The US has a single rare earths mine. Chinese export limits are energizing a push for more

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By JOSH FUNK, AP Business Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — America’s only rare earths mine heard from anxious companies soon after China responded to President Donald Trump’s tariffs this month by limiting exports of those minerals used for military applications and in many high-tech devices.

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“Based on the number of phone calls we’re receiving, the effects have been immediate,” said Matt Sloustcher, a spokesperson for MP Materials, the company that runs the Mountain Pass mine in California’s Mojave Desert.

The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies could lead to a critical shortage of rare earth elements if China maintains its export controls long-term or expands them to seek an advantage in any trade negotiations. The California mine can’t meet all of the U.S. demand for rare earths, which is why Trump is trying to clear the way for new mines.

Rare earth elements are important ingredients in electric vehicles, powerful magnets, advanced fighter jets, submarines, smartphones, television screens and many other products. Despite their name, the 17 elements aren’t actually rare, but it’s hard to find them in a high enough concentration to make a mine worth the investment.

Tariffs will impact ore supply and costs

MP Materials, which acquired the idle Mountain Pass site in 2017, said Thursday it would stop sending its ore to China for processing because of the export restrictions and 125% tariffs on U.S. imports China imposed. The company said it would continue processing nearly half of what it mines on site and store the rest while it works to expand its processing capability.

“Selling our valuable critical minerals under 125% tariffs is neither commercially rational nor aligned with America’s national interests,” MP Materials said in a statement.

Experts say the manufacturers that rely on rare earth elements and other critical minerals will see price increases, but there is likely enough of a global supply available to keep factories operating for now.

The California mine yields neodymium and praseodymium, the light rare earths that are the main components of the permanent rare earth magnets in EVs and wind turbines. But small amounts of some of the heavy rare earths that China has restricted, such as terbium and dysprosium are key to helping the magnets withstand high temperatures.

Already, the price of terbium has jumped 24% since the end of March to reach $933 per kilogram.

“Our estimate suggests that there is enough stockpile in the market to sustain demand for now,” Benchmark Mineral Intelligence rare earths analyst Neha Mukherjee said, adding that shortages may emerge later this year.

China holds power over the market

China has tremendous power over the rare earths market. The country has the biggest mines, producing 270,000 metric tons (297,624 tons) of minerals last year compared to the 45,000 tons (40,823 metric tons) mined in the U.S. China supplies nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths because it also is home to most of the processing capacity.

The restrictions Beijing put in place on April 4 require Chinese exporters of seven heavy rare earths and some magnets to obtain special licenses. The retaliatory controls reinforced what the Trump administration and manufacturers see as a dire need to build additional U.S. mines and reduce the nation’s dependence on China.

Trump has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to strong-arm Greenland and Ukraine into providing more of their rare earths and other critical materials to the United States. Last month, he signed an executive order calling for the federal government to streamline permit approvals for new mines and encourage investments in the projects.

Two companies are trying to develop mines in Nebraska and Montana. Officials at NioCorp and U.S. Critical Materials said they hoped the push from the White House would help them raise money and obtain the necessary approvals to start digging. NioCorp has worked for years to raise $1.1 billion to build a mine in southeast Nebraska.

FILE – NioCorp Chief Operating Officer Scott Honan tells a group of investors about the plans for a proposed mine in southeast Nebraska, on Oct. 6, 2021 in Elk Creek, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)

“As I sit and I think about how can we deal with this enormous leverage that China has over these minerals that nobody even knows how to pronounce for the most part, we have to deal with this leverage situation,” NioCorp CEO Mark Smith said. “And the best way, I think, is that we need to make our own heavy rare earths here in the United States. And we can do that.”

MP Materials is working to quickly expand its processing capability, partly with the help of some $45 million the company received coming out of the first Trump administration. But after investing nearly $1 billion since 2020, the company doesn’t currently have the ability to process the heavy rare earths that China is restricting. MP Materials said it was working expeditiously to change that, and it is building a factory in Texas to produce rare earth magnets for electric vehicles and other products domestically and chip away at China’s dominance in that market..

Big U.S. automakers declined to comment about how dependent they are on rare earths and the impact of China’s export curbs. Major defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which were specifically targeted in China’s restrictions along with more than a dozen other defense and aerospace companies, also remained circumspect.

Military technology is a smaller but important user of rare earths. Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday calling for an investigation into the national security implications of being so reliant on China for the elements.

A spokesperson for Lockheed, which makes the F-22 fighter jet, said the company continuously assesses “the global rare earth supply chain to ensure access to critical materials that support our customers’ missions.”

Manufacturers prepare for price increases

Some battery makers could start to run short of key elements within weeks, according to Steve Christensen, executive director of the Responsible Battery Coalition, an association representing battery and automakers and battery sellers.

Already, manufacturers have seen the price of antimony, an element used to extend the life of traditional lead-acid batteries, more than double since China restricted exports of it last year. The element isn’t one of the 17 rare earths but is among the critical minerals that Trump wants to see produced domestically.

Initially, automakers will likely try to absorb any increase in the cost of their batteries without raising vehicle prices, but that may not be sustainable if China’s restrictions remain in place, Christensen said. A 25% tariff Trump put on all imported automobiles and auto parts cars already was expected to increase costs, although the president hinted this week that he might give the industry a temporary reprieve.

The U.S. fulfilled its rare earths needs with domestic sources until the late 1990s. Production largely ended after low-cost Chinese ores flooded global markets. Robots, drones and other new technologies have rapidly increased demand for the raw materials.

FILE – NioCorp Corporate Controller Jeff Mason shows investors core samples the mining company has collected while NioCorp CEO Mark Smith listens, Oct. 6, 2021 in Elk Creek, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)

NioCorp recently signed a contract to do more exploratory drilling on its site this summer to help prove to the Export-Import Bank that enough rare earth minerals rest underground near Elk Creek, Nebraska, to justify an $800 million loan to help finance the project.

But a new rare earths mine is years away from operating in the U.S. NioCorp estimates if all goes well with its fundraising, the site where it hopes to mine and process niobium, scandium, titanium and an assortment of rare earths possibly might be running by the end of Trump’s presidency.

U.S. Critical Materials plans to dig up several tons of ore in Montana this summer so it can test out processing methods it has been developing. The Sheep Creek project isn’t as far along as the Nebraska project, but U.S. Critical Materials Director Harvey Kaye said the site has promising ore deposits with high concentrations of rare earths.

Minnesota United vs. FC Dallas: Keys to the match, storylines and a prediction

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Minnesota United vs. FC Dallas

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Allianz Field
Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Radio: KSTP-AM, 1500
Weather: 54 degrees, clear skies, 6 mph south wind
Betting line: MNUFC minus-150; draw plus-300; Dallas plus-360

Form: Loons (4-1-3, 15 points) are unbeaten in seven straight matches, including a scoreless draw at Toronto last weekend. United’s point total is the best in club history through eight matches. Dallas (3-3-2, 11 points) is coming off a 1-0 loss to Seattle Sounders.

Context: United is unbeaten at home (2-0-1) so far this season and will have five of its next seven matches in St. Paul.

Recent matchups: Dallas throttled MNUFC 5-3 in Frisco, Texas last June; the most goals an Eric Ramsay side has allowed in the MLS regular season. Petar Musa posted a hat trick within 62 minutes. Less than two weeks earlier, the two sides played to a 1-1 draw in St. Paul.

Look-ahead: Minnesota will face schedule congestion around the corner: an MLS away game at Austin (May 3), at Louisville City in U.S. Open Cup (May 7) and the most-circled MLS game of the season, hosting Inter Miami and Lionel Messi (May 10).

Deadline: MLS’ primary transfer window closes on Wednesday and head coach Eric Ramsay addressed how active Loons might be in the final days:

“We will certainly have our finger on the pulse to how things are moving over the course of the coming weeks. We are obviously in a relatively good place and the form is suggesting that. I don’t think anyone from the club is looking at us in desperate need.”

Buzz: The Loons roster is filled with NBA fans and many were angling on Friday for tickets to Game 3 of the Timberwolves-Lakers series at Target Center. Games 1 and 4 directly conflict with MNUFC’s schedule.

Absences: Owen Gene (ankle), Kipp Keller (hamstring) and Hassani Dotson (knee) are out.

Quote: Robin Lod was an MLS All-Star last season, but the 32-year-old has not contributed to a goal this year. Ramsay said Lod’s play has “often been at the heart” of the team’s review meetings.

“He had such an exceptional year last year in terms of numbers and big moments that I think anything in comparison to that is going to leave people wanting. But I feel like we are in a really good place if we are getting the results and we are yet to see the very best of Robin. We are seeing it moments. I’m not worried about that and I’m sure he will come good.”

Scouting report: Dallas spent $5 million in a cash-for-player trade to acquire Lucho Acosta in February. The 2023 MLS MVP has three goals but no assists in 708 minutes. Musa has been more of a talisman, with three goals and three assists in 673 minutes.

Big question: Will Musa play? The Dallas Designated Player was stretchered off the field with an ankle injury in stoppage time on Saturday night.

‘Stats: Dallas has been held under 0.7 expected goals in three games this season, including 0.6 versus Seattle last weekend. Minnesota has held four opponents under that xG mark, including Toronto last Saturday.

Prediction: If Musa doesn’t play, more attention will be paid to Acosta and that will play into United’s ability to produce its fifth clean sheet of the season. Loons earn a 1-0 win.

Marijuana legalization hits roadblocks after years of expansion

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By Kevin Hardy, Stateline.org

As every state surrounding Idaho legalized marijuana, state Rep. Bruce Skaug started to view it as inevitable that the Gem State would follow suit.

Not anymore.

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Skaug, a Republican, supported two bills this legislative session taking aim at marijuana use: one to impose a mandatory minimum $300 fine for possession and another that would take away the right of voters to legalize pot at the ballot box.

He believes other states are starting to regret liberalizing marijuana use, because of potential health concerns and lackluster revenues from marijuana sales.

“Looking around at other states that have legalized marijuana, it’s not improved their states as a place to raise a family, to do business,” he said. “It just hasn’t come through with the promises that we heard years ago for those states.”

Idaho’s not alone. After years of expanding legal access, lawmakers in several states this year have targeted marijuana in various ways.

To help close budget gaps, officials in Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey have proposed raising marijuana taxes. Health concerns have pushed lawmakers in states including Colorado and Montana to attempt to cap the level of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the primary psychoactive component in cannabis, in marijuana products sold at dispensaries. And some lawmakers have even tried to roll back voter-approved medical marijuana programs.

“This year in particular, we’re playing defense a lot more than we have in the past,” said Morgan Fox, political director at the advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

To some extent, he said, the pendulum on marijuana liberalization is swinging back. But Fox said recent legislative efforts are not indicative of waning public support for legalization. He said prohibitionist politicians have been emboldened to act against the will of voters.

Polling from the Pew Research Center has found little change in support for legalization in recent years: 57% of U.S. adults say that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational purposes.

Colorado and Washington state began allowing recreational marijuana sales in 2014. Today, 24 states and the District of Columbia allow recreational sales, and 39 states and the district have sanctioned medical marijuana.

“There’s been this air of inevitability for a while,” said Daniel Mallinson, an associate professor of public policy at Penn State Harrisburg who researches marijuana legalization.

With medical marijuana programs operational in most states, Mallinson said there is pressure to expand recreational marijuana, especially given uncertainty over whether the federal government will act on the issue.

“Recreational is still in its takeoff period,” he said.

But he acknowledged that new medical research has raised concerns among some lawmakers. One study published in January found a link between heavy marijuana use and memory function. Other studies have found a higher risk of heart attacks among people who use cannabis.

Mallinson said the research on marijuana is “very young,” as many institutions are wary of conducting clinical trials because of federal drug laws. The federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug— the same classification as drugs such as heroin and ecstasy.

“There’s a mixture of science and politics in this area,” he said. “ … I could imagine seeing in these really conservative states like Idaho, you know, this kind of a backlash, like, we don’t want this here at all, so we’re going to try to put up barriers to even considering it.”

A debate headed for the ballot

In Idaho, Skaug said he pursued the state’s new mandatory$300 fine for marijuana possession to bring more consistency to how the state handles marijuana cases.

While Idaho law previously allowed fines of up to $1,000, he said judges had issued fines as low as $2.50.

“So that wasn’t the right message. That’s not even worth the time to write the ticket,” he said. “So it’s not that we’re going to arrest more people for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, but there will be more citations in the amount of $300.”

Skaug also backed a proposed constitutional amendment that would give only the legislature the power to legalize marijuana and other drugs. That question will go to voters next year.

Skaug said he’s worried outside groups would influence a public vote to legalize marijuana by pouring millions into a ballot initiative campaign. If the amendment he supports passes, it wouldn’t ban pot — it would leave legalization up to lawmakers.

“If the evidence comes back that says marijuana or some other drug is positive in the medical community and a good thing, then the legislature can legalize that,” he said. “But we’re going to leave it with the legislature.”

Advocates have been trying without success to get enough signatures to put a medical marijuana question on the ballot for more than a decade in Idaho, said Democratic state Rep. Ilana Rubel. The House minority leader, Rubel said she hit “a firm brick wall” in pitching medical marijuana legislation in Boise, where GOP lawmakers privately tell her they don’t want to look soft on crime.

She views the proposed amendment as another example of the GOP-controlled statehouse being out of touch with regular Idahoans. She said the state’s closed Republican primaries have led to more conservative stances from lawmakers.

“I think this is one of those issues where there is just a huge, huge gap between what the people of Idaho want and what they’re going to get from their legislature,” she said.

A 2022 poll commissioned by the Idaho Statesman found that nearly 70% of Idahoans supported legalizing medical marijuana.

But even discussions about medical marijuana are shut down in Idaho because of concerns about problems with drugs in liberal cities such as Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Rubel said.

“A very large number of red states have legalized medical marijuana, and they haven’t seen any of the parade of horribles that has been presented whenever we introduce this idea,” she said. “There’s just a lot of hysteria and paranoia about where this is going to lead that is really not tied to reality.”

Targeting marijuana potency, revenues

In several states, lawmakers have aimed to restrict the potency of marijuana products.

Montana state Sen. Greg Hertz, a Republican, said he doesn’t want to end recreational marijuana sales, which voters approved in 2020. But he said today’s products are much stronger than people may realize.

“People were voting for Woodstock weed, not this new high-THC marijuana,” he said.

A bill he sponsored this year would have banned sales of recreational marijuana products, including flower and edibles, exceeding THC levels of 15%. Montana currently allows up to 35% THC in flower, with no limit on other products.

That legislation stalled, but Hertz said he plans to pitch a similar measure during Montana’s next legislative session in 2027.

A separate bill reducing the state’s dosage of THC for edibles just passed the legislature. The measure, which now heads to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, would change the individual dosage limit on edibles such as gummies from 10 milligrams to 5 milligrams.

Hertz said the state rushed into its liberalization of marijuana without fully understanding the consequences.

He pointed to state health department data showing rising emergency room visits related to marijuana and dozens of cannabis poisoning cases in recent years — including 36 involving children 10 years or younger.

“We probably opened up the barn door too wide,” he said. “I’m just trying to slow this down a little bit.”

With many states facing gaping budget holes this year, marijuana has proven a popular target from Democrats and Republicans looking to raise revenues without across-the-board tax increases.

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in January proposed hiking the cannabis tax from 9% to 15% to help close the state’s $3 billion budget hole. In March, lawmakers agreed to a budget framework that would raise the state marijuana tax to 12%.

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine proposed doubling marijuana taxes from 10% to 20% — a notion that has so far faced opposition in the legislature.

In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed a new 32% wholesale tax on marijuana growers to help fund road improvements. That tax would be on top of the 10% excise tax on recreational marijuana and the state’s 6% sales tax.

Whitmer said it would close a loophole that has exempted the marijuana industry from wholesale tax, which is applied to cigarettes and other tobacco products. Michigan lawmakers, split sharply along partisan lines, have until Sept. 30 to approve a state budget.

Lawmakers in some states have even taken aim at voter-approved medical marijuana programs this year.

In South Dakota, a bill that failed in committee would have gutted the medical marijuana program overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2020.

In November, Nebraska voters widely supported ballot measures to roll out a medical marijuana program — winning majority support in each of the state’s 49 legislative districts.

But setting up the regulatory scheme has proven controversial, the Nebraska Examiner reported. Lawmakers are pursuing legislation that would define which medical conditions and forms of cannabis would qualify.

Medical marijuana advocates say overly strict rules would hamper the program and undermine the will of voters. But some legislators insist on limitations to prevent widespread access to marijuana.

“We make it legal for anything and everything, it’s essentially recreational marijuana at that point,” state Sen. Rick Holdcroft, a Republican, told the Nebraska Examiner this month.

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

‘Able to happen again’: Local Japanese American historians warn of Trump’s use of 1798 wartime law

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Kay Ochi’s parents were 21 and 22 years old when they were forced to leave San Diego, where they were born, and taken to an incarceration camp in the desert of Poston, Arizona, simply because of their Japanese heritage.

“That was three years of pure hell,” said Ochi, a third-generation Japanese American, or Sansei, who is president of the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego.

Kay Ochi, president of the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego, holds several historical photos taken during the time when San Deigns with Japanese ancestry were taken to internment camps. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The history of how the U.S. incarcerated more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent — most of them U.S. citizens like Ochi’s parents — during World War II is well-documented in museums and archives. It’s a memory that still shapes the identity of generations of Japanese Americans today and is a widely recognized example of how one group of people’s civil rights were ignored and violated.

But now civil rights activists and historians feel they are witnessing a flashback to history as President Donald Trump has invoked the same 227-year-old U.S. law that was used to justify incarcerating the Japanese American community during wartime.

“With the way the administration has gone forward with the executive orders, a lot of things seem to be able to happen again,” said Susan Hasegawa, a local historian of Japanese American history and a professor at San Diego City College.

The Alien Enemies Act, enacted in 1798 when the U.S. was on the brink of war with France, allows the president to detain or deport any “aliens” he considers “dangerous to the peace and safety” of the country.

U.S. presidents have invoked the law only three times before — during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, when it was used to incarcerate people of Japanese, German and Italian descent.

Trump has been invoking the act to justify detaining, deporting and revoking visas for growing numbers of immigrants, largely Venezuelans that his administration has sent, without charges, to a notorious El Salvador prison.

Kay Ochi, president of the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego, sits next to a construction replica of the wall that would be used to create a wall for apartments in the large buildings at the internment camps. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Last week, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to keep deporting people under the law, while saying the administration had to give people the chance to fight their deportations legally. The court didn’t weigh in on the law’s constitutionality.

Civil rights advocates and others have described Trump’s moves as alarming violations of civil rights, including the right to due process.

The danger of the Alien Enemies Act is that it enables such violations, “under the guise of national security,” said Michael Kurima, the co-president of the board of the San Diego chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League.

He noted that the last time the law was invoked, about two-thirds of the people it was used to incarcerate were U.S. citizens.

Historical photos from the archives belonging to the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego. The photo was taken during the time when San Diegans of Japanese ancestry were required to report to the Santa Fe Railway Depot on April 8, 1942. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

“If the Alien Enemies Act is only a first step, then government suppression of dissent could be next,” Kurima said. “What begins with purported gang members from abroad could easily expand to include others — even American citizens — when civil liberties are treated as conditional.”

Critics have also noted that Trump is the only president in history to invoke the act when it’s not wartime as declared by Congress. He has repeatedly referred to unauthorized immigration as an “invasion.”

“The last time it was invoked, it was devastating to a lot of people who had nothing to do with the enemy,” Hasegawa said. “So then to do it again with a targeted group in a non-war time, it’s even more suspicious and scary.”

On Saturday, six local immigrant and refugee artists debuted an art installation at the San Diego Central Library, in collaboration with the local historical society, that shows parallels between the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II and the experiences of immigrants today.

“It’s just horrendous, and we need to understand that it didn’t happen just now,” Shinpei Takeda, director of the AjA Project, whose artist fellows created the installation, said of the return of the Alien Enemies Act. “With art, at least it gives people a chance to talk about it, and it shows that something like this has happened in the past.”

A San Diego community dismantled

When the Alien Enemies Act was last invoked, in 1941, about 2,000 people of Japanese descent, known as Nikkei, were living in San Diego County.

First-generation Japanese immigrants, or Issei, arrived in San Diego starting in the 1880s, with many working in agricultural fields and on railroads. In the decades leading up to World War II, they had made significant contributions to the region’s farming and fishing industries, Ochi said; many worked as fishermen or at tuna canneries in San Diego Bay, and many were farmers, from the Tijuana River Valley up to Oceanside, Hasegawa said.

Issei also ran about 30 small businesses in downtown San Diego, near Fifth Street and Island Avenue, Hasegawa added. There were Japanese-language schools, as well as a Buddhist temple and two Japanese Christian churches.

After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the U.S. moved quickly to begin its forcible removal of Nikkei.

By February, the FBI had arrested about three dozen local Issei whom it had pre-identified as community leaders, among them the leadership of San Diego’s Buddhist temple, Japanese language teachers and instructors of the Japanese martial art kendo, Hasegawa said.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt enacted Executive Order 9066, which mandated the removal of people of Japanese descent from their communities and sent them to incarceration camps. Japanese people were forced to abandon their homes, jobs and businesses.

The vast majority of those from San Diego were sent by train to the Santa Anita racetrack in Los Angeles County, a holding place for thousands being relocated from around Southern California. Then they were shipped to Poston, Arizona — one of 10 camps the U.S. government created to incarcerate people of Japanese descent.

San Diego leaders, meanwhile, supported and praised the incarceration. The San Diego City Council, county Board of Supervisors and Chamber of Commerce all passed measures saying Japanese American residents should be incarcerated or shouldn’t be allowed back to San Diego.

‘Intergenerational trauma’

After their release following the war, Japanese Americans struggled to rebuild their lives, including in San Diego.

Their forced removal and incarceration had decimated Japanese institutions, including the businesses that once existed downtown, Hasegawa said. Many were replaced or unable to rebuild, unlike in larger cities like Los Angeles. And many people were pressured or forced to assimilate by abandoning their language and culture.

For many, the toll on mental health and self-esteem persisted for decades. “Some people say that the resettlement was even harder than the incarceration,” Ochi said. “The emotional toll was even greater and has had lasting impact, intergenerational trauma.”

In 2022, the San Diego City Council formally apologized and revoked the resolution it had passed eight decades earlier to support the incarceration. “It is incredibly important that we identify the racist acts of the past and injustices of the past and address them head-on,” then-Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said at the time. “We can acknowledge the wrong that the city committed.”

To the artists whose work is now on display at the Central Library, addressing those injustices is also paramount, even as their installation examines ways incarcerated Nikkei found to preserve their community.

First-generation Laotian American artist Tarrah Aroonsakool focused on how incarcerated Nikkei used cooking as an act of resilience, adapting recipes to their wartime rations. First-generation Mexican American artist Jazmin Barajas connected parallels between how Japanese and Mexican traditions use altars and shrines to honor the dead, and juxtaposed images of the walls of the Tule Lake incarceration camp with that of the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Historical photos from the archives belonging to the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego. The photo was taken during the time when San Diegans of Japanese ancestry relocated to the Poston Internment Camp. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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The artists said education and accurate descriptions of history are needed to ensure that mass civil rights abuses like the ones Japanese Americans faced are never repeated. If history is sanitized, it can more easily be repeated, the artists said.

“The silencing is exactly what allows these sorts of trajectories to repeat themselves without people realizing the signs,” Barajas said.

Their art installation will be on view at the library through June.