Trump's Muslim proposal reminds Japanese-Americans of WWII's mistakes

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - Many people are comparing GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. to another time in U.S. history when Japanese-Americans were subject to internment camps during World War II.

When Karen Korematsu hears talk of banning an entire group of people from entering the U.S., she knows how her late father Fred Korematsu would react.

“He would be really disgusted that we haven’t learned our lessons of history,” she said. She’s now the executive director of the Fred Korematsu Institute. 

During World War II, just months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; Fred Korematsu defied President Franklin Roosevelt’s wartime order that all Japanese Americans on the West Coast be removed from their homes and relocated to internment camps. 

Korematsu was arrested for his defiance and spent much of the rest of his life fighting against what he felt was an injustice.

Historians have since called the internments a stain on Roosevelt’s Record.

Decades later Korematsu received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his courageous stand.

“What we didn’t learn from 1942 from President Roosevelt’s executive order is that we cannot racially profile and assume that everyone is guilty just because they are associated with one religion or one ethnic group,” she said.

Korematsu fears that the country’s painful past could be repeated that the fear and paranoia against people of Japanese descent are now being played out 70 years later against Muslims.

“It's very scary. It's like 1942 all over again.”

The non-profit Korematsu now runs is dedicated to educating people about injustice. She said now more than ever, educating people about past mistakes is vital.

“So when people are making statements that totally go against all principles of being an American, then we all need to speak up.”