The Historical Presidency: From Truman to Trump: Presidents' Use and Abuse of the Incarceration of Japanese Americans. Issue 2 (28th December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pistol, Rachel
• Is Part Of: Presidential studies quarterly. Volume 51:Issue 2(2021)
• Page Start: 385
• Page End: 403
• Publication Date: 2020-12-28
• Subjects: Asian Americans -- Covid‐19 -- Donald Trump -- internment -- Japanese American incarceration -- migrants -- redress -- Second World War -- travel ban; Executive power -- United States -- Periodicals; Presidents -- United States -- Periodicals; 320.473
• DOI: 10.1111/psq.12695
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-4918

Abstract

Abstract: From Harry Truman to Barack Obama, both Republican and Democratic presidents have recognized the injustice suffered by Japanese Americans incarcerated under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, offering apologies and redress, including the 1988 Civil Liberties Act signed by Ronald Reagan. This article contextualizes the vast gulf between Donald Trump's use of this contested history and all postwar presidents before him and finds that Trump embodies a changed Republican Party that refuses to honor and learn from the injustice of Japanese American incarceration during the Second World War.