Historians track dark history of American internment camps

World Today

Soon after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order to forcibly intern Japanese-Americans. In 2016, an American politician has hinted it might be necessary to do something similar to Syrian refugees.
CCTV America’s May Lee reports.

Nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated in camps during World War II for up to four years. More than 60 percent of the internees were U.S. citizens and half were children.

And now there’s a growing fear that history could repeat itself given the increased hostile rhetoric here in the U.S. against Muslims.

Late last year, the Mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, David Bowers cited Japanese internment to make the case against Syrian refugees. Bowers later apologized for his statement, but activists remain critical of his statement.

In 1988, the U.S. government official apologized for Japanese internment and paid $20-thousand in reparations to each survivor.