Fine example of pro-reperations brainwashing
Take a read at how one young person celebrated Pearl Harbor Day. Who do you think is putting such ideas in the minds of our young people. Your taxpayer dollars being spent by the Japanese American Reperations Movement.
http://seattlest.com/2007/12/07/sorry_fdr_but_d.php#comments
December 7, 2007
Sorry, FDR, But December 7th Probably Lives in Less Infamy Than Your Internment Order
The most unfortunate victims of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor--which happened 66 years ago today--were surely the 2,333 military personnel who lost their lives.
FDR called it, "a date which will live in infamy." Perhaps in 1941, a surprise attack on another country's military was infamous. But considering that in 1986 the U.S. launched a surprise attack on another country's civilians, 12/7 looks a lot less infamous than the direct domestic aftermath, felt especially keenly here in the Northwest.
The 2nd-most unfortunate victims of Pearl Harbor were thousands of Americans of Japanese descent who, in response to the attack, were unlawfully forced into internment camps. (The 3rd-most unfortunate victims were the 26 people who saw the Michael Bay film.)
Though President Reagan eventually signed legislation apologizing for internment and providing restitution to surviving victims, internment remains a controversial issue.
Case in point #1: When we were at NYU, a history professor lecturing on WWII called "ridiculous" the assertion that the U.S. only dropped the bomb on Japan because the Japanese are Asian, that we wouldn't have used the bomb on Germany because Germans are white.
"Well," someone piped up, "but we interned people of Japanese descent during the war, and not those of German descent."
"Yes, but Japanese-Americans weren't as integrated into society as German-Americans," he said.
We knew that was wrong.
"No, that's not true," we said. "I'm from Seattle, and there Japanese-Americans attended integrated schools, played baseball, spoke only English--they were no less American than anyone else, and yet they were interned, too."
"Were you there?" he said, coldly. We responded in the negative. "Well then you really don't know what happened, do you?"
Case in point #2: A 2004 Cornell poll found that 44% of Americans favor curtailing the civil rights of Muslim-Americans. The current administration hasn't gone anywhere near that far (instead choosing to curtail everyone's civil rights), but another Pearl Harbor/9-11 like attack could spur a law & order administration (We're looking at you, Giuliani), to consider internment again. Surely public opinion would be behind them.
FDR's decision to intern Japanese-Americans has been justified by some who say that Japanese-Americans may have been safer in the camps. To wit, this 12/8/1941 statement by then-Seattle-mayor Earl Millikin (courtesy NW Historylink): "Seattle must have tolerance toward American-born Japanese, most of whom are loyal. But I also want to warn the Japanese that they must not congregate or make any utterance that could be used as grounds for reprisals."
That same day, adds HistoryLink essayist Greg Lange, "Seattle Police Chief Herbert Kimsey announced that patrols would be placed around the 'Japanese quarter' and stated that anti-Japanese riots would be 'crushed with force.'
Instead of condemning this local racism gone amok, FDR justified it. Let's hope a future president doesn't repeat his infamous mistake.
For more, check out this essay on Bainbridge Island's Japanese American internment by Seattle Prep student Jack Hanley. Hanley won first place in a HistoryLink essay competition for the piece. Hanley's also one of the top returning players on the Prep basketball team. Word!
posted by Friends of Historical Accuracy @ 1:19 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
This young mush head may be able to get his Ph.D in education without much rework on his thesis. Unfortunatley, the sentiments expressed by this young author sound like talking points from the left-wing of our current Dem party (Jay Inslee/McDermott/Durban/Reid) or the latest missive from Densho's Tom Ideda.
In a century that saw two world wars, rise of Communism and other virulent evil movements, this author is ready to assign #2 spot to relocation. During WWII overall deaths were in the 60 million range with collapse of government and economies in Asia and Europe. We had 100 million dead from the various flavors of Communist tyranny.
This author needs to take the blinders off and to study real pain and suffering before he casts his vote for #2. Executive Order 9066 is a mere footnote to WWII, one of perhaps thousands. Japanese historical revisionism about relocation clearly makes the short list of audacious use of propaganda and manipulation. This young mush head is a great cases in point
JMO
German Americans on the east coast and throughout the country were arrested, interned, and in some cases deported. Almost 11,000 German Americans were interned in the U.S. during World War II. Many German Americans sat, worked, played and went to school in the same camps as their Japanese American counterparts.
Furthermore even before the first ethnic Japanese was interned, 600,000 Italian Americans and 300,000 German Americans were deprived of their civil liberties when they (all persons, male and female, age 14 and older) were required to register as "Alien Enemies." This registration entailed photographing, fingerprinting and the issuance of identification cards which the Alien Enemies had to have on their possession at all times. In addition they were forbidden: to fly; to leave their neighborhoods; to possess cameras, short-wave radio receivers, and firearms. Finally, these persons were required to report any change of employment or address to the Department of Justice.
That said, The Tolan committee looked very closely at the need to evacuate Germans and Italians from the West Coast combat zones, also.
It was learned that the vast majority of the German enemy aliens were Jewish Germans who had escaped Hitler's oppression starting in the early 1930's. The Italians were by and large illiterate farmers who had never gotten around to applying for citizenship.
After careful thought and discussion it was decided these people were not a threat to the West Coast combat zones to the extent the ethnic Japanese were a threat.
To argue there must be some kind of proportionality between Germans and Japanese because they both happen to be the enemy without acknowledging the extent of the security threat from ethnic Germans compared to ethnic Japanese is poor logic.
THANKS SO MUCH FOR BRINGING TO LIGHT THE DISINFORMATION WE HAVE BEEN SHOVELLED FOR DECADES.IF YOU LISTENED TO TODAY'S HISTORIANS,BLACK PEOPLE ARE THE ONLY OPPRESSED PEOPLES IN AMERICAN HISTORY.GET INTO THE TIME MACHINE AND COMPARE THE CONDITIONS OF CHINESE SLAVES THAT BUILT THE TRANS PACIFIC RAILROAD TO THE COTTON PICKERS OF SOUTHERN PLANTATIONS. THE DEATH TOLL PERCENTAGE IS STAGGERING AMOUNG THE CHINESE.THESE PEOPLE WERE A CHEAP EXPENDABLE COMMODITY WHERE AS THE AVERAGE "NEGRO" WAS WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN SILVER,AND TREATED BETTER THAN MOST OF THE WHITE WORKERS IN THE SOUTH.I AM NOT IN ANY WAY SUGGESTING SLAVERY OF ANY KIND IS ACCEPTABLE,BUT THE STARK DIFFERENCES AND OMITTED PEOPLES LIKE THE INTERNED GERMANS AND JAPANESE DURING WARTIME NEED MORE CLASSROOM TIME.WE ALL HAVE HORRORS IN OUR CULTURE IF YOU GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF MANKIND. MY FOREFATHERS WERE SACKED BY MOORS, HUNS,VIKINGS,ROMANS,GAULS AND SAXONS. IMAGINE MY REPARATION GRANTS! JOHN TRIPP,SCARBOROUGH,ME.
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