By Kim Glovas

VILLANOVA, Pa. (CBS) — Like Philadelphia (see related story), Villanova University has a “One Book” author which it celebrates each year.

This year, Villanova has selected Jamie Ford, author of Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, as its  “One Book Villanova” author.  He’ll be appearing at the school tonight, at 7:30pm.

The book is about the Japanese internment camps of World War II and their effect on a community — and in particular two children who have become friends: one Chinese and one Japanese.

Click To Listen To Kim Glovas’ Full Interview with author Jamie Ford in this KYW Specials Place Podcast

Ford says the discrimination and misguided policies of that era are something that transcend time.

“We make really poor decisions out of fear and panic, knee-jerk reactions,” he tells KYW Newsradio.  “We get into unnecessary wars, we do things that we regret later that, at the time, in the heat of the emotion, it seemed to make sense and validate what we did.”

He says the same kind of poor decisions and reactions came after 9/11 and are still being played out on the border with Mexico over immigration.

He says we still have a way to go to deal with these issues and process them, without fear.