A Look at Asian American Studies - Emery McKee - Ryan Caragher - Emma Rohrer - Gabe Velazquez

THE SUFFERING OF SEPARATION

Japanese internment camps locked away Japanese

American citizens during WWII. They were seen as enemies

and threats to national security. Racial identity was used to

discriminate against these legal citizens and take them

from their homes. Often fathers were separated from their

families, in order to fill labor contracts or even train as

soldiers.

Today in an echo of the past, the Trump administration is housing immigrant children from the Mexican border in the exact same army camp, Fort Sill, OK, that was used to hold Japanese Americans during WWII. In this case the children of the families are detained in these facilities. Trump believes that immigrants are thieves and threats to society. U.S Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) refers to immigrants as “aliens”, directly saying we need to “remove aliens across the country”. This issue is even more cruel today, because children are isolated from any family support. People consider this racial profiling against “brown” immigrants.

https://psmag.com/ideas/the-legacy-of-japanese- internent-lives-on-in-migrant-detention