That was wrong. It goes against everything that I hold dear. I firmly believe that an American is an American until he proves himself otherwise. It has to be. It must be. Anything else is unacceptable.
By the way, in case there are any J. Edgar Hoover haters out there, he was one of the few in FDR’s administration who was against the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans.
Now, let’s look at what happened in 1942. The simple fact revolves around two things. First, there were a few greedy men. Putting the Japanese-Americans in prisons (for that is what they were) was a good way to grab (feel free to translate “grab” to “steal”) some property. Second, there were one hell of a lot of very scared people in those days. What those scared people went along with may not have been right, but it just may have been a natural reaction.
While we’re talking about this 1942 business, just remember how many millions of Chinese that the Japs murdered. Have you heard of “The rape of Nanking?” And, with respect to Americans, any Americans living in Japan didn’t exactly live the life of Riley. Do you want to talk about the Jap death and slave camps, sometimes foolishly called “prisoner of war camps?” I believe that I am correct in saying that the death rate for the prisoners was about 28%; that’s roughly seven times the death rate that existed in Kraut POW camps.
Now, don’t let the previous paragraph make you think that I am back-peddling on my first paragraph. I was merely stating the fact that, sometimes, hate and fear can override good sense and justice.
Let’s switch to the latter years of the Twentieth Century. I cannot see how what happened to Japanese-Americans in 1942 can be justified by anybody with any sense at all. But let’s also get real. If you want to pick on somebody now, what about the Japs and Krauts (or “Huns” if you prefer) from about 1935 until about 1945? For cripe’s sake, tens of millions of people were killed because of those guys.
By the way, if you don’t like the use of the phrase “Japs and Krauts,” I don’t care because that’s what they were in 1942. If you still think I’m insensitive and you still have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, try to take an objective look and remove any slant of America always being the bad guy.
