JACL Condemns U.S. Attorney’s Inappropriate Comparison to Japanese American Incarceration During WWII

April 9, 2025

For Immediate Release

The Japanese American Citizens League condemns the assertion made in an email attributed to Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, promoting the idea that the prosecution of January 6 insurrectionists was the “greatest failure of legal judgement since FDR and his Attorney General put American citizens of Japanese descent in prison camps- and seized their property." 

To compare the decision to incarcerate over 125,000 people only because of their Japanese ancestry, the majority of whom were United States citizens who remained loyal to our constitution and the rule of law, to the decision to prosecute and obtain convictions of individuals who broke the law in such a violent fashion is disrespectful to the history of what Japanese-Americans endured. At a time where the legacy of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team has been removed and then rearranged on the website for the United States Army, and the Alien Enemies Act has been invoked for the first time since WWII when it was used against members of our own community, it is especially offensive to see such comparisons. 

Unfortunately, comments such as those from U.S. Attorney Martin’s are not new. JACL recalls this past October when President Trump also compared the experience of January 6th insurrectionists to those of Japanese Americans. The continued co-option of the trauma and tragedy experienced by Japanese Americans during World War II not only reopens the wounds of the survivors and their descendants, but fails to tell the full truth of the Japanese American experience, that what happened to our community was rooted in racism and resulted in the mass incarceration of over 125,000 people, none of whom was ever found guilty of an act of treason.

JACL calls for an end to such inappropriate, inaccurate, and offensive comparisons of Capitol rioters to the mass incarceration of innocent Japanese Americans during World War II. 

###

The Japanese American Citizens League is a national organization whose ongoing mission is to secure and maintain the civil rights of Japanese Americans and all others who are victimized by injustice and bigotry. The leaders and members of the JACL also work to promote cultural, educational, and social values and preserve the heritage and legacy of the Japanese American community.