Powerful PSA on internment asks: Is History Repeating Itself?

Executive produced by Katy Perry. Yes, that Katy Perry.



Amidst xenophobic rhetoric and disconcerting discussions of a Muslim registry, it's not hard to draw parallels between modern day Islamophobia and the fears that led to the incarceration of innocent Japanese Americans during World War II. This PSA, directed by Aya Tanimura and Tim Nackashi, and executive produced by Katy Perry(!), makes the case that registries are the first steps to history repeating itself.

This two and half minute clip features a brief interview with Haru Kuromiya, an 89-year-old American woman of Japanese heritage who grew up in Riverside, California. She recalls how her family was put on a registry and eventually taken off to an internment camp, where they were incarcerated for four years.

Then Haru stops talking and does something unexpected...

Feature film imagines the internment of Muslim Americans

What if America interned Muslim and Arab Americans like they did to Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor?



What if what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II happened again today to Muslim and Arab Americans? The feature film Executive Order 13800, written and directed by Mustafa Zeno, imagines such a scenario under President Donald Trump. It's happened before. Amidst the current political climate and actual discussion of a so-called Muslim "registry," it's looking more and more like it could happen again.

Executive Order 13800 is a drama following a Muslim American family after the U.S. experiences a 9/11-type terrorist attack. Following this national tragedy, President Trump issues Executive Order 13800, requiring all Muslim Americans to pack up their things and report to government site. Over the course of two weeks, the family's world turns upside down as they lose their civil rights and face an uncertain future.

The film is currently raising production funds through Indiegogo.

900+ Asian American Studies Scholars Issue Collective Statement Decrying Trump’s Proposed Muslim Registry

By Jenn Fang. Cross-Posted from Reappropriate



Over 900 Asian American Studies scholars from across the United States issued a joint statement today decrying President-Elect Donald Trump’s proposal to create a national registry of Muslims and Muslim Americans.

Trump has repeatedly said that as president he would institute aggressive measures to limit immigration of Muslims into the country and to place Muslims currently within the United States’ borders under close scrutiny. He has promised to halt the entry of Syrian refugees and to also ban immigration from a number of countries -- including Pakistan and the Philippines -- with large Muslim populations. He is quoted as suggesting the creation of a national database of Muslim and Muslim Americans -- a proposal that is likely unconstitutional -- and he staffed his White House transition team with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the architect of the highly controversial NSEERS registry system which was used to monitor the movement of Muslim immigrants under George W. Bush and the first half of the Obama administration.

Earlier this month, Trump surrogate Carl Higbie went on Fox News to defend Trump’s alarming proposals to register Muslims and Muslims Americans. In an appearance on The Kelly File, Higbie suggested that Trump’s proposal for a national Muslim registry has legal precedent: Japanese American incarceration during World War II (for a note on language, see JACL’s Power of Words handbook).

It should come as no surprise that Asian American Studies scholars have something to say about that dubious line of reasoning.

Because History Is In Danger of Repeating Itself

"Is it starting to sink in?"



There are clear, frightening parallels between the contemporary scapegoating of Muslims in America and the persecution of Japanese Americans during World War II. This is how it begins. Anyone who can't recognize this is either willfully ignorant or simply does not care. Bobby Hundreds sees the parallels.

Bobby Hundreds, aka Bobby Kim, founder of the apparel company The Hundreds created this limited edition shirt design earlier this year for "What A Time To Be Alive," an social issues-oriented group show at Slow Culture. With fresh talk of a Muslim registry and the "precedent" of Japanese American internment, Bobby recently re-shared the shirt via Instagram and asked, "Is it starting to sink in?"

Trump supporter cites Japanese American internment as "precedent" for Muslim registry

Sorry, but we're not falling for that shit again.



Well, that didn't take long. A week into this shit and we're already talking about internment camps. On Wednesday, a Trump surrogate made the case for creating a federal registry for immigrants from Muslim countries, citing the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II as "precedent."

Japanese American internment is 'precedent' for national Muslim registry, prominent Trump backer says

How the hell did we get here? Carl Higbie, a spokesman for a major pro-Trump super PAC, appeared on Megyn Kelly's Fox News show to argue that a national database of Muslim immigrants would be legal and necessary, reminding everybody that the United States did it before with the Japanese during World War II.

He neglects to mention that it's considered one of the shittiest, darkest moments of trampling civil liberties in our nation's history. "Come on," Kelly prods back. "You're not suggesting that we go back to the days of internment camps? That's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl."

Higbie insists that he's not proposing that at all. "I'm just saying there is precedent for it."