Anniversary of Japanese internment raises warnings about using national security to endanger noncitizens, racial minorities

This week is the anniversary of the Japanese internment. On Feb. 19, 1942, then-US president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 authorizing the relocation of all persons considered a threat to national defense from the west coast of the United States inland. These people were, for the most part, Japanese Americans who were resented after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Roughly 90% of American-born Japanese and Japanese-American citizens lived along the west coast at the time, and the government warned that people of Japanese ancestry were likely to conspire against the US if Japan invaded the Pacific coast. The internment led to the Supreme Court case Korematsu v. US, which held that racial classifications would be reviewed with strict scrutiny AND that wartime was a compelling justification that justified the order.

Worries about the use of national security to endanger noncitizens and racial minorities have been reprised in critical commentary of Trump v. Hawaii. The linkage is noted by Justice Roberts and Justice Sotomayor in the majority and dissenting opinions respectively, and it is commented on by immigration law scholars, Constitutional law scholars, and race scholars. Critical race theorist and national security expert Professor Sahar Aziz will enrich the landscape of this commentary with several Bay Area book talks on The Racial Muslim, including one on February 17 at UC Hastings College of Law, Center for Race and Economic Justice (hybrid, register for zoom presentation) and another on February 16 at the UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (hybrid, register for zoom presentation).

MHC