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Japanese New Yorkers hold remembrance for anniversary of World War II internment decision
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Feb 18, 2023
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Justin Sullivan
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Feb 18, 2023
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Ahead of the 81st anniversary, New Yorkers on Saturday observed a day of remembrance for the thousands of Japanese Americans who were forcibly incarcerated during World War II.
At a virtual event, local activists highlighted parallels between the “surveillance, mass incarceration and deportation” of Japanese Americans during the war and the treatment of migrants arriving in the U.S., thousands of whom have arrived in New York City.
“The threats to national security that were used to target our communities have been replaced by ‘securing the southern border’ and a so-called emergency response to a surge of migrants,” said Becca Asaki, an activist with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. “In both instances, these policies are driven by racist agendas and rhetoric.”
More than 40,000 migrants from Central and South America have arrived in the city since the spring, with thousands bused to progressive northern cities by Republican-led border states with hardline immigration policies, according to City Hall.
The comparison comes on the eve of the anniversary of the executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1942 authorizing the forced removal of anyone deemed a “threat to national security” to internment camps spread across the country.
New Yorkers of Japanese descent shared photos and stories of loved ones imprisoned at sites like Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming and Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona.
Longtime Manhattan activist, Suki Terada Ports, recalled growing up in Morningside Heights, where her Japanese-born mother was under house arrest by the FBI during the war.
“I always thought she was calling our father, but it was the FBI she was calling to say she wanted to leave the house,” Ports said.
Ports was born in Harlem in 1934 at the only city hospital that would allow Japanese women to give birth, all delivered by the same doctor. She’s lived within the same six blocks of Morningside Heights since.
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Bahar Ostadan
Bahar Ostadan covers the NYPD and public safety. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or message Bahar on Signal at 646-740-7335.
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