My wife’s grandfather was an immigrant from Germany. He earned his citizenship by fighting in the Spanish American War. He became a teacher. During WWI he was fired from his job, their house and all their possessions were burned to the ground. They relocated to a different state; they were penniless and what few clothes they had turned to rags. It was only by the grace of God that they didn’t starve and managed not to die of exposure.
During WWII there were many Japanese who openly practiced the Shinto “religion” which meant at that time that they worshipped the Emperor Hirohito as a God. Many sent their children to Japanese schools which taught the superiority of the Japanese over all other peoples. The Japanese had plans to attack the West Coast of the United States. Anyone who thinks that it was not prudent to place them in internment camps is not aware of all of the circumstances from that time period. The best intelligence available was used to make the determination of what should be done.
My wife and I set up living history displays and give presentations at schools, museums, and for community and military groups. We have some Japanese friends who do the same type of thing trying to “educate” people about the Japanese internment during WWII. We always cringe because they constantly refer to the internment camps as “concentration camps” and make other comparisons to the Nazis which is completely inaccurate. My wife’s grandparents would have been very happy if during WWI they would have been at least given a place to stay, warm clothing and food.
The progressive rewriting of history is very disturbing when even people who consider themselves to be Republicans supporting Jeb Bush feel that the internment of the Japanese was wrong. Those who know the true history know that it was not wrong... a credible threat was addressed the best way they could figure out during a war time crisis. War is not fair... it is what it is... Hell.
Re post 205:
Great post.