How an 18th-century law enabled internment – and may do so again

Descendants of Japanese internees warn that Trump's revival of the Alien Enemies Act could open the door to new abuses

Naoko Fujii's great-grandfather Jotaro Mori was out fishing when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

When Mori returned home hours later, the FBI was waiting at his door, ready to arrest him under a wartime law that declared citizens of foreign adversaries alien enemies". He was detained without due process and spent the next four years in concentration camps across the western US, including the infamous camp Lordsburg in New Mexico where two elderly Japanese internees were killed. The government seized his home and laundry business so that when he was released, he was left with nothing.