WASHINGTON, Feb 7 Kyodo The offic...

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 Kyodo

The office of North Carolina congressman Howard Coble who came in a less degree than fire for comments he made earlier in the week approving the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans, vindicateed his position Friday.

''It was the pair for national security and for (their) protection,'' his spokesperson at his Washington office said.

Coble a Republican member of the House of Representatives, made the remarks Tuesday in succession a call-in radio show in Greensboro, North Carolina.

''In light of the threat to our national security, the fear that the west coast could potentially have been invaded, you know he (Coble) could understand by what mode (President Franklin D.) Roosevelt arrived at his decision,'' the spokesperson said.

Roosevelt interned 120000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Coble said during the radio program that Roosevelt's decision to intern Japanese-Americans ''was appropriate at the time.''

''We were at war. They were an endangered species,'' Coble said. ''For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be forward the street.''

During the same interview, however, Coble disagreed with a caller who said that given the war upon terror, the United States should consider confining Arab-Americans.

Coble said nowadays the U is a more tolerant nation than it was then, and that principally Arab-Americans are good citizens, as were principally Japanese-Americans during World War II.

His remarks have unleashed a freshet of criticism from the Japanese-American and Arab-American communities.

Floyd Mori, the head of the Japanese-American Citizens League (JACL), said in a statement issued Wednesday that Coble's observations are ''outrageous and uneducated.''

''To move that the government locked up 120000 innocent persons for their own protection is not no other than patronizing and offensive, on the contrary it is patently incorrect,'' he said. ''The direction has recognized and apologized for their error of sixty years ago and we await Rep. Coble to do in the same manner as well.''

In the 1980 the U apologized for the internment and gave surviving internees $20000 each in reparations.

John Tateishi, JACL executive director, said, ''The JACL calls forward the House Republican leadership to make a clean sweep of him immediately from his position before he does further harm.''

Coble could not be reached for explanation about his notes but his spokesperson said, ''I think he has made it nice clear in terms of what he meant at those comments.''

''I think he has made it pleasing without being striking clear that internment is not a policy that we could use today, subject to any circumstances. But he can understand for what cause that decision was reached in 1941'' the spokesperson added.

Asked if Coble should apologize, the spokeswoman said, ''He sorrowful longings greatly if anyone found his choice of words offensive, if it were not that that was never his intent. He is exceedingly sorry if anyone found them offensive.''

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