In the wake of a growing tide of xenophobia against them since 9-11, American Muslims have made common cause with Japanese-Americans. Indeed, a large number of Japanese-Americans are scared to death of the apparent tenor of Peter King's planned hearings into radical Islam.
Spurred by memories of the World War II-era roundup and internment of 110,000 of their own people, Japanese Americans, especially on the West Coast, have been among the most vocal and passionate supporters of embattled Muslims. They've rallied public support against hate crimes at mosques, signed on to legal briefs opposing the indefinite detention of Muslims by the government, organized cross-cultural trips to the Manzanar internment camp memorial in California and held "Bridging Communities" workshops in Islamic schools and on college campuses.
The most vocal critic so far has been Mike Honda, the senior Japanese-American in Congress. In a blistering op-ed in last Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle, Honda called the hearings an attempt to stir up Islamophobia. Honda spent most of World War II in a Colorado internment camp, and like many of his generation sees many parallels between the anti-Japanese climate of World War II and the anti-Muslim climate of today.
A number of the children of those internees are just as unnerved.
It was the memory of the camps that led the Japanese to reach out to their Muslim counterparts, said Kathy Masaoka, a high school teacher who co-chairs the Los Angeles chapter of the Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress.
"It dawned on us that this is really something that could escalate among Muslims, the same things our parents faced," she said. "They were being scapegoated."
King claims that the hearings are justified because more moderate Muslims have not been willing to cooperate with law enforcement. However, according to Honda's op-ed, Los Angeles County sheriff Lee Baca has gotten tons of cooperation from area Muslims. Honda also points out that King doesn't plan to call any law enforcement officials as witnesses. And even if King's claim isn't bogus, you probably wouldn't be able to blame Muslims for being skeptical of cooperating with the police, given the Muslim-baiting that has gone on over the years.