Virginia mayor cites Japanese internment camps (favorably) in making case for halting Syrian refugee
Source: Washington Post
Roanoke Va Mayor David Bowers is a Democrat
Twice in one day now, politicians have evoked the powerful memory of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II to argue about whether the United States should continue plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees after the terrorist attacks in Paris.
Another politician, though, made the exact opposite argument. He said that Americans were safer then because the country locked up potential perpetrators who wish to do harm and that the United States would be safer now if it essentially does the same with the Syrians.
Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, a Democrat (and Hillary Clinton supporter), made that case in a statement Wednesday in calling for the Virginia city to suspend Syrian refugee aid until "normalcy is restored."
"I'm reminded that Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from (the Islamic State) now is just as real and serious a threat as that from our enemies then," he said.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/18/the-mayor-of-roanoke-va-cited-japanese-internment-camps-favorably-in-make-case-for-halting-syrian-refugees-really/
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Someone who is the daughter of those that were imprisoned. They were lucky in that they were able to regain their orchards after it ended. Many of their friends and family did not fare so well.
Let's call this what it is, RACISM.
So sad. And coming from a Dem. 
1) The internment (not a "sequester"
was not of Japanese "foreign nationals," but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. I was one of them, and my family and I spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It is my life’s mission to never let such a thing happen again in America.
2) There never was any proven incident of espionage or sabotage from the suspected “enemies” then, just as there has been no act of terrorism from any of the 1,854 Syrian refugees the U.S. already has accepted. We were judged based on who we looked like, and that is about as un-American as it gets.
3) If you are attempting to compare the actual threat of harm from the 120,000 of us who were interned then to the Syrian situation now, the simple answer is this: There was no threat. We loved America. We were decent, honest, hard-working folks. Tens of thousands of lives were ruined, over nothing.
Mayor Bowers, one of the reasons I am telling our story on Broadway eight times a week in Allegiance is because of people like you. 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. So Mayor Bowers, I am officially inviting you to come see our show, as my personal guest. Perhaps you, too, will come away with more compassion and understanding.
https://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei/photos/a.223098324386295.105971.205344452828349/1411997808829668/?type=3
