Never forget the internment camps for Japanese - Americans !
“Never forget the internment camps for Japanese - Americans !”
sushiman ought to work on his own memory.
Some Italian-Americans were put in camps, circa 30,000.
By some accounts, Germans were too in slightly smaller numbers. A fair number of citizens of German descent still live, who lived through it all and were convinced that if they put a foot wrong, they’d get taken to a camp next. I’ve heard their stories direct from survivors.
If sushiman’s point is that the United States did not live up to its “ideals” during time of war, I concede. I remark only parenthetically that unpleasantness happens. The forum might already know:
1. Before WWII a number of nativist/heritage/solidarity groups existed, recruiting American descendents of immigrants, unapologetically proclaiming approval of and support for the actions of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. In no way can it be called idle fancy, to have suspected a Fifth Column threat from these groups.
Before America’s entry into the First World War, Arthur Zimmermann, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the government of Imperial Germany, told the American ambassador to Berlin that “We have half a million reservists already trained and inside your borders. Don’t try anything funny (like allying with Britain).” Pretending that every such sentiment and attitude was gone before 1941 would be foolhardy.
On 7 December 1941, an individual of Japanese descent was a foreman on a sugar plantation on one of the smaller Hawaiian islands. When he saw the Imperial Japanese Naval strike force fly by, he was heard to say, “It’s about time!” or something similar. With invasion imminent (by his reckoning), he pulled a gun and began ordering the workers about to welcome the IJN Marines. A burly native fieldworker proceeded to beat the guy to death. Sound crazy? I thought so too, but it appeared on History Channel some years ago; cited as evidence even the Left, which produces most of HC’s content, is unable to wish away.
2. The relocation to camps of Americans of Japanese descent was dreamed up by Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trust, approved by FDR, and prosecuted with zeal by Earl Warren. Yes, that’s the very same Earl Warren who later ascended to the Supreme Court. None of these guys could be confused with a backward-looking, benighted conservative.
3. Ugly things happen. They happen more often during wars. Repetitive? Possibly. It bears repeating, if only because such a large number of citizens still believe that wars can be done quickly, nicely, on the cheap, in a hurry, without blunders.
The Japanese-American camp situation has not been played up because anyone owns a sense of outrage, social justice, or fairness. It’s been done because the Left enjoys guilt pushing, and it became just one more way to extort cash from the public.
“Never forget the internment camps for Japanese - Americans !”
sushiman ought to work on his own memory.
Some Italian-Americans were put in camps, circa 30,000.
By some accounts, Germans were too in slightly smaller numbers. A fair number of citizens of German descent still live, who lived through it all and were convinced that if they put a foot wrong, they’d get taken to a camp next. I’ve heard their stories direct from survivors.
If sushiman’s point is that the United States did not live up to its “ideals” during time of war, I concede. I remark only parenthetically that unpleasantness happens. The forum might already know:
1. Before WWII a number of nativist/heritage/solidarity groups existed, recruiting American descendents of immigrants, unapologetically proclaiming approval of and support for the actions of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. In no way can it be called idle fancy, to have suspected a Fifth Column threat from these groups.
Before America’s entry into the First World War, Arthur Zimmermann, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the government of Imperial Germany, told the American ambassador to Berlin that “We have half a million reservists already trained and inside your borders. Don’t try anything funny (like allying with Britain).” Pretending that every such sentiment and attitude was gone before 1941 would be foolhardy.
On 7 December 1941, an individual of Japanese descent was a foreman on a sugar plantation on one of the smaller Hawaiian islands. When he saw the Imperial Japanese Naval strike force fly by, he was heard to say, “It’s about time!” or something similar. With invasion imminent (by his reckoning), he pulled a gun and began ordering the workers about to welcome the IJN Marines. A burly native fieldworker proceeded to beat the guy to death. Sound crazy? I thought so too, but it appeared on History Channel some years ago; cited as evidence even the Left, which produces most of HC’s content, is unable to wish away.
2. The relocation to camps of Americans of Japanese descent was dreamed up by Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trust, approved by FDR, and prosecuted with zeal by Earl Warren. Yes, that’s the very same Earl Warren who later ascended to the Supreme Court. None of these guys could be confused with a backward-looking, benighted conservative.
3. Ugly things happen. They happen more often during wars. Repetitive? Possibly. It bears repeating, if only because such a large number of citizens still believe that wars can be done quickly, nicely, on the cheap, in a hurry, without blunders.
The Japanese-American camp situation has not been played up because anyone owns a sense of outrage, social justice, or fairness. It’s been done because the Left enjoys guilt pushing, and it became just one more way to extort cash from the public.