‘When racism festers’: Biden marks 80 years since US sent Japanese-Americans to WWII internment camps
- The dark episode in US history was a reminder of what happens ‘when we allow racism, fear, and xenophobia to fester’, President Joe Biden said
- He proclaimed Saturday a day of remembrance, and called on Americans to unite against systemic racism ‘to heal generational trauma in our communities’
The incarceration of Japanese-Americans – around two-thirds of whom were born in the US – was carried out through an executive order issued on February 19, 1942, by then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, under the rationale they might spy for Japan or sabotage the war effort.
“Despite never being charged with a crime, and without due process, Japanese-Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and communities and incarcerated, simply because of their heritage,” Biden said.
For years, many Japanese-Americans lived in harsh, overcrowded conditions, surrounded by barbed-wire fences and armed guards. They not only lost their homes, businesses, property and savings but also their liberty and fundamental freedoms, he said.
Despite the unjust treatment of their community and family members, many second-generation Japanese-Americans, known as nisei, volunteered or were drafted to serve in World War II not just to defeat the enemy but in hopes that a strong performance in combat might help to reduce the prejudice they faced in their own country.
The all-Japanese-American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team became known as two of the most decorated and distinguished units in US history.