologized.