Japanese-Americans Internment Camps During World War II

[adios]

Japanese-Americans Internment Camps During WWII

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States was gripped by war hysteria. This was especially strong along the Pacific coast of the U.S., where residents feared more Japanese attacks on their cities, homes, and businesses. Leaders in California, Oregon, and Washington, demanded that the residents of Japanese ancestry be removed from their homes along the coast and relocated in isolated inland areas. As a result of this pressure, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. More than two-thirds of those interned under the Executive Order were citizens of the United States, and none had ever shown any disloyalty.

Can't figure out if this is more like a facist behavior putting innocent people in concentration camps or more like totalitarian communist behavior in putting innocent people in gulags, you tell me? I guess this is a Roosevelt smear but the fact is that he is accountable for this. In no way can this be construed as anything other than a severe case of illegal government oppression. And if Roosevelt was willing to do this ...

[iron81]

[ QUOTE ]
I guess this is a Roosevelt smear but the fact is that he is accountable for this.

[/ QUOTE ]
You guess wrong.




As for your confusion, I'd say the camps were more similar to Hitler than Stalin. Hitler put people in camps for racial eugenics reasons, Stalin did it because they were perceived as political opponents.

[Nielsio]

[x] It's not fascism when we do it

[iron81]

On the oft chance you're actually replying to me instead of making your standard anti-government point, I just said it was fascism.

[Nielsio]

[ QUOTE ]
On the oft chance you're actually replying to me instead of making your standard anti-government point, I just said it was fascism.

[/ QUOTE ]


It was in response to the OP and in agreement with your post.

[Phil153]

The 1930s and 40s were a very different time to now - far less racially and culturally integrated. The Japanese on the West coast of the US were loyal to their native country and held emperor worshiping ceremonies regularly while war was ongoing. I don't know whether or not they were a credible threat, but they were far from loyal to the US war effort.

A similar situation today would be a hundreds of thousands of recent Muslim immigrants living in closed communities in California, and holding ceremonies where they worship the leadership of Iran while we're at war with Iran. I certainly wouldn't want these people running around near naval and air force bases and largely unprotected factories. Especially if many had never been integrated into the US enough to even speak English.

From what I gather they were treated very humanely under the circumstances, and a comparison with fascism or communism seems unfair. They were potential enemy combatants in a time of widespread war against brutal enemies, where the very survival of freedom was at stake. They were released at the end unharmed.

[Nielsio]

Oh, and PS: I'm disappointed you locked the Bush fascist coup thread. You made a false claim in there and you stifled debate on an important news item.

[mosdef]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know whether or not they were a credible threat, but they were far from loyal to the US war effort.

[/ QUOTE ]

This applies to half of the U.S. population now. Why aren't you advocating rounding up the liberals? Is it because they speak English?

[ QUOTE ]
A similar situation today would be a hundreds of thousands of recent Muslim immigrants living in closed communities in California, and holding ceremonies where they worship the leadership of Iran while we're at war with Iran. I certainly wouldn't want these people running around near naval and air force bases and largely unprotected factories. Especially if many had never been integrated into the US enough to even speak English.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fear of what you don't understand + preventive law enforcement based on subjective probabilites = a very, very dangerous road to go down unless you have some kind of absolute underlying code of conduct to protect individual rights.

[ QUOTE ]
From what I gather they were treated very humanely under the circumstances

[/ QUOTE ]

So you would be okay with being rounded up and penned so long as your treated "humanely" in the pen? What's humane about arresting people that committed no crime other than thinking differently than you?

[ QUOTE ]
They were potential enemy combatants in a time of widespread war against brutal enemies, where the very survival of freedom was at stake.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sloganeering =/= argument. This is just hyperbolic nonsense used to gloss over an act of evil.

[adios]

The Japanese American Cases - A Bigger Disaster than We Realized

I invite you to download this paper and comment on it. Basically refutes everything you claim.

[Phil153]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know whether or not they were a credible threat, but they were far from loyal to the US war effort.

[/ QUOTE ]

This applies to half of the U.S. population now. Why aren't you advocating rounding up the liberals? Is it because they speak English?

[/ QUOTE ]
I was understating the case. These people worshipped the emperor as a God and would have unquestioningly turned on the US had they been commanded to. The capacity for sabotage and disruption was very real, though it was unclear whether they would have been used. There's really no comparison in today's terms.

[ QUOTE ]
Fear of what you don't understand + preventive law enforcement based on subjective probabilites = a very, very dangerous road to go down unless you have some kind of absolute underlying code of conduct to protect individual rights.

[/ QUOTE ]
Perhaps. But I don't see the rights of Japanese Americans being infringed by the government after the war was over. You can give all alarmist stuff you like, but the reality is that none of what you considered very very dangerous ever came to pass.

[ QUOTE ]
So you would be okay with being rounded up and penned so long as your treated "humanely" in the pen? What's humane about arresting people that committed no crime other than thinking differently than you?

[/ QUOTE ]
If Australia (my country) went to war with the US, and I lived in US as a recently immigrant and openly supported Australia, I would expect to be rounded up. It's simply pragmatic to do so.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
They were potential enemy combatants in a time of widespread war against brutal enemies, where the very survival of freedom was at stake.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sloganeering =/= argument. This is just hyperbolic nonsense used to gloss over an act of evil.

[/ QUOTE ]
It's not sloganeering. I don't think people today appreciate how real the threat of conquest was, and how evil our enemies were. This was a very bleak time in the world's history and the survival of the free nations of the world was genuinely threatened. To leave anything to chance seems foolish to me. I'm glad that harder heads were around in those days than exist today.