Shinzo Abe visits Pearl Harbour just as the spectre of internment returns

The idea of an American Muslim registry has gained traction in some circles, but the historical precedents are shaky at best

The Japanese Prime Minster, Shinzo Abe, is set to visit Pearl Harbour just after the 75th anniversary of the surprise attack that brought the US into the Second World War. Abe is only the  second Japanese premier to visit Pearl Harbour, and will be the first to visit the USS Arizona Memorial.

But while everyone is familiar with the most obvious consequence of the Pearl Harbour attack, the assault kicked off a number of events in the US itself that still resonate today – none more so than the policy of internment, which involved the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese-Americans.
As soon as the US declared war on Japan (and thereafter Germany and Italy), citizens of Axis nations living in America became enemy aliens. Germans, Austrians, Italians and Japanese were all subject to harassment and abuse – not all that unlike the sort of hatred many Americans have encountered since the election of Donald Trump.

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Legacy of Pearl Harbour lingers as US and Japan mark 75th anniversary