Japanese-American elders protest outside Fort Sill internment camp: 'Stop repeating history'

[mfcorey1]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/24/1866919/-Japanese-Americans-protest-outside-former-internment-camp-Stop-repeating-history

group of Japanese-American elders who survived being thrown into internment camps by their own government protested at Oklahoma’s Fort Sill on Saturday, the site of a former World War II internment camp that the Trump administration plans on reopening to jail at least 1,400 migrant children.

The activists and their allies came to warn, and for that reason refused to leave the site, even when insulted by U.S. military police. “You need to move right now!” an officer identified by Democracy Now! as Keyes screamed at the Japanese-American activists. “What don’t you understand? It’s English: Get out.” When undeterred survivors continued speaking, Keyes twice yelled, “What don’t you people understand?”

The activists understood very well, thanks. That’s why they were there. “I am a former child incarceree during World War II,” said Dr. Satsuki Ina. “This is a photograph of me when I was imprisoned. Seventy-five years ago, 120,000 of us were removed from our homes and forcefully incarcerated in prison camps across the country. We are here today to protest the repetition of history.”

The activists carried with them thousands of origami cranes “as a symbol of solidarity,” which were among the same cranes that the activists, including Dr. Ina, hung outside a migrant family jail in Texas last March. A banner that was also hung outside that facility reading, “Never again is now,” a message they echoed outside Fort Sill.

“We were in American concentration camps,” she said. “We were held under indefinite detention. We were without due process of law. We were charged without any evidence of being a threat to national security, that we were in an unassimilable race, that we would be a threat to the economy. We hear these exact words today regarding innocent people seeking asylum in this country.”

“And unlike 1942,” she continued, “when America turned their back on us while we were disappearing from our homes, our schools, our farms and our jobs, we are here today to speak out, to protest the unjust incarceration of innocent people seeking refuge in this country. We stand with them, and we are saying, ‘Stop repeating history’”

[watoos]

1. Would love to see the M$M do its job

and cover this until the inhumane treatment stops.

[mfcorey1]

2. They are too busy chasing drumpf everytime he farts. They stay on smell patrol. Excuse

my imagery but I am feeling some kind of way this morning. We are ignoring all that is happening. History cannot be erased in a textbook. This is real. My heart aches for the children and father and daughter who drowned trying to find a better life.