When federal troops deploy in a city without consent from its state, the official reason is often “to restore public order.”
But as we’ve seen this week in Los Angeles, and as history warns us, that phrase carries more than a logistical or legal meaning.
It carries weight—the kind that can crush dissent, erase autonomy, and silence the vulnerable.
This week, mass protests broke out in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdowns.
ICE （Immigration and Customs Enforcement）raids targeted workplaces and communities.
In response to the unrest, the federal government dispatched National Guard units and even Marines—without the approval of California’s state leadership.
The stated reason? Restoring order.
But whose order? And at what cost?
Echoes from 1933
Ninety-two years ago, another leader used similar language to justify extraordinary federal intervention.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler used the Reichstag fire—a suspiciously convenient act of arson—as a reason to declare a national emergency.
Citing “public safety,” he suspended civil liberties and gained the authority to override Germany’s federal states.
One of the last holdouts was Bavaria.
Its Minister President, Heinrich Held, resisted Hitler’s push for centralization.
He insisted Bavaria could maintain order on its own. He even threatened to mobilize a 30,000-man militia to protect state autonomy.
But Hitler didn’t need consent—he needed chaos.
His stormtroopers manufactured street unrest. With “order” now visibly broken, he invoked emergency powers and forcibly removed Held from office.
The pattern was set: engineer a crisis, then step in as the only solution.
From Policy to People
This pattern is not just historical.
According to a recent Nikkei Deep Insight article, a Venezuelan student living in New York was suddenly detained during an ICE court hearing.
He was supporting his family while attending school—until his visa was revoked on the spot.
His principal described it as “losing a child.”
This was not abstract policy. This was a life interrupted, a future erased.
That is what “public order” can do when wielded as a blunt instrument. It doesn’t just clear streets.
It quietly erases stories, dreams, and people.
Japan: Looking Ahead
Japan, too, is approaching a demographic turning point.
The foreign population is projected to reach over 10% by 2050.
Yet, as Nikkei notes, Japan still lacks a coherent immigration philosophy. Foreign workers are often treated as stopgap labor, not as members of society.
The former head of the National Police Agency, Koji Kunimatsu, recently called for a national framework for foreign integration—not as an emergency response, but as a deliberate social contract.
This is the choice: to shape a society with intention, or to wait for “disorder” and react with force.
Final Thoughts
The phrase “public order” sounds noble.
But history shows us that it is often a mask—one that hides coercion, exclusion, and fear.
So we must ask:
When we defend order, whose silence are we accepting?
And what kind of society are we quietly building in its name? ◾️
Sources:
- The Atlantic (June 10, 2025): “Hitler Used a Bogus Crisis of ‘Public Order’ to Make Himself Dictator” by Timothy W. Ryback
- NHK (June 11, 2025): “Why Protests in Los Angeles Turned Violent”
- Nikkei Deep Insight (June 13, 2025): “Can Japan Avoid the U.S. Trap of Unplanned Immigration?”