Groups slam Trump’s comparison of Jan. 6 rioters to Japanese Americans incarcerated in WWII

Japanese American leaders slammed former President Donald Trump after he compared Jan. 6 rioters to those of Japanese descent who were incarcerated during World War II just because of their race. 

In a newly released podcast, the Republican nominee defended those who were charged and convicted after storming the Capitol and assaulting police officers in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. 

Trump told conservative commentator and host Dan Bongino that the insurrectionists’ treatment by the justice system is comparable to what some 110,000 Japanese Americans endured more than 80 years ago, when they were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in incarceration camps with no evidence of wrongdoing. 

“Nobody’s ever been treated like this,” Trump said in Friday’s interview. “Nobody’s ever — maybe the Japanese during the Second World War, frankly. But you know, they were held too.”

Several Japanese American leaders condemned Trump’s comments, with Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum, calling them an “egregiously inaccurate and flawed historical analogy.”

“Now more than ever, the lessons from the Japanese American incarceration must never be forgotten, ignored, minimized, or erased,” she said in a statement on the museum’s website. 

Japanese-Americans waiting in line at the Manzanar Relocation Center in 1943.Ansel Adams / Universal History Archive / Getty Images

A representative from Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. 

Trump’s comments come more than two years after thousands, prompted by the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen, laid siege to the building, many of them carrying firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, bear spray and other weapons. More than 140 police officers were injured in the attack and four people died in connection to the riot on the day of the mob. One officer, who was sprayed with chemicals during the event, died a day later due to natural causes. And four police officers who responded to the mob died by suicide later on. 

More than 1,500 people have been charged since, and 1,100 of them have been convicted. More than 600 prison sentences have been handed down. 

Police clash with Trump-supporters inside the Capitol building on Jan 6, 2021. Mostafa Bassim / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file

Sharon Yamato, the daughter of a couple who was incarcerated during World War II, told The Associated Press that Japanese Americans cannot be compared to “insurrectionists who committed major crimes and in which people were hurt and killed.” 

“I think that that is just so horrible to try to even make that comparison or allege that there’s any similarities between the two,” she said. 

Decades later, after a critical “Redress Movement,” Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that provided monetary reparations and an apology to the Japanese American survivors. 

Trump’s latest comments come after his recent characterization of the Jan. 6 riots as a “day of love.” 

“There were no guns down there. We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns. And when I say we, these are people that walked down — this was a tiny percentage of the overall which nobody sees and nobody, nobody shows. But that was a day of love,” he said at a Univision event last week.