Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
“I'm reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then,” Mayor David A. Bowers, a Democrat, said in the statement.
“I can't believe that I'm having to point this out, but most people today would say the internment of Japanese Americans was a mistake and it's not a model on which to base policy today,” said Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside), whose parents and grandparents were interned during World War II. “What did occur in the wake of Pearl Harbor was an irrational response to wartime hysteria, and I would say that the way that the local discourse is going on right now is we're allowing the word, the notion of Syrian refugees, to be conflated with terrorism,” Takano said.
Rep. Judy Chu (D- Monterey Park) similarly condemned the mayor's remarks.
“The fact that not one single case of espionage by a Japanese American was proven underscores how wrong Mayor Bowers is to positively cite this policy,” Chu said in a statement. “Instead of keeping us safe, Japanese internment compromised our principles and demonized an entire population of Americans. It is outrageous to let the same kind of xenophobia influence our policy today. If we do, we will only regret it again.”
“The fact is that 120,000 people of Japanese descent — men, women and children — were incarcerated,” said Greg Kimura, president and chief executive of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles “There were racist immigration laws at the time, so Japanese citizens could not become naturalized citizens. Only their children born here could.”
President Ford rescinded the order in 1976, and in 1988 President Reagan signed legislation that apologized and paid reparations for the U.S. government's decision to apprehend and place Japanese Americans in camps.
President George H.W. Bush wrote to surviving families: “A monetary sum and words alone cannot restore lost years or erase painful memories; neither can they fully convey our nation's resolve to rectify injustice and to uphold the rights of individuals. 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 World War II.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nn-virginia-mayor-refugees-20151118-story.html