{"id":28723,"date":"2015-12-09T16:16:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T23:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=28723"},"modified":"2015-12-09T16:16:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T23:16:14","slug":"internment-camps-for-potentially-disloyal-groups-of-foreign-origin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/12\/internment-camps-for-potentially-disloyal-groups-of-foreign-origin.html","title":{"rendered":"Internment camps for potentially disloyal groups of foreign origin!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Instructions<\/a>
An official government notice ordering all Americans of Japanese descent to report of relocation
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

To my shame, on Monday I failed to note the anniversary of the brutal and unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That attack killed 2403 Americans and wounded an additional 1178. \u00a0It destroyed much of our Pacific fleet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the wake of \u201ca date which will live in infamy,\u201d Americans were understandably indignant, enraged, and terrified. \u00a0They were especially afraid on the Pacific coast of the United States. There were rumors of impending Japanese naval attacks, and even, in the initial chaos and confusion, of Japanese divisions coming up through Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then there were the nikkei<\/em>, the Japanese immigrants and their descendants who lived especially in the western United States and Canada. \u00a0Were they loyal? \u00a0They spoke a different different language. \u00a0Their culture was very foreign. \u00a0Few of them were Christians. \u00a0They looked very different. \u00a0Foreign. \u00a0Not like Us. \u00a0Did they constitute a dangerous and subversive fifth column that could threaten and even kill Americans?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growing up in southern California only a relatively few years after the end of World War II \u2014 it seemed ancient history when I was a kid, but, from my now much-lengthened historical perspective, I realize that it must surely still have been an acutely live memory for the adults around me \u2014 I knew a great many nisei<\/em> and sansei<\/em> (Japanese-Americans of the second and third generations in the United States) and their parents and grandparents. \u00a0I knew people who had been interned, despite their United States citizenship and despite the fact that they had committed no crime whatever \u2014 relocated into camps in distant towns and states.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The people I knew were and are gentle people. \u00a0They worked in construction. \u00a0They owned and operated nurseries. \u00a0They were in my elementary school classes and in my Boy Scout troop. \u00a0Later, I came to know them as fellow members of the Church, as loyal embassy employees in foreign countries. \u00a0I now know them as academic colleagues and in other roles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Topaz,<\/a>
The Topaz internment camp, in Millard County, Utah
(Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Click to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Something on the order of 110,000 to 120,000 people were sent to camps in the interior of the United States, because other Americans decided that their loyalty couldn\u2019t be guaranteed. \u00a0(I\u2019m leaving Canada out of this, although similar camps were populated with nikkei<\/em> there.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many lost their jobs, their businesses, and their farms. \u00a0Many lost much of their personal property. \u00a0Some were even shot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a shameful episode in American history.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As former Supreme Court justice Tom Clark wrote, \u201cThe truth is \u2014 as this deplorable experience proves \u2014 that constitutions and laws are not sufficient of themselves. . . . \u00a0Despite the unequivocal language of the\u00a0<\/span>Constitution of the United States<\/a>\u00a0that the\u00a0<\/span>writ of habeas corpus<\/a>\u00a0shall not be suspended, and despite the Fifth Amendment\u2019s command that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, both of these constitutional safeguards were denied by military action under Executive Order 9066.\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curiously, Italian-Americans and German-Americans were spared such treatment. \u00a0That was, presumably, because they were Caucasians, and because their cultures were less foreign to the majority of Americans. \u00a0It certainly wasn\u2019t because Hitler and Mussolini weren\u2019t our enemies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 To my shame, on Monday I failed to note the anniversary of the brutal and unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan. \u00a0 That attack killed 2403 Americans and wounded an additional 1178. \u00a0It destroyed much of our Pacific fleet. \u00a0 In the wake of \u201ca date which will live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nInternment camps for potentially disloyal groups of foreign origin!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    To my shame, on Monday I failed to note the anniversary of the brutal and unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan.  \" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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