Insulting the memory of FDR [were Japanese internment camps wrong?]

WorldNet Daily ^ | March 20, 2004 | Les Kinsolving

[John H K]

This was true then especially in Hawaii.

None of the Japanese-Americans on Hawaii were ever moved.

[Condor51]

That may be true (haven't checked), but I was just pointing out that the Japs weren't the only ones interned.

[Chip the Cat]

Why are you using a racial epithet? You've already made your point and stated your opinion.

[Poodlebrain]

"Would you have preferred to have lost the "Magic" code breaking advantage, and hence lost (among many battles) the Battle of Midway and WW2 in the Pacific?"

That is a BS argument. How would Japanese spies find out about MAGIC when it wasn't even known to military commands below the theater level? Why couldn't the U.S. have been as successful at turning Japanese agents into double agents as the British were with the Germans?

The Battle of Midway was fought in early June 1942. The legislation enabling relocation of Japanese-Americans was passed on Feb. 19, 1942. How many of them were actually relocated before Midway occurred? It's not like the U.S. had the relocation camps prepared and ready upon enactment of the relocatin statute.

As far as compromising MAGIC, the Japanese had to know something was amiss when the U.S. Navy was able to conveniently have all of its available combat power on location to fight the Battle of the Coral Sea and then Midway without sending any significant forces to react to the Japanese diversionary attacks. The enemy guessing correctly twice in a row where to position aircraft carriers in the expanse of the Pacific Ocean would arouse suspicion in even the least competent communications and intelligence officers.

[jpl]

Well there were large contingents of Nazi sympathizers here on Long Island during the same time and they were never locked up. Actually, the neo-nazis still have a small presence here on LI. I don't make excuses and pretend that racism didn't play a part in making it MUCH easier to lock up Japanese people. FDR would NOT have won friends if he started locking up white people. I'll bet money on that one.

It may well have been racism, but it may also have had something to do with the fact that Japan directly attacked and killed people on United States territory, whereas Germany never did.

Most of us today barely even acknowledge that Pearl Harbor happened anymore, but don't ever underestimate the amount of outrage it stirred up within America at the time it actually happened.

[cyborg]

Most of us today barely even acknowledge that Pearl Harbor happened anymore, but don't ever underestimate the amount of outrage it stirred up within America at the time it actually happened.

*** I will take your word for it.

[Chip the Cat]

The above article includes the following:
Dr. McGrath also notes that the American Japanese Claims Act of 1948 led to the provision of $35 million paid on thousands of Japanese-Americans claims for lost or damaged homes, or even crop loss, as a result of their being called away from their homes during a national emergency -- just as so many millions of American men were called away from their homes to serve in our armed forces where half a million of them were killed fighting our national enemies.

---

Some of the soldiers mentioned above killed fighting our national enemies were Americans of Japanese descent. 11,000 of them served in the 442nd, 100th Infantry Battalion. They are the most decorated unit in the US army for size and length of service. 18,000 individual decorations for bravery, 9,500 Purple Hearts, 7 presidential unit Citations, 20 Congressional Medals of Honor, 560 Silver Stars.I haven't found a single instance of any of them cashing in on a 3 Purple Hearts and your're sent home rule. This at a time when Americans of Japanese descent eligible for the draft were classified as enemy aliens, in spite of being American citizens. These men served at a time when their families were locked up for no reason other than being of Japanese ancestry. How many freepers would watch their homes, businesses and farms taken away by the government, their families imprisoned, and than serve and sacrifice on the front lines of a war for a country in which they were often confused with the enemy? Internment was wrong then, and its wrong now. If relocation orders are ok, if we ever have an administration that declares war on conservatives, don't start bellyaching when you are relocated,your patriotism questioned, your life turned upside down, your children imprisoned behind barbed wire.After all, it's for your own good.

[tacticalogic]

This is an insult to the U.S. Supreme Court's liberals such as Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black and Willaim O. Douglas,

I take it that's supposed to be some kind of scathing indictment.

[Oztrich Boy]

But if they were not, Roosevelt was absolutely right to do what he did. And let's not forget: We won that war.

Wonder why FDR didn't lock up Dwight Eisenhower to help the war effort.

[Oztrich Boy]

And who's 'Manzanar'?

John 11:35

[sailor4321]

Oddly enough, the Japanese never seemed to figure it out. Just as the Germans failed to realize that their codes had been broken.

[Travis McGee]

Another one who didn't read the article.

[Travis McGee]

You totally miss the point. (Not surprising, why do I bother?)

If we had gone out and had the FBI arrest the exact 100s of west coast Japanese spies, that would have blown the secret that we had broken the Magic / Purple codes. This secret was so closely held and ultravaluable to the success of our war effort that even Truman did not know of it.

Compare this to the German bombing of Coventry. Churchill knew from MK Ultra the exact time of Coventry's bombing. If he had ordered fighters to be shifted from the south to meet the Nazi bombers, the secret of the broken codes would have been put at risk. Coventry was bombed, and many Brits died.

Would you condemn Churchill for his "inhumane" decision to intentionally allow thousands of Brits to die? Of course not. This must be put into the context of the strategic picture of fighting a world war.

Just so with the Magic codes, and the Japanese relocation.

Hey, it beat being blown to bits in Coventry.

[Travis McGee]

"Japs" is not a racial epithat in discussing WW2. Try reading a book or two, expand your PC horizon a bit.

[risk]

This thread turned out to be pure PC bait. With some of these bleeding hearts in charge during WWII, we'd be speaking either Japanese or German now, if we hadn't been ethnically cleansed by one or both of them. They seem to think you can win a war without hurting anyone's feelings! The America we know and love today was made possible by people who had a vision and were willing to do whatever it took to secure and protect it. The last two generations has been brainwashed to think that was either unfair or wasn't true.

On California Connected's Immigration Special, Border Patrol agent Elizabeth Ebisuzaki, a descendant of relocated Japanese Americans, now goes to war every day to defend our national sovereignty.

She has more courage and patriotism than any of these "helpful" guardians of that fictional "kinder and gentler" America. It doesn't exist. First we win. Then we're kind.

[muawiyah]

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/shootings.html

This is a rather infamous event that happened at the Manzanar Concentration Camp in the Owens Valley, California.

Worth educating yourself about the topic.

[muawiyah]

What do you mean by "we"? Almost all of these people being locked up were American citizens.

We wouldn't even have been able to fight the war if all the American citizens of German origin had been locked up.

Not a single act of sabotage or espionage has ever been attributed to any of the Japanese-Americans. On the other hand, the military unit in which they served in the old segregated US Army, the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team, was the most highly decorated unit per man in the history of the nation.

They have a website where you can visit. Check out the number of men who received the Purple Heart. It is positively breath-taking.

The various stories appearing in the Los Angeles and other papers attacking the Japanese-Americans were most likely planted there by the wealthy individuals who purchased land and other property owned by Japanese-Americans at forced tax sales.

BTW, the $35,000,000 was supposedly as much as 5 cents on the dollar for value lost.

If you're a California resident and you occupy land ever owned by a Japanese-American, you might see to it that your title insurance is valid and up to date. Someday somebody's going to figure out how to get it all back!

[muawiyah]

Regarding that post, you ask somebody to remember "how many", and then you name a number of things where presumably you have the numbers to go with your questions.

So, start telling us the numbers and give us your references for them. I have Bill Hosogawa's book, and they're all in there, particularly about the Kibei. Let's see if you know what you're talking about.

[muawiyah]

You forgot ".... and only a handful were shot."

Actually, NO ONE should have been shot!

Many people tried to "relocate" east of the Mississippi river, but additional orders and Army supervision made that virtually impossible. Nothing voluntary about any of this!

[wtc911]

Yep, "Yip, Yip Yaphank" (Irving Berlin WW1) was the epicenter of the German American Bund in the 30's, revival type meetings, summer camps, etc. Until very recently the old German influence was still very strong.