Clinton supporter invoked internment when opposing Syrian refugees

The Roanoke Mayor agreed with Roosevelt’s decision to quarantine over 100,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans living in the United States to internment camps for over three years as a measure of defense.

Perhaps the mayor forgot that it was not just Japanese foreign nationals who were put in camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor – Japanese-American citizens bore the brunt of the war as well.

The letter was the subject on sharp criticism on social media, and Virginia Republicans sought to distance themselves from Mr Bowers’ remarks.

Bowers issued a written statement Wednesday in which he cited the recent attacks in Paris and other terrorist threats.

Bowers rejected the idea of Syrian refugees coming to the United States and he referenced an event very close to Takei’s heart. Mayor Bowers should reflect on dark moments like these in our history when the dual crises of war overseas and the perceived threat of terror at home have emboldened unsafe xenophobia in America.

The internment (not a “sequester”) was not of Japanese “foreign nationals”, but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were US citizens. However, not everyone is a fan, and at least 31 governors have spoken out against resettling Syrian refugees in their states.

In a memorandum to the US secretary of Defense, Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, commanding general of the Western Defense Command, laid out in stark racial terms why Japanese Americans should be evacuated off the Pacific Coast. He concludes: “In this regard, at least for awhile into the future, it seems to me to be better safe than sorry”.

“You who hold a position of authority and power, but you demonstrably have failed to learn the most basic of American civics or history lessons”, Takei wrote.

A Clinton campaign spokesman slammed Bowers’ comments in a statement. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan formally apologized for the policy and more than $1 billion in reparations have been paid to former internees. “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past, but we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during WW II”.

An anti-refugee statement made by the mayor of Roanoke in Virginia is sparking outraged among the Japanese American community here in the Bay Area and across the country.