[Hemingway's Ghost]

I don't believe it is clear that the interment camps were "mistakes". If even 0.01% of those Japanese jailed had a tendency to be enemy agents, jailing them saved untold American lives, and may have cut years from the war.

Still, we didn't inter those with German or Italian ancestry, and we still managed to defeat them . . . before we defeated Japan.

[E Rocc]

Still, we didn't inter those with German or Italian ancestry, and we still managed to defeat them . . . before we defeated Japan.

The Germans and Italians weren't a visible minority seen as "unfair" economic competition.

-Eric

[norton]

"I don't believe it is clear that the interment camps were "mistakes". If even 0.01% of those Japanese jailed had a tendency to be enemy agents, jailing them saved untold American lives, and may have cut years from the war. Still, we didn't inter those with German or Italian ancestry, and we still managed to defeat them . . . before we defeated Japan..."

This is off subject, sort of, but Germans were one of two largest minorities in the USA in 1941, a lot of organizations were shut down and/or put under close watch in any event.

Japanese (asians) were much smaller minority, more insular, and not yet well accepted even on the west coast where they had been for generations. That and the fact that it was Japan that bombed US facilities & not Germany or Italy. The original round-up and vetting of an entire community was probably justified but the huge loss of property continued confinement afterward should not have been allowed.

("It's FDR's fault")

[petitfour]

There were internment camps in central Alabama for Germans. When I lived in Alabama, there were news stories about the camps. There must have been an anniversary date of them being released or something. But I could be crazy, and my memory could be flawed.