John Winter
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) condemned Wyoming State Rep. John Winter’s use of an anti-Japanese slur, calling it deeply disappointing and inappropriate during a recent committee hearing on the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. The site was one of ten camps where Japanese Americans were forcibly incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II .
Winter referred to the site as the “Jap Camp,”— “a deeply dehumanizing and discriminatory way to describe the suffering that our community endured,” JACL said in a statement.
Winter apologized the following day, and his apology was accepted by the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.
The JACL acknowledged the apology and recognized it “as an essential first step in taking accountability.”
“We trust that Representative Winter has gained a clearer understanding of why the continued use of that rhetoric is outdated, inappropriate, and unacceptable,” it said. “This incident serves as a testament to the need to continue educating the public about the power of words, the harm this slur has caused, and the wounds that it can reopen today.”