On February 19, 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the order
The USA opened the first resort dedicated to recreation for Japanese Americans
That is, the first Japanese internment camp, during WWII
That is, the first concentration camp on American soil
We first learned of the term concentration camp after Nazi Germany was defeated
The waves of emaciated, tortured Jews and trans people and Roma and more
We said Never Again
But we didn’t mean it, because we already did it ourselves in California, all over the West Coast
The rancid lie creeps up on people, like this: The Powers That Be call them Bad, Wrong, Unacceptable, not good for our country
THEY must be set apart so that “the rest of us” can be safe, out of danger
And the lie, when repeated often enough, seems true to an awful lot of people
Hitler had one state-run newspaper and one radio station for propaganda. (Which is why we donate to NPR)
So this is how history rhymes: This time around, it’s immigrants who are Bad, Wrong, Unacceptable
Rounded up like animals, stuffed into vehicles by state-sponsored goons
Shipped off to “Immigrant Detention Centers”
Warehouses for the latest round of undesirable adults and children
Their crime is being brown, speaking another language
Their punishment is banishment
No warrants, no hearings, no trials
And our voices, when we ask questions, demand change, are ignored
Habeus corpus is a corpse
And the American Dream is white. Speaks English. And doesn’t need papers.
Germany had Klaus Barbie. We have ICE Barbie. Either way, it’s just another sadass game of Concentration.
© 2025 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
Please don’t just comment with kind words. Let me know you are going to make a call, write emails, anything to help. The number for the White House is 202-456-1111. Google your senators and kick up a fuss. Don’t skip anyone just because you know they are kissing the (—-) of the president! Call them. Kick up a fuss!!! Like I always say, “Never run out of words.” Amy
Sharp Little Pencil 
susanstoo
“So this is how history rhymes”
Parallel, too parallel, the rhyming is complete. I cannot express enough how much I appreciate this poem.
shaun tenzenmen
Arguably, reservations were first. The USAsian dream is, indeed, white.
Marja
Great write I support you from the sidelines in NZ
Anne Schoenemann
“Habeus corpus is a corpse” So true Amy. Thank you.Like the Phoenix coming out of the ashes, we must continue to hope one election at a time. Work at the voting polls, support candidates and a organizations you support – like Voces de la frontera, and continue to rally! The peoples’ voice must carry through this storm!
Mary
Your words resonate, Amy! Well penned.
Renee Espriu
Your write here is ‘telling’ of what the larger society, of our planet, continues to do throughout the course of history. Unfortunately, it will always be so, for people will always enter into wars with no real foresight because they are based on opinion only. It would do well for those who entertain such thoughts to realize that everyone is entitled but it does not give any one person or groups of people the right to impinge such opinions upon others. You give a very real insight into the human condition and those people who have a need to control all that is beyond their grasp for the impossibility of such is not possible, in the long run, at all.
Thank you so much, again, for being willing to put forth those words that so few really heed at all. Well done.
Sherry Marr
Amy, I was away from home and on my tablet, your site would not let me comment. I sent three very long comments that didappeared. Sigh. Back home now. I so appreciate your post and feel all the same things you do – outrage at injustice, disbelief that this is happening – that I never thought could happen in North America. It happened here in Canada too – even here in Tofino – where the Japanese were loaded onto a big boat and taken away. One of our most famous authors, Joy Kogawa, was interned as a child and wrote about it beautifully in Obasan. And those “detention centres” are as dehumanizing and horrifying as concentration camps. Thanks for writing this – I always love reading you because we share the same views………..sorry to be so long in replying. And I HOPE this time it will go through!
purplepeninportland
Thank you for writing this. It is powerful, and so true.
ellisnelson
We’re fighting every day. Pushing back against these planned concentration camps. No Concentration Camps US. We’re a national group of activists trying to stop the administration’s opening of warehouses and defunct prisons for mass deportation. http://www.noccus.org