The Daily BuzzVirginia mayor apologizes for using Japanese internment camps to justify anti- refugee stance
The mayor of Roanoke, Virginia found himself in hot water after using the example of World War II Japanese-American internment camps as a precedent for his plan to stop Syrian refugees from settling in his jurisdiction.
Mayor David Bowers issued a statement on Nov. 18 in which he requested that any Syrian refugee resettlement plans for Roanoke be suspended.
Bowers cited what is widely understood to be one of America’s most unjust and shamefully racist acts:
“I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from [ISIS] now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.“
The Internet was quick to point out the woefully ill-informed nature of Bowers’ historical reference.
Actor George Takei explained it aptly on his Facebook page. Here’s an excerpt:
Mayor Bowers, there are a few key points of history you seem to have missed.
1) The internment (not a "sequester”) was not of Japanese ‘foreign nationals,’ but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. I was one of them, and my family and I spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It is my life’s mission to never let such a thing happen again in America…There never was any proven incident of espionage or sabotage from the suspected ‘enemies’ then, just as there has been no act of terrorism from any of the 1,854 Syrian refugees the U.S. already has accepted. We were judged based on who we looked like, and that is about as un-American as it gets.
It wasn’t just celebrities who were offended. Citizens of Roanoke began the hastag #RealRoanoke to let the world know that their mayor’s views don’t represent them.
The onslaught of overwhelmingly negative international media attention must have finally gotten to Mayor Bowers, because this afternoon he officially apologized for his comments, reports The Roanoke Times.
“I apologize to all those offended by my remarks,” said Bowers at a specially convened meeting of the city council. “In particular, I apologize to all Americans of Japanese descent. … It’s not in my heart to be racist or bigoted. I hope and pray that I may join with you in rectifying this mistake.”
