Japanese community reacts to Trump's using Alien Enemies Act, last used in WWII
The Japanese American Museum of San Jose was built to educate and preserve the memory of a dark time in American history.
"What happened to the Japanese Americans was really wrong; it was unfair. It was racist," said Susan Hayase. "It was terrible and should never be done to anybody else."
Hayase and her husband Tom Izu are speaking out because of what happened to their families 83 years ago.
On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, thrusting the United States into World War II, also sparking a rise in anti-Japanese sentiment.
There were 120,000 Japanese living on the West Coast; 70,000 U.S. citizens were rounded up and sent to one of ten internment camps across the country.
"It didn't matter if you were a citizen at all," said Izu. "You went to camps like my mom did."
Izu's family was taken to the Poston camp in Arizona. Hayase's family was imprisoned in the Gila River camp, also in Arizona, and the Amache camp in Colorado.
"What a travesty of justice. When I look at these pictures of the barracks and think about my parents being there. I think what a nightmare it is to be accused and not be able to defend themselves," Hayase said.
To justify the incarceration of the Japanese, the U.S. Government used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
"The act basically says that when it is a declared war or a predatory incursion by a foreign government, then people can be removed," said UC Law San Francisco professor Rory Little.
Congress passed the act in 1798 with the support of President John Adams as the United States anticipated a war with France, but it was only used three times in history.
During the War of 1812, British nationals were required to register with the government.
President Wilson invoked the Act for a second time during World War I against nations of the Central Powers, leading to 6,000 enemy aliens being placed into internment camps under the law.
And during World War II, residents from Japan, Germany and Italy had to register. By the end of the war, 31,000 suspected enemy aliens, including Jewish refugees, were arrested. President Franklin D. Roosevelt then used the Alien Enemies Act and an additional Executive Order to justify the internment of Japanese Americans.
The Trump administration is now using the Act to arrest and deport Venezuelan immigrants accused of being gang members and drug dealers, saying the gangs are "threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the United States."
"The administration today is saying, the invasion of our country by gangs that are effectively controlling a foreign government that ought be included in the confines of the statute," said Little.
Currently, the Federal Court of Appeals has put a temporary block on the Trump Administration's interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act. The White House said it will appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, for members of the Japanese American community whose families were taken away in 1942, they say, it is like watching history repeat itself.
"The fact that the Trump administration invoked this is a terrible thing," said Izu. "And it makes me very, very mad because basically what it represented is a direct attack on individual due process rights."