Trump Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke to Rep. When Asked About Japanese Internment: ‘Konnichiwa’

The internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans is no laughing matter, @SecretaryZinke. What you thought was a clever response to @RepHanabusa was flippant & juvenile. pic.twitter.com/8pTkmqBeQb

— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) March 15, 2018

During a House budget hearing on Thursday, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa asked Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about continuing to restore grants to preserve the history of Japanese internment in the United States during World War II.

“Konnichiwa,” Zinke replied, which is “good afternoon” in Japanese.

“I think it’s ‘Ohayo gozaimasu’ [“good morning”] but that’s okay,” Hanabusa said after an awkward pause.

The interior secretary then said he would look into the grants.

The awkward exchange came after Hanabusa, a Hawaii democrat, explained that her grandfathers were imprisoned by the U.S. government during World War II.

“I did not find out about the fact that my grandfather was interned on Oahu for a lot of the wartime until he was eighty-something years old because they didn’t speak about it,” she said in the hearing, according to Buzzfeed News.

Sen. Mazie Hirono called out Zinke on Twitter for the remark, writing, “The internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans is no laughing matter, @SecretaryZinke. What you thought was a clever response to @RepHanabusa was flippant & juvenile.”

Watch above.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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