Interior Secretary's response to hearing about Japanese American incarceration: "Konnichiwa"

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa was not amused.



"Konnichiwa." Wow. So you know one fucking Japanese word. Slow clap.

It's one thing -- annoying as shit -- when some fool tries to bust one of these on you in a bar or on the street. (Asian folk, raise your hand if you've been on the receiving end of an unsolicited "konnichiwa" or a "ni hao.") It's wholly inappropriate when it happens during a hearing of the United States Congress.

But that's what happened Thursday during a hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii), who is Japanese American, was pressing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about re-funding a National Park Service program that offers grants towards the preservation of incarceration sites where Japanese Americans -- including Hanabusa's grandparents -- were held during World War II.

"Are you committed to continue to grant programs that are identified, I believe, as the Japanese American Confinement Sites grants program which were funded in 2017? Will we see them funded again in 2018?" Hanabusa asked.

Zinke's response: "Oh, konnichiwa."

I have to imagine Rep. Hanabusa suppressed an eye roll with every molecule of her being.

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