On a recent visit to the Smithsonian Institution, I saw a poster for a new exhibit: “Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II.”
Ten weeks after Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, under which thousands of law-abiding Japanese Americans were imprisoned.
It’s now considered one of the more shameful acts in American history. Seventy years on, we view this historical exhibit and tell ourselves that this was an aberration. This is not who we are.
Sad to say, we are arguably worse. Roosevelt and other Americans were responding to a real-life attack, in which some 2,400 Americans died.
What’s our excuse for ripping children from the arms of their parents, as the Trump administration purposely did at the U.S.-Mexican border?
President Trump would have us believe that immigrants come to America to prey on our citizens. In most cases, they’re coming to help us put food on our table and to care for our elderly.
Statistics from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, show that immigrants - both legal and undocumented - commit far fewer crimes than native-born Americans.
The issue here isn’t border security or building a wall. It’s simple humanity. If another country had seized American children, we would be preparing for war.
We must continue to hold the Trump administration accountable for one of the most disgraceful episodes in American history.
Lee Gelernt, civil rights lawyer for the ACLU, said, “Every day, the medical community is saying more and more harm is being done to these children. Eventually, it may be irreparable.”
What can you do locally? Help keep up the pressure until all families are reunited. The ACLU and the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice will be having a meeting about efforts to unite separated families at 7 p.m., Monday, Aug. 20, at the Trinity Church on New Road in Lewes.
If enough people get involved, maybe this embarrassing chapter will be too short to warrant a future Smithsonian exhibit about “Righting a Wrong.”
Don Flood
Lewes
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.
