How has the "American dream" disappointed and soured?
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Japanese American citizens were placed in detention camps without any hearings, stripped of livelihoods, properties and freedoms and these were AMERICAN CITIZENS; after that, I knew that we had no rights, only privileges, that could easily be taken away.
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I can't answer your question, but I do have a comment on the comment you made about Japanese American citizens.
It would be so interesting to interview some of these people to find out how they felt about this country after that experience. Who I would really like to interview would be the people we are holding in the detention camp at Gitmo. Some of these people have been there since the beginning of the war, without contact with friends, family, etc., and not even understanding why they were captured and detained.
I can't think of anything worse than being held in a foreign country for crimes you didn't commit.
Pat Johnson
I indeed easily can: Bergen Belsen, Auschwitz,Treblinka, Babi Yar..
Such interviews might be bereft of rancor, indignation and venom as these Japanese are all-suffering patriots....
Wouldn't even begin to try to come up with an argument on that one, because you're absolutely 100 percent correct.
Seems as if there is a huge difference though. Gitmo is an American creation. I'm not familiar with some of the names you listed, but I don't believe they were American internment camps.
I don't know very much about the Japanese detention camps. Seems as if what I think I know is families were pretty much kept together. They were pulled out of their homes and the U.S. took their property, but they were allowed to stay together as a family in most instances weren't they?
It's interesting they only detained those that lived on the West coast and 1,200 that lived in Hawaii. It's also interesting that although there were approximately 110,000 detainees, when it was all said and done there were only 23,000 claims filed against the U.S. for damages which were settled for $38 million (according to data on the Truman library).
I did some quick research and it appears that less than 2/3 of the people detained were actually Japanese American citizens, the other 1/3 were German, Italian and/or other non-citizens. I didn't verify the numbers so I can't vouch for their accuracy.
Pat
Paul,
I need to make a correction to the following "the other 1/3 were German, Italian and/or other non-citizens". That should read the other 1/3 were German-Americans, Italian-Americans and/or other non-citizens.
Thanks,
Pat
Your propensity to be fastidious, factually, is wonderful!
Nice, it is to chat, intelligently, with you, but you suddenly have a soft spot in my heart, forever, for having told my cheap ego what I most secretly desire to hear : "you're absolutely 100 percent correct."!
These names I gave you, were German extermination camps for Jews, from all the conquered nations of Europe, dozens of factory systems specifically designed for daily and weekly wholesale slaughter.
Living interred, as foreign nationals, wasn't an option for this generation of Jews who would have seen it as rescue and deliverance from Hitler's gas chambers and crematoriums.
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