Roanoke mayor uses WW II internment camps to justify refusing Syrian refugees

David Bowers has triggered controversy with his comments

David Bowers has sparked controversy (Youtube)

A mayor in Virginia has sparked outcry after he cited the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two as support for his call to deny Syrian refugees the opportunity to resettle in the United States.

Amid a national debate within the US about the settling of Syrian refugees, David Bowers, the mayor of Roanoke, wrote a letter saying they should not be settled and raised the issue of security.

To highlight the point, he compared the concern over the refugees to the 1940s internment of Japanese Americans.

The internment camps - now considered illegal - are widely considered to be an embarrassing period in US history.

“I’m reminded that President Franklin D Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbour and it appears that threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then,” Mr Bowers, a Democrat, wrote.

More than 30 US governors have said they do not want Syria refugees resettled in their states after recent attacks in Paris tied to the so-called Islamic State killed more than 100 people.

Although the governors do not have the legal authority to do so, they can complicate the resettlement process. US President Barack Obama called their response “hysterical”.

Mr Bowers wrote that Syrian refugees should not resettle in Roanoke in light of the Paris attacks

The letter was the subject on sharp criticism on social media, and Virginia Republicans sought to distance themselves from Mr Bowers' remarks.

“Comparing the prudent step of pausing to evaluate a vetting processes to the unconstitutional internment of American citizens proves that Democrats simply don't understand national security,” John Whitbeck, the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, said in a statement.

Actor and Japanese-American George Takei wrote on Facebook: “Mayor Bowers, there are a few key points of history you seem to have missed.”

“The internment [not a ”sequester“] was not of Japanese ”foreign nationals,“ but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were US citizens,” Mr Takei wrote.

“I was one of them, and my family and I spent four years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbour. It is my life's mission to never let such a thing happen again in America.”

The mayor did not immediately return a request for comment.

“I think most Americans with the benefit of history realise that interning Japanese-Americans for years during World War II was not appropriate,” said Democratic Senator Mark Warner in an interview with MSNBC.

Mr Bowers’s stance is also at odds with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe who has said his state will continue to accept refugees.