SAN FRANCISCO — Satsuki Ina was born behind barbed wire in a prison camp during World War II, the daughter of US citizens forced from their home without due process and locked up for years after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
Roughly 120,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans were sent to desolate camps that dotted the West because the government feared they might plot against the United States. Thousands were elderly, disabled, children, or infants too young to know the meaning of treason. Two-thirds were citizens.
And now, as survivors commemorate the 75th anniversary of the executive order that authorized their incarceration, they’re also speaking out to make sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Muslims, Latinos, or other groups.
They’re alarmed by recent executive orders from President Trump that limit travel and single out immigrants.
In January, Trump banned travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States, saying he wanted to thwart potential terrorist attackers from slipping into the country. A federal court halted the ban. Trump said at a news conference Thursday that he would issue a modified replacement order next week.
‘‘We know what it sounds like. We know what the mood of the country can be. We know a president who is going to see people in a way that could victimize us,’’ said Ina, a 72-year-old psychotherapist who lives in Oakland.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, to protect against espionage and sabotage. Notices appeared ordering people of Japanese descent to report to civil stations for transport.
Desperate families sold off belongings for cheap and packed what they could. The luckier ones had white friends who agreed to care for houses, farms and businesses in their absence.
‘‘Others who couldn’t pay their mortgage, couldn’t pay their bills, they lost everything. So they had to pretty much start from scratch,’’ said Rosalyn Tonai, 56, executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society in San Francisco.
Tonai was shocked to learn in middle school that the US government had incarcerated her mother, aunts, and grandparents. Her family hadn’t talked about it. Her mother, a teenager at the time, said she didn’t remember details.
Her organization, the Japanese American Citizens League, and others oppose the use of the word ‘‘internment.’’
They say the government used euphemisms such as ‘‘internment,’’ ‘’evacuation,’’ and ‘‘non-alien’’ to hide the fact that US citizens were incarcerated and the Constitution violated.
