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Why the Japanese Internment Still Matters
War to Mobilize Democracy ^ | December 28, 2004 | Daniel Pipes

Posted on 12/28/2004 7:55:25 AM PST by forty_years

For years, it has been my position that the threat of radical Islam implies an imperative to focus security measures on Muslims. If searching for rapists, one looks only at the male population. Similarly, if searching for Islamists (adherents of radical Islam), one looks at the Muslim population.

And so, I was encouraged by a just-released Cornell University opinion survey that finds nearly half the U.S. population agreeing with this proposition. Specifically, 44 percent of Americans believe that government authorities should direct special attention toward Muslims living in America, either by registering their whereabouts, profiling them, monitoring their mosques, or infiltrating their organizations.

Also encouraging, the survey finds the more people follow TV news, the more likely they are to support these common-sense steps. Those who are best informed about current issues, in other words, are also the most sensible about adopting self-evident defensive measures.

That's the good news; the bad news is the near-universal disapproval of this realism. Leftist and Islamist organizations have so successfully intimidated public opinion that polite society shies away from endorsing a focus on Muslims.

In America, this intimidation results in large part from a revisionist interpretation of the evacuation, relocation, and internment of ethnic Japanese during World War II. Although more than 60 years past, these events matter yet deeply today, permitting the victimization lobby, in compensation for the supposed horrors of internment, to condemn in advance any use of ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion in formulating domestic security policy.

Denying that the treatment of ethnic Japanese resulted from legitimate national security concerns, this lobby has established that it resulted solely from a combination of "wartime hysteria" and "racial prejudice." As radical groups like the American Civil Liberties Union wield this interpretation, in the words of Michelle Malkin, "like a bludgeon over the War on Terror debate," they pre-empt efforts to build an effective defense against today's Islamist enemy.

Fortunately, the intrepid Ms. Malkin, a columnist and specialist on immigration issues, has re-opened the internment file. Her recently published book, bearing the provocative title In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror (Regnery), starts with the unarguable premise that in time of war, "the survival of the nation comes first." From there, she draws the corollary that "Civil liberties are not sacrosanct."

She then reviews the historical record of the early 1940s and finds that:

Ms. Malkin has done the singular service of breaking the academic single-note scholarship on a critical subject, cutting through a shabby, stultifying consensus to reveal how, "given what was known and not known at the time," President Roosevelt and his staff did the right thing.

She correctly concludes that, especially in time of war, governments should take into account nationality, ethnicity, and religious affiliation in their homeland security policies and engage in what she calls "threat profiling." These steps may entail bothersome or offensive measures but, she argues, they are preferable to "being incinerated at your office desk by a flaming hijacked plane."

http://netwmd.com/articles/article837.html


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: and; anwr; auschwitz; case; cornell; danielpipes; defense; focus; for; ii; imperative; implies; in; internment; intimidated; islam; islamist; japanese; leftist; malkin; matters; measures; michelle; muslims; of; on; opinion; organizations; profiling; public; racial; radical; regnery; rkba; security; still; successfully; survey; terror; the; threat; university; war; world
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1 posted on 12/28/2004 7:55:28 AM PST by forty_years
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To: forty_years

Besides the PC issues, we have another problem with the muslims, specifically the Arabs, that we didn't have with the Japanese.

Oil.


2 posted on 12/28/2004 8:10:39 AM PST by umgud
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To: forty_years

Just 44%? Wait till terrorists start car boming malls,or maybe releasing anthrax,botulism, etc.. . What will the pc crowd say then? How about a small nuclear devise detonated in NYC, maybe in Times Square?


3 posted on 12/28/2004 8:12:59 AM PST by thombo
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To: thombo
What about the Twin Towers? Over 3000 murdered by Islamist terrorists right in the lib's front yard and they still scream racial profiling! The only way to change a NY liberal's mind is to kill them.
I have no problem with internment camps. We know that there are sleepers and sleeper cells here. It is impossible to watch, follow, listen in on all meetings - even if the lefties would allow it.
Get them all in one place and they are a whole lot easier to deal with. And we are a lot safer. And in the event of another terrorist attack they will be safer too.
4 posted on 12/28/2004 8:19:52 AM PST by Semper Vigilantis (If guns kill people then forks made Micheal Moore fat.)
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To: forty_years

Its pretty stupid not to be watching muslims. I know I am leery of any middles easterner.


5 posted on 12/28/2004 8:19:54 AM PST by sgtbono2002
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: forty_years

BUMP!


7 posted on 12/28/2004 8:23:32 AM PST by Publius6961 (The most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.)
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To: forty_years
Okay, so rather than talk about something that happened 60 years ago, why not simply call for the internment of Muslims in the U.S. and be done with it?

Yeah, and roughly 50% of Americans support a woman's right to kill her unborn child. That doesn't make it right.

I guess the phrase "Give me liberty, or give me death" no longer holds any meaning for mainstream "conservatives." WorldNetDaily columnist Vox Day did a credible job of debunking Malkin's ridiculous anti-freedom, anti-American arguments.

Typical neocon BS. In time of war, governments should take into account the right of citizens to protect themselves. Federal gun control laws were largely responsible for the tragic extent of the damage on 9/11. One or two armed passengers could have saved 3,000 lives. Why anyone would even consider trusting a government that has been systematically disarming the public is beyond my comprehension.

I will ask again: If "the survival of the nation comes first," then why don't so-called "conservatives" call for the internment of all Muslims? If doing so could save millions of American lives, isn't it worth it?

Unless, of course, the proposed threat has been somewhat exaggerated.....

8 posted on 12/28/2004 8:30:49 AM PST by sheltonmac ("Duty is ours; consequences are God's." -Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson)
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To: forty_years
Adding to the list of facts, I remember reading that:

* Most were openly and rabidly Anti-American
* Over 80% of those interned held dual citizenship.
* Most of these, at the opening of hostilities, applied for visas to return to Japan
* As this was an entirely new phenomenon, Congress had to enact regulations regarding issuance of visas during wartime.

IF YOU HATE US, YOU DON'T BELONG HERE. GO WHERE YOU ARE COMFORTABLE! NO ONE WILL STOP YOU!!!
9 posted on 12/28/2004 8:33:21 AM PST by SMARTY ("Stay together, pay the soldiers and forget everything else." Lucius Septimus Severus to his sons)
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To: Semper Vigilantis

"The only way to change a NY liberal's mind is to kill them."

And it would seem the Arabs are hard at work doing just that. Maybe we decent and normal Americans should just sit back and let the liberals give the Muslims a great big hug.

And then get a nice big guffaw as they try to pull that scimitar out of their back. Hey, killing liberals and Jews is a Muslim cultural thing and I suppose we should respect their cultural values. With social relativism who's to say it isn't wrong to kill liberals and Jews, right? I mean, really, is our culture really so much better than Islam that we should stand in the way of faithful Muslims killing liberals and Jews if that's what they truly believe they are called to do? (sarcasm)


10 posted on 12/28/2004 8:35:14 AM PST by PeterFinn (Liberals are a greater threat to the USA than are Islamofascists.)
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Comment #11 Removed by Moderator

To: forty_years
"She correctly concludes that, especially in time of war, governments should take into account nationality, ethnicity, and religious affiliation in their homeland security policies and engage in what she calls "threat profiling." These steps may entail bothersome or offensive measures but, she argues, they are preferable to "being incinerated at your office desk by a flaming hijacked plane."

::::Clapping:::::::

WTG Michelle

12 posted on 12/28/2004 8:38:17 AM PST by stopem
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To: umgud

Actually the Japanese attacked us because of their dependence on our oil.


13 posted on 12/28/2004 8:42:38 AM PST by massgopguy (massgopguy)
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To: massgopguy

True, but we weren't dependent on them for anything, and thus, had no impediment to interning them. Besides, we were at war with them and saner minds prevailed in those days.


14 posted on 12/28/2004 8:44:41 AM PST by umgud
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To: sheltonmac

Interesting post.

I believe internment is a political albatross. I think the Admin wants us to believe that, while we are not 100% safe, all of the measures taken since 911 are having the intended effect of making us "safer". Let's keep business as usual, so we can continue to keep civilian production on track.

Internment would demonstrate that we are not "safer", that more extraordinary measures are necessary, which would have tremendous negative repercussions on the economy, if only on consumer confidence.

As to your point that one or 2 guns on planes could have saved 3000 lives, I have to point out that the hijackers would also have been armed, so very likely the situation would have remained the same. Just a thought. I'm OK with arming pilots, but I can't get behind allowing passengers to carry on board.


15 posted on 12/28/2004 8:47:08 AM PST by dmz
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To: PeterFinn
Whoops, sorry, forgot my sarcasm tag on that one.

Isn't it amazing that libs can completely ignore what is going on around them? Are they so egotistical/irrational that they believe they would be spared by Islamofacists because they support their right to do whatever they want?
(Of course they will only support them until they become a MAJORITY!)

16 posted on 12/28/2004 8:49:22 AM PST by Semper Vigilantis (If guns kill people then forks made Micheal Moore fat.)
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To: forty_years
.

How many Freepers think that if a few dozen out of the millions of American citizens who belong to a church commit crimes against the government then all it's members' weapons should be confiscated?

17 posted on 12/28/2004 8:54:38 AM PST by mrsmith
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To: forty_years
the relocation camps for Japanese were "spartan facilities that were for the most part administered humanely."

One was administered by our great-uncle. His wife is still alive and gets angry at any suggestion that the internees (at least the ones at that camp) were treated badly.

18 posted on 12/28/2004 8:54:53 AM PST by pbear8 (On Christmas Night all Christians sing to hear the news the angels bring...)
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To: forty_years; Congressman Billybob; Poohbah; veronica; section9

It was still wrong to intern American citizens of Japanese descent without any evidence of wrongdoing.

Congressman Billybob also wrote a book on it. I think his comments on this are well worth consideration.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1291543/posts?page=10#10

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1132301/posts?page=78#78

Michelle Malkin and Daniel Pipes are defending the indefensible in this case. There is simply no other phrase that can accurately describe it. Antonin Scalia properly placed the Korematsu ruling approving the internment next to Dred Scott in terms of bad calls.


19 posted on 12/28/2004 8:57:09 AM PST by hchutch (A pro-artificial turf, pro-designated hitter baseball fan.)
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To: forty_years

"Specifically, 44 percent of Americans believe that government authorities should direct special attention toward Muslims living in America, either by registering their whereabouts, profiling them, monitoring their mosques, or infiltrating their organizations."

Aside from Muslims themselves, the remaining 56% of Americans are either braindead or totally unfamiliar with Islam and its tenets, practises and culture.


20 posted on 12/28/2004 8:57:18 AM PST by ZULU (Fear the government which fears your guns. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
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