Opinion: Trump and FDR: Meet the new fears, same as the old fears

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order that led to the evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. After Pearl Harbor, which claimed the lives of nearly 2,500 Americans, panic spread through the nation. In a fireside chat two days after the attack, Roosevelt referred to the Japanese as “powerful aggressors who sneak up in the dark and strike without warning.” In such a frenzied environment, and with his military advisors behind him, Roosevelt decided to act.

America, once again, is facing a frenzied environment of fear, exacerbated by the Dec. 2 terror attack in San Bernardino that left 14 dead and 21 injured. And just as widespread fear drove Roosevelt when he approved Japanese internment, Donald Trump is feeding into American hysteria in his threat to ban all Muslims from entering our country.

In a press release Monday, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” blocking all Muslims from entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses,“the release continued, “our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad.”

Republican politicians from Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush to Dick Cheney have denounced it as discriminatory.

Trump’s words are alarming in their resemblance to the rhetoric from the early 1940s — the same type of rhetoric that led to Roosevelt’s decision to evacuate over 100,000 Japanese Americans. Trump said as much himself, when likening himself to FDR in his call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.

(Los Angeles Times)

A dig in The Times archives from 1941 and 1942 shows that fear and pressure to act in the face of Japanese attacks were widespread. Writers, readers and political figures repeatedly criticized inaction on our pages, speaking out in support of removing people of Japanese descent from Pacific Coast areas. Even the Editorial Board deemed it necessary, saying of Japanese Americans, “They are for Japan; they will aid Japan in every way possible by espionage, sabotage and other activity; and they need to be restrained.”

(Los Angeles Times)

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FOR THE RECORD:

A previous version of this piece quoted a Japanese American doctor named Yoshiye Togasaki as having views supportive of the internment of Japanese citizens. Those views were actually expressed by the columnist who wrote the original article in 1942, not Dr. Togasaki.

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Addressing a population paralyzed by fear, FDR approved the imprisonment of over 100,000 innocent Japanese Americans.

Support for Trump suggests that the American people are similarly restless and scared now, latching onto any promise of action that will keep them safe. It remains to be seen if we can restrain ourselves from allowing fear spawned from the San Bernardino attacks to drive us to repeat our historical mistakes made under FDR.