Professor Funabiki: President's Anti-immigrant Stance Similar to World War II-era Racism

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS -- Seventy-five years after the issue of Executive Order 9066, Asian Americans fear the rhetoric that led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is experiencing a revival, scapegoating a new vulnerable group: Muslim Americans. Despite this dark stain on American history, the continued hate and abuse toward immigrants and Muslim Americans has not subsided. Nationally, it has only gotten stronger. “So much of what Trump wants to do against immigrants is very similar to anti-Japanese and racist attitudes that existed during the war,” said SF State journalism professor Jon Funabiki, whose parents were interned at Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming. Funabiki credits the growing anti-immigrant sentiments in the U.S. to the rapidly-changing economy and the declining support for civil rights and the first amendment. “He’s (President Trump) challenging everyone to be super patriotic and nationalistic, which is very dangerous,” says Funabiki.