World War II: Internment of Japanese Americans (The Atlantic photo-essay)

[pokerfan]

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the secretary of war to designate military zones within the U.S. from which "any or all persons may be excluded." While the order was not targeted at any specific group, it became the basis for the mass relocation and internment of some 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, including both U.S. citizens and non-citizens. In March 1942, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, commander of the U.S. Army Western Defense Command, issued several public proclamations which established a massive exclusion zone along the west coast and demanded that all persons of Japanese ancestry report to civilian assembly centers. On short notice, thousands were forced to close businesses, abandon farms and homes, and move into remote internment camps, also called relocation centers. Some of the detainees were repatriated to Japan, some moved to other parts of the U.S. outside of the exclusion zones, and a number even enlisted with the U.S. Army, but most simply endured their internment in frustrated resignation. In January 1944, a Supreme Court ruling halted the detention of U.S. citizens without cause. The exclusion order was rescinded, and the Japanese Americans began to leave the camps, most returning to rebuild their former lives. The last camp closed in 1946, and by the end of the 20th century some $1.6 billion in reparations were paid to detainees and their descendants by the U.S. government. (This entry is Part 10 of a weekly 20-part retrospective of World War II)

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/08/world-war-ii-internment-of-japanese-americans/100132 (45 photos)





Now if you think you do have rights, one last assignment for you. Next time you're at the computer, get on the Internet, go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia, I want you to type in "Japanese Americans 1942" and you'll find out all about your precious fucking rights, Okay? All right. You know about it. In 1942, there were 110,000 Japanese American citizens in good standing, law-abiding people who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That's all they did wrong. They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had: "Right this way" into the internment camps! Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took them away! And rights aren't rights if someone can take them away. They're privileges. That's all we've ever had in this country, is a bill of temporary privileges. And if you read the news even badly, you know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter. You see all, sooner or later. Sooner or later, the people in this country are gonna realize the government does not give a fuck about them! The government doesn't care about you, or your children, or your rights, or your welfare or your safety. It simply does not give a fuck about you! It's interested in its own power. That's the only thing. Keeping it and expanding it wherever possible. (George Carlin)

[MineralMan]

1. Truly a low point in our history. We betrayed our own citizens.

I have known people who were in those internment camps.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

My brother in law was a guard at one of the camps.

Being a Californian he even knew some of the prisoners..whoops...internees. He hated it and begged to be transferred anywhere. So, he got sent to Idaho to guard German and Italian POWs. He loathed the Germans, mostly Afrika Korps, as arrogant pricks. But, liked the Italians who had a helluva good time with the local farm girls.

[lunatica]

2. Let conservatives get the upper hand and it will happen again

[ChandlerJr]

4. Huh?

n/t

[KG]

11. conservatives like FDR?

[Dreamer Tatum]

16. Here's a tip: next time you try to forecast history, get the actuals correct first.

FDR did it. Hasn't been done since.

[eShirl]

3. last year George Takei was interviewed about his internment camp experience

you can listen here:
http://www.theworld.org/2010/02/actor-george-takei-remembers-his-internment/

"At a stroke Executive Order 9066 branded Japanese-Americans the enemy within. In California alone tens of thousands were sent to the north of the state or the interior of the country, forced to live in barracks and penned in by barbed wire fences. Resentment grew, particularly among the young, and riots sometimes ensued. George Takei recalls the time he spent interned, the effect on his family and others – some of whom were driven to suicide – and the moment when he heard the war was over. He also tells interviewee Lucy Williamson about the time spent adjusting to freedom. It took decades for a formal apology from the US government to those labelled a threat, over two-thirds of whom were American citizens."

[pokerfan]

13. Pat Morita (Happy Days, Karate Kid)

Pat Morita (1932 – 2005) was born in Isleton, California. He developed spinal tuberculosis at the age of two and spent the bulk of the next nine years in Northern Californian hospitals, including the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco. For long periods he was wrapped in a full-body cast and was told he would never walk. After a surgeon fused four vertebrae in his spine, Pat finally learned to walk again at the age of 11. By then, his Japanese-American family had been sent to an internment camp to be detained for the duration of World War II. He was transported from the hospital directly to the Gila River camp in Arizona to join them. (Wiki)

The scene that sealed his nomination for best supporting actor in The Karate Kid (1984), in which Miyagi gets drunk and weeps over the death of his wife and child in the Manzanar Internment Camp was nearly cut out of the film. The studio thought the scene was unnecessary and wanted it cut. But director John G. Avildsen argued that the scene was important to Miyagi's character and finally the studio relented and allowed the scene to be kept in. (IMDB)

“One day I was an invalid,” he recalled in a 1989 AP interview. “The next day I was public enemy No. 1 being escorted to an internment camp by an FBI agent wearing a piece.”

[Brother Buzz]

14. Senator Hayakawa thought relocation was perhaps the best thing that could have happened

Of course, he was unaffected as he was teaching in Illinois and his parents and family were in Canada and experienced no inconvenience. Spin, baby.


Senator Hayakawa wrote that "as one talks with Nisei today, one gets the impression that the wartime relocation, despite the injustices and economic losses suffered, was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to the Japanese-Americans on the West Coast. As many say, the relocation forced them out of their segregated existence to discover the rest of America...The relocation thus resulted in the Americanization of the Japanese in one generation after immigration--a record for non-English-speaking immigrants of any color."

http://dwightmurphey-collectedwritings.info/published/pub38.htm

[NNN0LHI]

5. Recommended with a heavy heart

[Hydra]

6. This could happen to any of us at any time

Truly scary to see how fast "laws" and "rights" can disappear with a simple word from the top.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. A terrible time for the US. The people in these camps were true Americans,

they went willingly and they endured this because they were told it was best for their safety and good for the country.

I have a friend whose family was in a camp, and her stories always chilled my soul. These people lost homes, jobs, money, and businesses, they had to start all over again when they got out of these camps. And incredibly, they came out and started over.

[PSPS]

8. "I am an American"

This store owned by a man of Japanese ancestry is closed following evacuation orders in Oakland, California, in April of 1942. After the attack on Pearl Harbor the owner had placed the "I Am An American" sign in the store front window. (AP Photo/ Dorothea Lange)

[indepat]

9. Surely the "internment camp" moniker must rank in the hall of fame of most

euphemistic phrases coined since Adam since these were highly concentrated concentration camps. :patriot:

[pokerfan]

12. I'm almost surprised

they didn't call it Super Happy Fun-time Comfort Camp.

[Solly Mack]

10. K&R

...

[cottonseed]

15. .