I didn't read the previous posts so i guess this was listed before, the FBI concluded an investigation saying that the japanese americans were not a security threat, why would anyone throw that out the window? I'm guessing FDR didn't want to do it but maybe he had to calm down the mild racism of having asians living next to white people during a time of war. So interment was the only way anything could be legitimately done to quell the public's fear. I don't like it and no one today would ever want to do the same thing to civilian populations. Simply arresting a handful and sending them off to detention camps would've sent enough of a scare to the japanese without violating the human rights of everbody in that population.

War Machine....You have to put all this in context with the time and what was happening. The Japanese had just made a seek attack on America and every one was ******** off, and know one was sure just who they could or could not trust. So until they had time to sort it all out they were put into internment camps, now had they been left in place there was strong chance of them being attacked just for being Japanese and there was not the time or the people to protect them. Okay some officials turned to their advantage, which was wrong, but on the whole I never heard of any of them being killed or even badly mistreated, can you say the same for the civilian people from the Allied Countries that fell into Japanese hands.

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

War Machine....You have to put all this in context with the time and what was happening. The Japanese had just made a seek attack on America and every one was ******** off, and know one was sure just who they could or could not trust. So until they had time to sort it all out they were put into internment camps, now had they been left in place there was strong chance of them being attacked just for being Japanese and there was not the time or the people to protect them. Okay some officials turned to their advantage, which was wrong, but on the whole I never heard of any of them being killed or even badly mistreated, can you say the same for the civilian people from the Allied Countries that fell into Japanese hands.

The internment of the Japanese was legal and normal. The internment of Americans who looked Japanese was not. We can rationalize the issue. We can even bring up the brutal internment methods used by the Japanese (good issue). We will however always be drawn back to the problem that the Americans were interning Americans.

I know of a number of Britons that were interred during WW2, I used to work with one of them, he had been Mosley personal bodyguard and was sent to the Isle Of Man for the whole duration of the war.

People don't get paid back thousands of dollars of reperations by the federal government because they were treated well. The japanese who moved to places like manzinar lost their property and any businesses they owned. Nobody wanted to go to the internment camps but they were forced to. There might have been some cause for the non native japanese americans to be imprisoned but not the ones born here who have never been to japan.

Concentration camps for civilians are the result of paranoia and racism if applied on a large scale. If you had a small selection of people placed in camps for some legal suspicions during a war, then maybe you have a case. But entire demographics? People seriously couldn't find any other way to handle the situation in the country that built an atomic weapon in 4 years?

I would rather not take hte chance when the chance of invasion back then was pretty decent. So why not pack up people that might be a threat to us if the Japanese do invade. Just like if the Mexicans invaded today, after seeing all those dam flags during the parades I'd have to say id be for putting em in camps to. You dont want enemys among you.

WarMachine......If you had read my other posts you would see that all countries interred people of doubtful allegiance. As far paying out money to Japanese Americans that they interned, well whats wrong in that, they also paid huge sums in later years to the American Indians, are they saying what they did all that time ago was wrong and if they are will, they give them back all the land that they took .

Ok, i didn't say anything was wrong with paying reparations to people who were wronged, i'm talking about the reason that it was necessary that was the problem.

You guys know your history, the chance of japanese invasion of american states, 0.1%. The public's concern for japanese invasion and espionage 110%. Does paranoia justify their actions? If so how come americans of german descent who in some cases still spoke german at home weren't interned? I think it was stupid and racist and there isn't any point in trying to justify it in retrospect anymore. It's like justifying the jim crow laws as a sufficient reaction to emancipation of blacks because the public was worried that blacks would somehow destroy their society and reacted in manner that we know was wrong, but couldn't be helped. See, that's plain wrong.

Warmachine, where did you get those figures? Particularly I would like to know the source for your claim.

Originally Posted by WarMachine

You guys know your history, the chance of japanese invasion of american states, 0.1%. The public's concern for japanese invasion and espionage 110%. Does paranoia justify their actions?

The main problem that America was facing was that espionage was an ever present danger. Sensitive information from Japanese spies could sink ships and worse.

Originally Posted by WarMachine

If so how come americans of german descent who in some cases still spoke german at home weren't interned?

My family name is unmistakably German but my Grandparents and Parents claimed Dutch heritage during the war just for the reason that a lot of people were curious about certain names.

Originally Posted by WarMachine

I think it was stupid and racist and there isn't any point in trying to justify it in retrospect anymore. It's like justifying the jim crow laws as a sufficient reaction to emancipation of blacks because the public was worried that blacks would somehow destroy their society and reacted in manner that we know was wrong, but couldn't be helped. See, that's plain wrong.

Don't be so hasty in judging people of the time. There's no way we can put ourselves in their place after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. That is one reason the Japanese were so much more suspect than Europeans. The Germans and Italians didn't bomb Pearl, they just didn't trust people who were that deceptive.

And let's not fight the Civil War again, there were no victors.