A look at the history of fear within American politics, a check-in on the search for LAUSD's next superintendent, British singer Nick Lowe.
Former Japanese American internee worries history could repeat itself
For many, Donald Trump's recent proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country raises grave concerns about history repeating itself.
Though the GOP candidate has said that he hates the concept of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, Trump also admitted that he doesn't know whether or not he would have supported rounding the Japanese up and placing them in camps. Speaking on the subject, he told TIME Magazine, "I would have had to be there at the time to tell you.”
Donald Trump was not there at the time, but Mas Yamashita was.
At just 6 years of age, Yamashita and his family were sent to the Tanforan detention facility in San Bruno, California. A former racetrack, the site would become the temporary home for thousands during World War II. Yamashita vividly recalls his time in confinement.
The beginning
“My memories of my childhood really began with the internment,” Yamashita said. “They put us in these horse stalls … one family to each stall. [It] was just a stall which had cots, and we didn’t have mattresses. We had to stuff straw in these bags and that’s what we slept on. One day, a truck came in with some mattresses and we went crazy. [The] mattresses were only about 2 inches thick, but it was better than the straw,” Yamashita said.
The assembly center at Tanforan Racetrack was just a temporary holding spot for Japanese American families. When construction of the Topaz internment site was completed, Yamashita and his family were put on a train, an experience that Yamashita recollects clearly.
“I always could remember because I could never [understand] why they did this — they covered up the windows with black paper, so I wasn’t sure if they didn’t want us to look out or people to see us from the outside …”
After release
The Yamashita family was finally released from Topaz in 1945, but the hardships did not end there. When asked about his time after the war, Yamashita’s voice broke. The pain of the aftermath still too real to speak of, even 70 years later.
Yamashita said the experience left him ashamed of his Japanese heritage.
“When we got out of the camp, I was about 10. [My] first year of grammar school — it was all Caucasians in the classroom and my teacher was caucasian — and she couldn’t pronounce my name, you know? And I hated my name because people couldn’t pronounce it,” Yamashita said.
Yamashita recalls getting into fights with students who would make fun of him. Having lived much of his life in an environment that penalized him for being different, Yamashita avoided anything that would set him farther apart from others. For example, when his father urged him to attend a Japanese school.
“[There] were a couple in the city, but I lied because I didn’t want to have anything to do with the Japanese,” Yamashita said.
Yamashita says he became a volunteer docent at the Japanese American Museum to "make up" for the time he spent distancing himself from the Japanese community.
The importance of history
The recent terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have created a new wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country. Confinement and restrictions are once again part of the national conversation. Yamashita says many people may support this notion simply because they’re not aware of the dark chapter of American history brought about by Executive Order 9066.
“I hate to say this, but we’re going to make the same mistakes because we don’t study history and learn by what we’ve done wrong,” Yamashita said.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
(Corrections: The previous headline referred to Mas Yamashita as a "Japanese internee." It has been corrected to read, "Japanese American internee." Executive order 1066 was corrected to 9066 in the story tease. We regret the error.)
Donald Trump and the role of fear in American politics
Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslims from entering the U.S. drew widespread condemnation this week.
The also drew comparisons to the World War II era policy of the internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. After first telling TIME that he couldn't say for certain whether he would have supported the internment camps at the time, Trump eventually told morning news shows on Tuesday the
"No I'm not, no I'm not." - Trump when asked if he is in agreement with World War II internment of Japanese Americans
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 8, 2015
with the internment of Japanese Americans.
The Republican candidate's remarks were just the latest of several disparaging comments he's made about immigrants and Muslims. But it's not the first time that a perceived threat from a so-called "other" has shaped American politics.
Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, joined Take Two for a discussion about the role of fear in American political history.
While Donald Trump said that he didn't agree with the internment of Japanese Americans, he also told Good Morning America, "What I'm doing is no different than FDR," citing actions that President Franklin D. Roosevelt took to limit the rights of Japanese, Italian and German nationals living in the U.S. Is Trump correct in comparing his proposal to actions taken by FDR?
Well the comparison might be fair, but it's not necessarily the one he wants to make. The internment of Japanese Americans for sure, and even many bans on immigration that we saw then, or acts against immigrants in World War I, have not been looked at by future historians as one of the better moments of those periods. And certainly the internment is not cherished and praised by historians who otherwise think very well of FDR. So there is a similarity, but it's not the kind we want to see replicated.
Is he just remembering this in a different way than everyone else?
Yeah I think he is, and I think he's looking for moments when, during times of war [or] national crisis, the government often took sweeping action, very often violating civil liberties, or taking action against people who were not directly in any way connected to the wartime effort, and he's praising them. So it's not surprising he's doing this, that's basically what he's talking about right now, and he wants to defend an aggressive, muscular and very expansive view of what the government should do to fight threats.
What other cases in our history have their been where specific groups have been targeted?
During World War I, many immigrants and Americans of immigrant origin were targeted here. Not just by the government, but by citizen groups who argued that German Americans, for example, somehow were a threat to national security. There was a case in Illinois of one German American, Robert Prager, who was lynched by a mob and then no one in the mob was forced to do any time for that.
In the McCarthy era, that's most famously in the late -40s and early -50s as the Cold War was heating up, many politicians in both parties, but Joe McCarthy, the Republican from Wisconsin leading the charge, went after all sorts of Americans, claiming that they had connections to an international communist movement. So this is a familiar part of our national security debates.
What do we understand about fear as a motivator in political campaigns?
Well, it works. I think the reason they do it is it's very easy to play to the fears of an electorate when there are real threats out there. The electorate is scared, in this case, unlike the Cold War for example, the threat isn't totally clear. So we're not talking about a superpower with nuclear bombs and the need to stop them from using it, we're talking about a much more amorphous threat, even a threat of lone wolf actors who just pledge allegiance to a group like ISIS.
And so people are scared and they don't know what to do, and so traditionally there are always politicians who focus on these fears and use it to scare the electorate. That if you don't support them, that threat will become worse, and just as important, if you support the opponent they will make the country less safe. In 2004, Republicans did this very effectively to John Kerry. They argued that his presidency would mean a big step back in our fight against Al Qaeda.
Do politicians use fear simply as a way to win an election or is it something they truly believe in?
That's always a hard one to know what's in the mind of politicians. There are moments like when George Wallace ran for the presidency in '68 and '72 and he played to the racial fears of parts of the electorate, warning about the kind of chaos that was unfolding from the civil rights movement. Part of it was political, he knew this was a great way to rally white Democrats who were not happy with the party, but part of him believed that, genuinely believed that's what was going wrong with the nation.
So I think very often there's a mix. I think with Donald Trump, people are always wondering because of who he is, how much of this is pure stagecraft and how much he is cynically using this politics of fear to his advantage. But I don't know if we'll know that, and in some ways it doesn't matter. In some ways, what we need to pay careful attention to is the actual rhetoric and words being used.
How the FBI and mosques can work together on terrorism
As the FBI continues its investigation into last week's rampage, a number of law enforcement agencies are urging mosques to help them prevent such heinous crimes from happening again.
But the relationship between Islamic communities and the authorities is a very complicated one, especially in Southern California.
In the mid-2000s, a covert program called Operation Flex monitored mosques in Orange County.
It found few terrorist connections but a lot of controversy from the local community.
FBI informant Craig Monteilh infiltrated the Islamic Center of Irvine, and he was told to act like a radical.
But in 2007, the Center put a restraining order on him for erratic and agitating behavior. They also reported him to the FBI, not knowing he was an FBI informant.
Monteilh later spoke out against the program and called it entrapment, blowing the FBI's cover and angering the local Muslim community.
To look at how the government can build a better relationship with the local Muslim community to root out radicals, we're joined by Mustafa Umar, founder and director of the College of Islamic Studies located in Orange County.
FEMA's plans for El Niño-related disasters
By now, we all know that El Nino will probably bring heavy rains to California and the rest of the West this winter.
While that may alleviate some of the disaster caused by the region's drought, it could also create disastrous flooding and mudslides.
Today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announces its disaster response plan and is rehearsing for the worst.
FEMA's John Hamill joins Take Two on what to expect.
FBI announces changes to data collection on officer-involved shootings
When it comes to officer-involved shootings, it's difficult to get a sense of what is happening around the nation because of a lack of data. That data could be mined to look for certain trends or inconsistencies.
This week, the FBI has responded to these concerns and announced a change in the way it collects data. Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post joined the show to tell more.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
This week in sports: Dodgers, 'Concussion' film
In this week's sports news with
: The Dodgers deal to acquire closer Ardolis Chapman is in limbo, and real-life "Concussion" doctor Bennet Omalu argues that kids should not be allowed to play football until they're 18.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above.
Nick Lowe and his new Christmas album, Quality Street
Tomorrow at the El Rey theatre in Los Angeles, British crooner Nick Lowe will hit the stage.
Fans of his work will know him for hits like What's so Funny about Peace Love and Understanding and this song, Cruel to be Kind.
But safe to say, some of his songs will surprise a few of the attendees, because his latest album isn't about sex, drugs and rock and roll - but Christmas.
Take Two's Alex Cohen chats with him about his career and why he made a Christmas album.
The Styled Side: "The Nutcracker" starts a new SoCal tradition
When sugar-plum fairies dance through your head this holiday season, you might be asking, "Who are you wearing?"
American Ballet Theatre's "The Nutcracker" makes its West Coast premiere on Thursday at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.
"Ballet and fashion have always danced together," says Michelle Dalton Tyree from Fashion Trends Daily. But keeping the costumes up-to-date and modern is a tough task.
"We have ballets in the repertory from 1948 that we’re still using the costumes for," says ABT's wardrobe supervisor Bruce Horowitz. "We may have to re-make certain pieces or copy things but many of our major productions are not new."
Collaborations between the fashion and ballet worlds are not rare, however. For ABT's 75th anniversary, designers like Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana and Christian Louboutin all embellished ballet slippers showcased in a special exhibit.
For "The Nutcracker" performances in Southern California, tulle is out among the 200+ costumes used on stage.
Completely messing with the classic looks of the ballet is out of the question, too, because fans would riot.
Tyree says to watch for a new interpretation of the Sugarplum Fairy, though. "She has a very fanciful costume, and in this version she doesn’t dance. She’s more a ruler of the realm."
Certain performances will also feature SoCal natives Misty Copeland and Stella Abrera.
ABT's "The Nutcracker" runs from December 10 - 20 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.