Statement from Tsuru for Solidarit, a volunteer-run nonviolent direct action group of Japanese Americans dedicated to closing the camps.
Never Again Is Now! Donald Trump recently proposed a new immigration agenda, if elected, called “Operation Aurora” which is modeled after the Japanese American mass incarceration and would use federal forces to round up immigrants and put them in concentration camps. It is representative of a deeper white nationalist agenda to manipulate the American public with fear and hatred to turn us against one another.
Trump’s own track record includes openly campaigning in 2016 to create a Muslim registry, similar to those used for JA’s in 1942, and saying that he might have made the same decision as Roosevelt to incarcerate Japanese Americans. In 2018, he separated thousands of immigrant children from their families, placed them in detention prisons and deported their parents. He is now a mouthpiece for the white supremacist agenda, using racist and nativist rhetoric that lays the groundwork to strip people of their human rights.
As Japanese Americans, we remember all too well the violence that comes from stirring people into racial hysteria. We and our families were rounded up from their homes and torn from our communities only 82 years ago. We know that hateful, racist language from the bully pulpit puts immigrants and people of color in danger. We should all be alarmed by racialized scapegoating that the Trump campaign is pushing. It threatens the very fabric of our country, and it’s something we can’t afford to ignore. This is the work TFS has been engaging in since we came into existence in 2019 to stop detention of children. We must act now to stop this violent repetition of our history. Join us in our anti-detention campaigns!
Tsuru for Solidarity is a nonviolent, direct action project of Japanese American social justice advocates working to end detention sites and support front-line immigrant and refugee communities that are being targeted by racist, inhumane immigration policies. Standing on the moral authority of Japanese Americans who suffered the atrocities and legacy of U.S. concentration camps during WWII and we say, “Stop Repeating History!”