“As members of the Trump administration have raised the specter of a Muslim registry and instituted an immigration ban against people from Muslim majority countries, they have cited the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II as the precedent. As the documentary And Then They Came for Us demonstrates, the registration and incarceration of Japanese Americans was one of the worst violations of constitutional rights in American history. The U.S. government lied about the threat of espionage to justify the incarceration. Not a single person was ever convicted of espionage or treason. As we commemorate the 77th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 which was signed by President Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942, the film documents through the use of photos taken by Dorothea Lange and others, the damage this order did to 120,000 people, two thirds of whom were American citizens. Featuring George Takei and many others who were incarcerated, And Then They Came for Us. “

. This event is led by APA Community Council in collaboration with APASA, Initiatives for Organizational Inclusion, Japanese American Student Association,  and efforts to push for #APAStudiesby2020.

Student Union Memorial Center is at 1303 E. University Blvd. on the UA campus.

Carolyn’s note: Panel discussion to follow, with me as a participant having been the Legislative Aide to US Senator Dan Inouye, who was instrumental in pushing through the bill that created the National Commission on Wartime Relocation & Internment of Civilians, which investigated this wrong in the 1980’s, leading to the reparation of $20,000/internee in 1988.