Over the past few days, politicians and American citizens have criticized the Trump administration’s family separation policy calling it unethical and cruel. Some critics have even compared the policy to Japanese American incarceration camps.
Former First Lady Laura Bush compared the policy to Japanese Internment in a Washington Post op-ed. In her piece, Bush wrote that the images of children being separated from the border were “eerily reminiscent of the internment camps for U.S. citizens and non citizens of Japanese descent.”
Bush’s comments gained support from politicians on both sides of the aisle as well as from Asian American activists like George Takei. Takei tweeted a photo of Bush’s comments with the caption “Indeed.”
Indeed. pic.twitter.com/5EgsXUxW5i
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 19, 2018
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Mae Ngai, professor of History and professor of Asian American Studies at Columbia University, told TIME that, while she thought the comparison between family separation and Japanese Internment wasn’t an “exact analogy,” she applauded Bush for “pointing to a racially motivated attack on people’s human rights.”
The former first lady hasn’t been the only person to see parallels between family separation and Japanese internment. Satsuki Ina, a psychotherapist who has visited family detention centers in Texas, told Splinter News that the stories behind family separation were “so resonant” of what her family and her community experienced. Ina herself was born in the Japanese incarceration camp Tule Lake.
Those who have drawn comparisons between family separation and Japanese incarceration also note that there is and was public support for both policies during the time they were implemented. In her interview with TIME, Ngai noted that there was “widespread support” for Japanese incarceration and that it took decades for apologies and reparations to be granted. When asked by Splinter News if Americans were being complacent on the issue of family separation, Ina also noted that there was no outcry
Ina told Splinter News that she hopes that “people will know how important it is to stand up for the injustice that is happening now.”
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