In his Op-Ed in Time, What My Time in a Japanese Internment Camp Taught Me About Hate, Congressman Mike Honda responds to the hatred spewed in the Republican Debate earlier this week and urges Americans not to give in to the ignorance and fear mongering of Donald Trump and Ben Carson. He begins by praising President Ronald Reagan, the president whom Trump and other Republicans invoke and admire the most, because he went against the majority of Republicans in Congress to sign the Civil Liberties Act in 1987. The law stated that the internment of Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor was “without adequate security reasons… motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”
He recounts his story of forced imprisonment at the Amache internment camp in Colorado where he spent three years of his life for the crime of being of Japanese ancestry. Following his release, he and other Japanese Americans faced anti-Japanese slurs and insults in a post WWII America. He states, “We developed a sense that somehow we had done something wrong.” But, they were merely “guilty solely by association.”
He goes on to recognize that by signing the Civil Liberties Act, President Reagan looked beyond partisan politics to hold our country accountable “to its moral standards and acknowledge the internment of innocent Americans as a dark chapter in the American story.”
In contrast, Donald Trump and the other Republican presidential candidates fall short in measuring up to the example set by their guru. Instead, Trump is calling for the same guilt by association and collective punishment of Japanese Americans.
Trump’s ignorant and inflammatory proclamations—the banning of all Muslims, including Muslim Americans, from entering the United States; the creation of a Muslim database; having law enforcement monitor all mosques; and that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was acceptable—highlight just how dangerous and un-American a path he suggests. Trump’s dangerous rhetoric seeks to score cheap political points by preying upon the same climate of fear, hate and distrust that seized us after the Pearl Harbor attacks. And just today, another presidential candidate, Ben Carson, is calling for a McCarthy-like inquisition, accusing a Muslim-American organization of being directly involved in terrorist activity. Such slanderous and unfounded comments only fuel suspicions against an already scapegoated community.
Trump and others have successfully garnered attention with their provocative rhetoric, but that rhetoric has real consequences. Every day, there are threats to mosques and Muslim students, leaders and community members; in the last week alone, Muslim Americans were victim to at least 19 hate crimes. Political leaders and people who hold significant influence over the American people must take responsibility for their words. The price for TV ratings and cheap political points is forcing the more than 2 million Muslim Americans to live in fear of their own government and fellow Americans.
Rep Honda calls out Trump for his inciting rhetoric and does so with the eloquence we have come to expect from him. He contrasts the values our country is based on, “We are a nation that strives to foster openness, tolerance and equality — notions that are seemingly lost on political leaders that seek to make Muslims second-class citizens,” with the tag line Trump is now known for...” Trump’s misguided plans are a far cry from making America great again; rather, Trump’s ideology would soon make America hate again.“
He concludes that we as a country must come together with compassion and openness having learned from our history of divisiveness and unjustness towards Japanese Americans.
Let us not give into hate and ignorance. Let us be the country of compassion and openness. We are a multiethnic, multireligious, multicultural nation. Our diversity is what gives us strength, and our respect for the Constitution, rule of law and American ideals is what unites us. The divisive hate mongering espoused by Trump and others moves America backwards and surrenders our future to the mistakes of the past. There are many challenges facing our country today, and we need to stand together to overcome these challenges as Americans.
In his email message to constituents this morning, he writes, “It’s been said the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. I’ve seen that happen. Silence takes hold and we lose sight of our values.”
Sign his petition to tell Donald Trump, and the Republican Party, that we won’t stay silent in the face of their bigotry and divisive rhetoric.