9066 to 9/11: America’s Concentration Camps Then ...And Now? Is a twenty minute documentary film that addresses the chilling similarities between the Japanese Internment Camps of 1942 and the current treatment of many Arab Americans due to the attacks of 9/11. My first encounter with the documentary was at the Advancing Justice Conference, where the director, Akira Boch, personally introduced the documentary to the audience himself. Akira Boch, has been making documentaries at the Media Arts Center of the Japanese American National Museum and his work has been broadcast internationally on MTV, PBS and at film festivals.

As Americans, we like to think that we help mitigate the suffering of others, of those who are less fortunate than we are. We believe that as Americans, we do not have the capacity to commit such acts of unwarranted violence. However, the documentary 9066 to 9/11 helps us realize that although we, a society that works hard to uphold the tenants of democracy, are still capable of the same violence and hatred.

9066 to 9/11 examines the parallels of the American response to the Japanese American community after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the Arab American community after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Executive Order 9066 was signed and issued during WWII by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 ordering Japanese Americans to internment camps. Until 1942, three years after Executive Order 9066, some 120,000 Japanese Americans were held in ten different concentration camps throughout the Southwest. Similarly, after the attacks of 9/11, three to five thousand Muslim men and individuals of Arab descent living in the U.S. have been detained by the Department of Justice. Many Americans still harbor negative feelings against people of Arab descent, and many Arab Americans continue to face discrimination at all levels of society. Both communities were targeted as a threat to national security, for simply belonging to the same religion, race or ethnicity as the attackers themselves. Of those who were interned or detained, not a single Japanese or Arab American posed a threat to national security.

The documentary film illustrates that racial profiling, in any way, shape, or form, against any race or ethnic community must not be tolerated. And that for once, we, as a society, can learn from these previous experiences to never again, let such injustice occur to any other ethnic community. So hopefully, the next time when we are faced with another issue concerning the human rights of a community, we can remember to enforce the words “Never again”.

For more information about 9066 to 9/11 or the director, Akira Boch, check this out: http://www.akiraboch.com/