N.C. Congressman OK With Internment Camps

AP ^

[CounterCounterCulture]

Related threads...

N.C. Congressman Says Internment of Japanese-Americans During World War II Was Appropriate

Lawmaker's defense of internment called `preposterous' and `ignorant'

And here's a classic...
60th Anniversary of Japanese Internment by FDR - Executive Order 9066

[DoughtyOne]

To: DoughtyOne

Their homes, businesses and vehicles were liquidated. As far as I know, they never got them back or adequate financial restitution.

The Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act, passed by Congress in 1948 provided $38 million for property losses.

If the Japanese internees were compensated fairly, I stand corrected.  I have some doubt about that, since this issue was addressed again in the 1980s.  For your information, I opposed the 1980s reimbursements.  There's no way to reimburse people in a reasoned verifiable manner 40 years after the fact.

How much did the Japanese government compensate American citizens for forcing them into slave labor camps?

Do you think we should adopt the human rights policies of Iraq, North Korea, Syria or Japan whenever the mood strikes us?  The idea is to neutralize any threat to the United States.  It is not to inflict equal pain on people who were born in a nation with which hostilities have broken out.

As for your distress over the "inhumane" way the relocation was handled; Somebody had to do something quickly. If the Emporer had told us in 1940 that he was going to attack Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941, there would have been adequate time to come up with a "humane" plan.

Quite frankly, I don't like your tone.  I have not defended enemies of American here.  I am defending men women and children most of whom were not hostile to the United States.  If you can't stomach that, head on off to some hate site and have a ball.

The only families split up, that I'm aware of, were the ones that had members sent to Tule Lake, California. That camp consisted of people who asked to be repatriated to Japan, or answered "no" to a loyalty questionaire, or who the FBI had evidence of disloyalty against.

That may be true.  I have seen interviews with grown up Japanese Americans who experienced the relocation camps.  I saw one recently.  He described the pain of being separated from his father for a number of years, not knowing if he was alive or not.  Yep, that's right, I do feel sorry for the little kid who had nothing to do with the war.

19,000 Japanese or Japanese-American citizens asked for repatriation and 8,000 actually went back. 3,500 renounced their American citizenship. 1942 was not the time to be politically correct.

Treating people humanely is not politically correct.  It's humane.

14 posted on 02/06/2003 11:57 AM PST by jackliberty

[Eala]

I have long favored an internment camp for congressmen.

State legislators too.

[JusticeLives]

May I ask what comment of mine you're referring to?
I wasn't addressing Howard Coble, personally. It was a general comment to the statment made by Ambrose:
"Interesting that a Republican can get in trouble for agreeing with a Democrat policy."

I'm sure Mr. Howard Cole is a nice man. JL

[DoughtyOne]

LOL, and a return to the unAmerican activities hearings.

[tessalu]

Islam is at odds with democracy, so anyone who supports Islam should be removed from the USA for safety reasons, and just where they should be sent is not of my concern, just so long as they are gone.

[Physicist]

howard coble is a fine and honorable man ...have known him for years and he doesnt deserve these comment.

Then why does he hold such an anti-Constitutional opinion?

The internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII is the most shameful stain on the history of the U.S., with the sole exception of slavery.

[tessalu]

I happen to know a Japanese family that owned a farm in California when they were interred, and when they came home, they went right back to their farm. Some of the trees in their orchard died, but they planted strawberries in the empty spaces. All of the Japanese, who were interred got payment for this, but my relative is married to a man who was only a fetus when his mother was interred, and he did not get any payment, for he was yet unborn. His brothers and sisters got payment.

[aristeides]

The internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII is the most shameful stain on the history of the U.S., with the sole exception of slavery.

More shameful than our treatment of Indians? That's ridiculous.

Personally, I believe Coble is right, and that the internment was right, thus not shameful at all. I believe that largely on the basis of the evidence in the Lowman book I referenced above. Before you judge the policy, I think you should read that book.

[DoughtyOne]

I think it was an unfortunate situation, but I do not view it in the same terms you do. What if only ten of the people taken into the internment camps were spys? What if their communiques had tipped the Japanese to the vulnerability of our west coast? What if our west coast had come under attack?

Do you seriously think those Japanese Americans would have been safe in that atmosphere? All you have to do is check out some of the posts on this forum from time to time, to see the animosity that still lingers in some minds.

I'm not convinced that if policies had been implemented more to your liking, that the Japanese Americans would have been better off in the long run.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you for the comment. I was unaware that any internees got their property back.

[staytrue]

120,000 japanese americans were interned. 38 million dollars means about 300 dollars per person or for a family of 5, about 1500 dollars per family. 1500 dollars is not a huge sum of money even in 1948.

[Barney Gumble]

Very good point regarding our POWs. The Japanese government hasn't even really apologized for it much less give compensation to the POWs. The Japanese always complain about the bomb every August, but they quickly forget their countless atrcoties against peoples such as the Chinese or the Koreans.

Real Japanese people are quite racist (and sexist). When I was there, I wasn't allow to go into a resturant because I was white! Imagine that here! Ask any real Koreans or Chinese if the Japanese like them.

[jackliberty]

Quite frankly, I don't like your tone. I have not defended enemies of American here.

You seem to be looking for a fight where there shouldn't be one. Nothing in my remarks implied that you were defending enemies of America.

And your snide comment about us adopting standards of Japan was a total inversion of my statement. We compensated the people; Japan didn't. We treated the Japanese-Americans humanely; Japan didn't do the same for Americans.

You keep talking about "humane". The relocation camps were a lot more humane than you think; 4,5000 Japanese-Americans left the camps to go to college, $4 million was allocated to help others start businesses. Money from crops left behind were deposited in the peoples' accounts.

And people could leave the camps at any time to live anywhere other than the West Coast.

You're looking at 1942 through the prism of 2000. In 1942, the outcome of the war was not certain; In 2000, the outcome is well known. In 1942, there was espionage and spying that could have tipped the outcome and who was or was not a spy or Japanese sympathiser was not apparent. The government response may have been overboard (in today's prism) but it was as humane as possible.

Listening to stories of separation can be wrenching. Next time you hear one, ask the speaker what his father did to get sent to Tule Lake rather than Nebraska.

[TheMole]

Coble's comments were dumb dumb dumb. He could at least have mentioned the participation of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. armed forces in WW2 (in rather stark contrast with the expressed attitudes of Muslim Americans today). He might have spoken a little more knowledgeably of the Republican Party's historical positions, which stand up quite favorably today. And speaking of Republicans, yes of course they're held to a higher standard than Democrats. Yes of course it's because the media and academia hate Republicans, and of course it's an unfair double standard. But, you know what? It's a good thing. It means sleazeballs and buffoons among the Republicans are eliminated from positions of authority, and that stands in bold counterpoint to the situation with the Democrats. This is slowly sinking into the electorate.

[aristeides]

I think Coble was focusing on the question of possibly having to intern Moslems in America now, and that the mention of the 1942 internment of the Japanese was tangential. So for him to say anything further about the Japanese-Americans in WWII than he did would not have been germane to the point he was making.

[dpa5923]

That was a good answer!

[jackliberty]

Very good point regarding our POWs

It wasn't just POWs. American civilians captured when Japan took Wake Island were sent to the homeland to be used as slave labor as well.

The relocation of Japanese and Japanese-Americans was not the "inhumane" episode it's been portrayed as. It was a prudent step (as viewed in 1942) that was handled better by this country than it would have been by any other country.

The Japanese-Americans who blame us for the policy should, instead, blame Japan for their plight.

Why don't we hear any complaints from the 10,000 Germans or 3,200 Italians interred? Especially since they weren't returned home until 1948 when the Japanese were returned in 1946. Why hasn't their plight become a cause celebre (sp)?