Japanese Americans See Parallels Between New Immigration Policies And WWII Incarceration

Japanese Americans March Thumbnail
Katherine Nagasawa / WBEZ
Japanese Americans March Thumbnail
Katherine Nagasawa / WBEZ

Japanese Americans See Parallels Between New Immigration Policies And WWII Incarceration

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From the ban on immigrants from majority Muslim countries to the separation and detention of families at the southern border, President Trump’s immigration policies have been hotly debated. Many have compared the current migrant detention centers and family separation to the U.S. government’s incarceration of about 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

Last Saturday, Chicago Japanese Americans marched in the Families Belong Together rally to protest migrant family separation and detention. 

“We want to project our story from our lens and tell people what the true lessons of incarceration for Japanese Americans were,” said Ryan Yokota of the Japanese American Service Committee, a nonprofit that leads programming around Japanese American history and culture. “We’re hoping to be part of a resurgence of Japanese American and Asian American voices around these issues.”

Watch the video story below:

Katherine Nagasawa is the multimedia producer for Curious City. You can contact her at knagasawa@wbez.org.