An example of edited history
Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior under Franklin Roosevelt, In the Washington Evening Star, September 23, 1946:
As a member of President Roosevelt's administration, I saw the United States Army give way to mass hysteria over the Japanese... it lost its self-control and, egged on by public clamor, some of it from greedy Americans who sought an opportunity to possess themselves of Japanese rights and property, it began to round up indiscriminately the Japanese who had been born in Japan, as well as those born here. Crowded into cars like cattle, these hapless people were hurried away to hastily constructed and thoroughly inadequate concentration camps, with soldiers with nervous muskets on guard, in the great American desert. We gave the fancy name of "relocation centers" to these dust bowls, but they were concentration camps nonetheless...
In 1990 and 91, I was a high school teacher in Texas. In a couple of my classes, I had high school seniors as students and often we'd have talks about current events and history, just as something different to do. On one occasion, I felt drawn to ask if any of the students had heard of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. I was shocked to learn that not a single one knew of this atrocity. It was not reported in their history textbooks and not a single history teacher had deemed it important enough to even touch upon it mildly. Mind you, most of my seniors were some of the best students in the school - they'd not have just forgotten such a thing.
When I was in college, this event was glossed-over in the history where I came across it. The concentration camps were, as Ickes noted, called "relocation centers" and were spoken of lightly as a mistake, but not a big deal. Nothing was ever noted about how the process essentially destroyed the lives of Japanese Americans in the west by taking away their homes and businesses and leaving them with nothing. When they were finally released, they were released without a home or job into the cloud of a hostile, mistrusting public.
I am still amazed by the number of people who have never heard of this disaster mounted against American citizens. Only in 1988 did survivors receive reparation and an apology from the government - a $20,000 check and an apology letter from President Bill Clinton. While it was certainly a generous gesture, it also seemed to be another attempt to brush it all under the rug...to help continue the attempt to unremember the act of stripping citizens of their rights.
Granted, against some of the other atrocities of World War II, the generally peaceful internment of these citizens seems to pale. But when one places this occurrence up against the liberties of the Constitution which are said to be the pillars of American life, the horror of it becomes patently distasteful.
I recently read an unrelated article about the atrocities in Chile during the rule of Pinochet. The article noted a common litany passed down from the bloody dictator and his cronies (who killed and/or tortured thousands of their own citizens in the most unrelenting brutal fashion) was for the people of Chile to just forget the past and move on. But to forget the past is a prescription for repeating the past. I am very concerned about America forgetting this portion of their past.
In the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, in which the US formally apologized to those taken to these camps, there is a list of reasons for the act's creation. Among them:
Where is the education? Why is this being forgotten? We know our government has recently been imprisoning individuals for no just cause. We know human rights violations are being perpetrated with the express consent of the executive office. Will these things also be forgotten?
Perhaps its time the nation stop thinking that it can't happen here. It has already happened. And someday, if we don't keep this in our collective memory, it will happen again - and maybe it will happen to you and I.
As a member of President Roosevelt's administration, I saw the United States Army give way to mass hysteria over the Japanese... it lost its self-control and, egged on by public clamor, some of it from greedy Americans who sought an opportunity to possess themselves of Japanese rights and property, it began to round up indiscriminately the Japanese who had been born in Japan, as well as those born here. Crowded into cars like cattle, these hapless people were hurried away to hastily constructed and thoroughly inadequate concentration camps, with soldiers with nervous muskets on guard, in the great American desert. We gave the fancy name of "relocation centers" to these dust bowls, but they were concentration camps nonetheless...
In 1990 and 91, I was a high school teacher in Texas. In a couple of my classes, I had high school seniors as students and often we'd have talks about current events and history, just as something different to do. On one occasion, I felt drawn to ask if any of the students had heard of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. I was shocked to learn that not a single one knew of this atrocity. It was not reported in their history textbooks and not a single history teacher had deemed it important enough to even touch upon it mildly. Mind you, most of my seniors were some of the best students in the school - they'd not have just forgotten such a thing.
When I was in college, this event was glossed-over in the history where I came across it. The concentration camps were, as Ickes noted, called "relocation centers" and were spoken of lightly as a mistake, but not a big deal. Nothing was ever noted about how the process essentially destroyed the lives of Japanese Americans in the west by taking away their homes and businesses and leaving them with nothing. When they were finally released, they were released without a home or job into the cloud of a hostile, mistrusting public.
I am still amazed by the number of people who have never heard of this disaster mounted against American citizens. Only in 1988 did survivors receive reparation and an apology from the government - a $20,000 check and an apology letter from President Bill Clinton. While it was certainly a generous gesture, it also seemed to be another attempt to brush it all under the rug...to help continue the attempt to unremember the act of stripping citizens of their rights.
Granted, against some of the other atrocities of World War II, the generally peaceful internment of these citizens seems to pale. But when one places this occurrence up against the liberties of the Constitution which are said to be the pillars of American life, the horror of it becomes patently distasteful.
I recently read an unrelated article about the atrocities in Chile during the rule of Pinochet. The article noted a common litany passed down from the bloody dictator and his cronies (who killed and/or tortured thousands of their own citizens in the most unrelenting brutal fashion) was for the people of Chile to just forget the past and move on. But to forget the past is a prescription for repeating the past. I am very concerned about America forgetting this portion of their past.
In the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, in which the US formally apologized to those taken to these camps, there is a list of reasons for the act's creation. Among them:
(3) provide for a public education fund to finance efforts to inform the public about the internment of such individuals so as to prevent the recurrence of any similar event;
(7) make more credible and sincere any declaration of concern by the United States over violations of human rights committed by other nations.
Where is the education? Why is this being forgotten? We know our government has recently been imprisoning individuals for no just cause. We know human rights violations are being perpetrated with the express consent of the executive office. Will these things also be forgotten?
Perhaps its time the nation stop thinking that it can't happen here. It has already happened. And someday, if we don't keep this in our collective memory, it will happen again - and maybe it will happen to you and I.
posted by Erik | 12:52 PM
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