Since no one else mentioned it... Japanese Internment Camps

[Shiloh Raven]

75 years ago today, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 - Feb 19, 1942 - HISTORY.com

 

[Shiloh Raven]

George Takei: On this Remembrance Day, I hear terrible echoes of the past

A chilling moment to mark the 75th anniversary of the executive order that led to Japanese American internment

 

[archer75]

This should not be forgotten.

 

[Hank77]

We didn't just around them up and put them on reservations (that is basically what they were), we stole their property, their businesses, their homes, their money, and their dignity.

 

[JackRT]

We didn't just around them up and put them on reservations (that is basically what they were), we stole their property, their businesses, their homes, their money, and their dignity.

And many of them were already citizens. Their constitutional were simply flushed down the drain. Same thing happened in Canada.

 

[faroukfarouk]

On February 19th, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, incarcerating 120 million Japanese Americans. It was 75 years ago today.

Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 - Feb 19, 1942 - HISTORY.com

Similar camps were also opened in Canada.

 

[JackRT]

About 1960 my company commander in the Canadian Army was Capt Yoshio Nakamura. Several years later after my commission he told me "When I was in my teens they put me in a concentration camp and then to cap it off they drafted me." That is somewhat of a delicious irony.

 

[faroukfarouk]

PS: Interestingly, Pierre Salinger, JKF's press secretary, wrote in his Autobiography that a Japanese civilian known to his family in California was indeed found to be a spy for Imperial Japan.

There was without doubt excess and overreaction. There seems also to have been some truth to the authorities' fears.

Some of the antagonism was undoubtedly racist. Even last year, in British Columbia there was imposed a foreigner tax on property buyers before a humiliating climb down occurred. In BC some people use euphemisms such as 'opting for the stability of the district' in order to try to coordinate through realtors an attempted racial bar on property buyers.

 

[faroukfarouk]

About 1960 my company commander in the Canadian Army was Capt Yoshio Nakamura. Several years later after my commission he told me "When I was in my teens they put me in a concentration camp and then to cap it off they drafted me." That is somewhat of a delicious irony.

Kind of begs the question from the warped logic, if he couldn't be trusted even to be himself, how could he be trusted to bear arms for the country?

 

[keith99]

About 1960 my company commander in the Canadian Army was Capt Yoshio Nakamura. Several years later after my commission he told me "When I was in my teens they put me in a concentration camp and then to cap it off they drafted me." That is somewhat of a delicious irony.

At least the U.S. had the decency to ask for volunteers! I always forget the number so I looked it up and it seems that the majority of those in the 442nd were recruited from in the camps.

The 442nd is the most decorated U.S. military unit of all time.

 

[JackRT]

At least the U.S. had the decency to ask for volunteers! I always forget the number so I looked it up and it seems that the majority of those in the 442nd were recruited from in the camps.

The 442nd is the most decorated U.S. military unit of all time.

Yes, they wanted to be sent to the Pacific to fight the Japanese but they were instead sent to Europe. I am not sure if they were being deliberately tested but they were given some of the very roughest assignments.

 

[Fantine]

Isn't there a parallel? The Japanese were the first to launch an attack on US soil--and they were "others," different racially, ethnically, and spiritually.

Middle Eastern Muslims ere the second to launch an attack on US soil--and they are "others," different racially, ethnically, and spiritually.

Of course, that doesn't explain the deportation of Hispanics---but it does explain the anti-Muslim sentiment.

The other parallel between FDR and DJT--

FDR had fireside chats..

Trump has flaming tweets...

 

[keith99]

Yes, they wanted to be sent to the Pacific to fight the Japanese but they were instead sent to Europe. I am not sure if they were being deliberately tested but they were given some of the very roughest assignments.

I have articles that go much farther than saying they were tested, rather that a specific officer above the regimental level was a racist and was quite happy to use the 442nd as cannon fodder.

 

[faroukfarouk]

And many of them were already citizens. Their constitutional were simply flushed down the drain. Same thing happened in Canada.

It's a bit like some Ontario Anglophones in WW2 - knowing that a majority of Quebecois did not favor overseas conscription - insisting on conscription for what they euphemistically called 'psychological reasons'.

 

[tadoflamb]

75 years ago today, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 - Feb 19, 1942 - HISTORY.com

Thanks for this Red Fox. I've been sitting on this all week and if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have known about.

I had a lot of time to think over the three day weekend as I walked about in the rain in red rock country. My thoughts kept returning to what we're doing to Muslims and to Mexican and Central American immigrants and how it's nothing new considering how we've treated the Japanese, Chinese, Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants that came before them. It's embarrassing to me that, once again, we're choosing to scapegoat entire classes of people as the cause of all our problems and the root of all our fears.

That, and the way America has treated and continues to treat it's First People, something tells me that there's something terribly wrong with the current direction of the political right and the Christians who have aligned themselves with them.

 

[tadoflamb]

Yesterday I went birding at Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Area in the Catalina mountains. It's named after a Japanese/American who sensibly resisted the internment camps. Among it's prisoners, the camp held some conscientious objectors including several Hopi. It's an interesting place to visit with a lot of the stone works still visible. Here's a couple links on Gordon Hirabayashi.

Coronado National Forest - Gordon Hirabayashi Campground

Gordon Hirabayashi - Wikipedia