What Makes Today’s America Different From the Country That Incarcerated the Japanese?
The Atlantic’s Emma Green interviews Anne Blankenship about her research into Japanese internment during World War II. Blankenship, a history professor at North Dakota State University and a former postdoctoral fellow at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, notes that the historical racial prejudice against the Japanese has parallels to President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Muslim registry. Blankenship says, “There have always been unacceptable roots of discrimination. It has never furthered security. Increasing discrimination by registry or detention only feeds into the opposition.”