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Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

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Re: Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

#71

Post by 0xfeba »

jdavis703 wrote: post #4
ekianjo wrote: post #2

For a country standing for Freedom and Human Rights, this kind of action is appalling. The quotes in the article from officials and three letters agencies stink of utter racism (even though no sabotage operations was ever undertaken).

As someone whose family ancestors were kidnapped to the US and forced to engage in unpaid labor I have to say this country never cared about freedom and human rights. It's all part of the national story designed to make the occupants of this country view themselves as better than the rest of the world.

Yup. It's a facade. Especially during the Carter, Nixon, HW Bush, etc. eras, culminating in Bush Jr's "They hate us for our Freedoms" speech after 9/11.

No, they hate us for our overly zealous anti-communism that drove us to forcefully prop up dictatorships/extremist groups (Panama, Cuba, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda, etc.), and then vacate when things went sour.

Time and time, and time again we did this in the past 60 years, and it's just now coming back to bite us.

One of the few things I look forward to in a Trump administration is isolationism, but his cabinet is both extremely anti-communist and anti-Muslim, so it looks like it's just going to be Carter/Nixon/Truman bullshit all over again.

Re: Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

#72

Post by okreallywtf »

I would be interested to hear the perspective of some of the MP's that had to guard these camps. It would seem like such a waste, not least of which because with the labor shortages and so many other young men serving overseas, to not only be stuck guarding a camp but to be guarding camps full of people who would otherwise be helping to fill those huge labor shortages and support the war effort.

I just finished reading The Girls of Atomic City[1] and its a really conflicting story because (totally discounting the moral implications of the atomic bomb) on the one hand it is an amazing story of ingenuity and hard work and everyone coming together with a common purpose (even if most people did not know what that purpose was), but then you find out about how the black workers were treated compared to the white workers and how they weren't even able to serve their country as equals.

If you have a selective memory or perception you can look back and be proud of a lot in our history but I think you have to fully appreciate our highs and lows to really know what kind of country we have.

Re: Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

#73

Post by yincrash »

johndunne wrote: post #10

With today's political climate I can't help but think that something like this could happen again.

Trump himself defended his Muslim banning proposal by citing FDR's tactics with the Japanese. "What I'm doing is no different than FDR"[1]

The head of one of his SuperPACs (Great America PAC) also mentioned specifically the internment of Japanese as valid _precedent_ for what Trump wants to do. [2]

[1] http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-cites-fdr-polici...

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/japanese-inter...

Re: Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

#75

Post by alexhawdon »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #43
jdavis703 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone whose family ancestors were kidnapped to the US and forced to engage in unpaid labor I have to say this country never cared about freedom and human rights. It's all part of the national story designed to make the occupants of this country view themselves as better than the rest of the world.

Distorted exaggeration disrespects everyone. This country has struggled with issues of freedom and human rights, but it has made significant strides, and we should use them as an example of what to work for and what can be achieved.

They aren't really 'human rights' until they are applied to all humans. They're merely 'American Rights'.

Re: Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

#77

Post by vlunkr »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #17
kofejnik wrote: post #12

This was appalling and obviously sucked a lot for people who underwent such treatment; however as someone born in USSR I'd say that it was surprisingly humane (hot water not always available) compared to how people were treated in the USSR around the same period. Case in point: Ukrainian Holodomor (genocide by famine) http://www.rferl.org/a/holodomor-ukraine/25174454.html Edit: also, Chechen and Krimean Tatar deporta…

You could just compare it to the Nazi internment camps for Jews, if finding "worse" conditions is the goal. (I'm being sardonic.) (OT question: sarcastic is to sarcasm as sardonic is to ____?) These were second and third generation "immigrants" living their normal, everyday American lives, torn away from their homes, communities, jobs, schools, churches, friends, and families. The crime isn't in the living conditions…

Honestly, I'm not sure I remember this coming up in my high school education, we sort of just pretend it didn't happen. We talked extensively about other inhumane things our country has done, but the Japanese internment is just something my dad probably told me about, being sort of a WW2 buff. I think the fact that we don't talk about it makes it even a little more disturbing.

Re: Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

#78

Post by akhilcacharya »

openasocket wrote: post #29

The most absurd thing I read on here was that they were still subjected to the draft . So that Japanese couldn't be trusted to live in the United States without armed guards, but we can totally give them guns and send them off to fight the enemy?!

They were disallowed from fighting in the Pacific theatre, so they all fought in Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(Unite...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Inouye#Medal_of_Honor_c...

Re: Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps

#80

Post by turar »

0xfeba wrote: post #71
jdavis703 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone whose family ancestors were kidnapped to the US and forced to engage in unpaid labor I have to say this country never cared about freedom and human rights. It's all part of the national story designed to make the occupants of this country view themselves as better than the rest of the world.

Yup. It's a facade. Especially during the Carter, Nixon, HW Bush, etc. eras, culminating in Bush Jr's "They hate us for our Freedoms" speech after 9/11. No, they hate us for our overly zealous anti-communism that drove us to forcefully prop up dictatorships/extremist groups (Panama, Cuba, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda, etc.), and then vacate when things went sour. Time and time, and time again we did this in the past…

> No, they hate us for our overly zealous anti-communism that drove us to forcefully prop up dictatorships/extremist groups (Panama, Cuba, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda, etc.), and then vacate when things went sour.

I thought this contrast between death of Castro and Saudi Arabian king was an insightful example earlier this week: https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/5h2jf7...

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