FILE - The first arrivals at the Japanese evacuee community established in Owens Valley in Manzanar, Calif., part of a vanguard of workers from Los Angeles, March 23, 1942. Roughly 120,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans were sent to camps

SAN FRANCISCO - Satsuki Ina was born behind barbed wire in a prison camp during World War Two, the daughter of U.S. citizens forced from their home without due process and locked up for years following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.


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.

Executive orders



FILE - Cpl. George Bushy, left, a member of the mi

"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, California.



"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 U.S. 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 U.S. citizens were incarcerated and the Constitution violated.


The Japanese American Citizens League "vehemently" objected to executive orders signed by Trump last month, to build a wall along the Mexican border, punish "sanctuary" cities that protect people living in the country illegally, and limit refugees and immigrants from entering the country.

"Although the threat of terrorism is real, we must learn from our history and not allow our fears to overwhelm our values," the statement read in part.

FILE - People of Japanese ancestry board buses in
FILE - People of Japanese ancestry board buses in Los Angeles, for Owens Valley, 235 miles north, where the government's first alien reception center is under construction, March 21, 1942.

Hiroshi Kashiwagi was 19 when his family was ordered from their home in Northern California's Placer County and to a temporary detention center.

He remembers slaughtering his prized chickens -- New Hampshire Reds -- for his mother to cook with soy sauce and sugar. She stored the bottled birds in sturdy sacks to take on the trip. The family ate the chickens at night to supplement meals. The birds didn't last long.


"I feel obligated to speak out, although it's not a favorite subject," he said. "Who knows what can happen? The way this president is, he does not go by the rules. I'm hoping that he would be impeached."


'Race prejudice'

A congressional commission formed in 1980 blamed the incarceration on "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership." In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to compensate every survivor with a tax-free check for $20,000 and a formal apology from the U.S. government.


"This is a burden we've been carrying, and if we can make that burden into something meaningful that could help and protect other people, then it becomes not so much an obligation but more as a responsibility," Ina said.


"And this old woman, she had a cane, she said, 'OK. I'm going to tell everybody about what happened. This is very bad. It's happening again,' " she said. "It's that kind of spirit."