Legislators Denounce Japanese-American Internment Comments

Racial hysteria was rampant during World War II, as was shown in this newspaper headline. Wikipedia photo.

U.S. Sens. Hirono and Schatz have taken issue with top President Elect Donald Trump surrogate Carl Higbie’s remarks on Fox News’ “The Kelly File”  that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II could be used as precedent for the creation of a Muslim registry.

“The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was a historic injustice and nothing like it should ever happen again,” said U.S. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono.

“The protection of our Constitution is not conditional; it applies to all of us,” Sen. Hirono continued. ” We cannot allow hate speech, racism and anti-immigrant sentiment to become the new norm in our country, and we must continue to speak out against hate and prejudice. An inclusive and vibrant America is worth fighting for.”

“The internment of Japanese Americans was a dark chapter in our history,” said U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) . “We should remember it and never repeat the same injustice.  Any suggestion that the classification of thousands of Japanese, Germans and Italians during the World War II as ‘enemy aliens’ should be used as a precedent is immoral and must be rejected by all Americans.”