This for me is the telling detail. Not merely that they were rounded up during the hysteria of the opening days of the war, but that their properties were seized and never returned, and their losses were never made whole.
I am no fan of Roosevelt's, and this is another example. The first being his economic ineptitude which turned a stock market crash into a decade of stagnation, the second being his failure to prepare the country for war, despite having two terms of office to see it coming, and respond; the third being his unwillingness to support anti-lynching laws, the forth being the return of jewish refugees to their deaths, the fifth being the internment of Japanese Americans and the failure to compensate them, the sixth being his weakness at Yalta.
In retrospect it is easy to say that the internment was wrong, and that it was a racist response to treat Japanese Americans as enemy aliens. But it was the willingness of young Japanese American men to serve in combat that made the difference in our view of it. Now, in our present situation where we are under attack by muslim fascists, I can see how easy it would be to do the same in this case. I can see how very different has been Bush's response from Roosevelt's, how Bush has bent over backward to avoid stigmatizing people who have not been shown to be enemies.
But I also see another big difference, as muslims seem unwilling to join other Americans in the defense of the country. A few have, to be sure, but never in the numbers that the Japanese Americans did.
We have the WW2 internment as history to look back on, and it is because of this that we are so careful now. We didn't have this history then. That is one big difference. But as I say, it wouldn't take too many more 9/11s before we started aggressive deportations now.
I can only parrot what others have previously said, but I firmly believe that it bears repeating.
Rounding up all the Japanese-Americans on the West Coast was and remains unconscionable and indefensible. No traitors were identified from those interned in the camps.
The Americans who were sent to the camps were hardworking and loyal. They wanted nothing more than a better life for themselves and their children. Some came here themselves, some were born in this country. They were loyal Americans, who were judged only on the color of their skin.
The mark on our history is made even blacker when you remember that these loyal Americans had their property stripped from them with token recompense if anything. The homes that they had worked to buy, the businesses that they had worked to build were stolen from them forever.
That so many of them went on to honorable service in the war doubly shames the Americans who supported internment, then and now. They could have responded with bitterness and hatred for America, but they instead proved themselves to be the equal of any American.
Malkin is an idiot. I find it scary that anyone could take her the slightest bit seriously when she writes something like this. Shame on her.
Its 'relocation' thats a little tougher to defend. I hope Michelle doesn't try to, but I'll reserve judgment till I see her book.