What’s your opinion on the Interment Camps that Japanese Canadians and Japanese Americans were put into?
Oh I thought you were talking about the ones the japanese put the Americans and Canadians in.
They got f***ed
It was not surprising though
At the time, this was an appropriate measure.
NOT handing their possessions after the conflict was resolved, was the only crime.
You have to understand - many of them believed the Emporer was quite literally thier GOD!
The counter argument to Garg is that this was not based on them believing their x-Emporer [sic] was a god. It was applied to a visible minority/enemy apparent rather than a non-visible category like Germans or Italians. Basically a racist move more than anything. My dad grew up with David Suzuki, not close friends but close enough. This perhaps is what focused my mind on this bit of history at an early age.
Some of the most highly decorated soldiers were Japanese-Canadians and Americans. I suppose they felt they had something to prove.
Mal, You are only saying that because you are “White” :)
Canada has a LONG tradition of race based legislation and policies. It’s just a fact. From the treaties, to today’s Indian act, it is what we do, and have always done. The fact is and remains that we govern people by their ethnicity in this country, despite my VEHEMENT disagreement with this policy, as you have seen in the local news, a certain amount of pandering to these hold-outs gets done.
Specifically in regards to my support for the interment at the time of the Japanese… I think I should motivate.
I live on the west coast, and people on the west coast were FIRE BOMBED by the japanese, and shelled. Unpopular occurences, allied soldiers were treated abominably, and so were those living under japanese occupation.
In speaking with SURVIVORS, who remember the Japanese interment in living memory, the interment was as much for the protection of Canadian people, as it was for the PROTECTION of the Japanese aswell, who were constant targets of malicious citizens hell bent on dealing one to the “enemy”.
It is also well documented here in Victoria, that many Japanese were caught storing arms and ammuntion in the walls of their homes in preparation for a “hopeful” victory.
All in all, as uncomfortable as cruel as interment is considered - surely as a means to protect portions of the public from other portions of the public (A two way street), it was an appropriate means to do so.
Again, the only criminal portion was the issue of property NOT being returned to the Japanese. That was criminal.
But I suppose, many Canadians weren’t returned to their homes either were they? And some portion of the public surely felt as you do MrMalachi, that Japanese, comes firt is Japanese-Canadian, :P
FDR thought he was an emperor too. When that happens, things like people getting their basic rights rescinded for 4 years occurs.
FDR should have been ‘quarantined’.
Maybe he thought he was an emporer,
But did he and his people think he was “a god?” No.
He probably felt he was God when he sentenced the interment of hundreds of thousands of people for 4 years without rights.
Wielding power like that can do it.
Guys,
––While It was certainly a terrible breach of their America-born citizens’ human rights,…I can also understand the ‘situation’ as regards the beliefs at the time.
----Also, the simple math of several thousand of these American citizens of Japanese heritage, after the tremedous ‘shock’ of the Pearl Harbor attack, undoubtably had it’s influence.
----Also, I remember reading a few accounts of Japanese aircrew, after being shot down, being ‘assisted’ by Japanese/Americans against other Americans. These accounts were forwarded to the top of the American chain of command.
“Tall Paul” Â
The incident you reference Paul happend in Hawaii.
The Niihau incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niihau_Incident
Long story short, Japanese Americans, who had never EVER shown any sign of anti-americanism, or alternative loyalties, switches sides like a light-switch in support of a down Japanese airmen.
Gar,
––Yep, exactly. I didn’t want to be too detailed and make the discussion drift off topic. I have read three or more books with “valid” accounts concerning this.
----You know, sometimes I (almost) feel “old-school” because I’ve learned most of my military history knowledge through books I’ve bought rather than the internet. I’ve simply never taken the time to “surf” the net like that.
----And thank you very much “El Dominatro Magistero” for sharing your knowledge of Island History with us “normal folk”. :-D
“Tall Paul”
