SAN FRANCISCO: Satsuki Ina was born behind barbed wire in a prison camp during World War II, the daughter of U.S. citizens forced from their home without due process and locked up for years following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
Roughly 120,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans were sent to desolate camps that dotted the West because the government claimed they might plot against the U.S. Thousands were elderly, disabled, children or infants too young to know the meaning of treason. Two-thirds were citizens.
And now, as survivors commemorate the 75th anniversary of the executive order that authorized their incarceration, they’re also speaking out to make sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Muslims, Latinos or other groups.
They’re alarmed by recent executive orders from President Donald Trump that limit travel and single out immigrants.
In January, Trump banned travelers from seven majority Muslim nations from entering the U.S. A federal court halted the ban. Trump said Thursday that he would issue a replacement order this week.
“We know what it sounds like. We know what the mood of the country can be. We know a president who is going to see people in a way that could victimize us,” said Ina, a 72-year-old psychotherapist who lives in Oakland, Calif.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, to protect against espionage and sabotage. Notices appeared ordering people of Japanese descent to report to civil stations for transport.
Desperate families sold off belongings for cheap and packed what they could. The luckier ones had white friends who agreed to care for houses, farms and businesses in their absence.
“Others who couldn’t pay their mortgage, couldn’t pay their bills, they lost everything. So they had to pretty much start from scratch,” said Rosalyn Tonai, 56, executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society in San Francisco.
Tonai was shocked to learn in middle school that the U.S. government had incarcerated her mother, aunts and grandparents. Her family hadn’t talked about it.
Her organization, the Japanese American Citizens League and others oppose the use of the word “internment.” They say the government used euphemisms to hide the fact that U.S. citizens were incarcerated and the Constitution violated.
“Although the threat of terrorism is real, we must learn from our history and not allow our fears to overwhelm our values,” the Japanese American Citizens League said in a statement.
Orders against Japanese-Americans were revoked after the war ended in 1945. They returned to hostility and discrimination in finding work or places to live.
A congressional commission formed in 1980 blamed the incarceration on “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.”