Strange but true

Not going to get into politics, but it aggravates me when people refer back to the internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans after the Pearl Harbor attack. Were there some racial undertones to the internment, of course (the Axis powers we were fighting in Europe 'looked' like us whereas the Japanese we were fighting in the Pacific did not). Was there a somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction? Probably. But the government has to do something, and those in power make decisions (not always the right one). Additionally, how many of Asian ethnicity (regardless if they were Japanese or not) would have been targeted by angry mobs if the government hadn't done something (similar to how Middle-Easterners were targeted in the US after 9/11 regardless of what country they were from). Looking at the internment using today's moral and ethical mindset does a disservice to those that had to make the tough decisions after the Pearl Harbor attack.

My bone of contention when people bring up the post-Pearl Harbor internment is that most don't look at it from a historical perspective of the Japanese mentality at the time. Emperor Hirohito was considered a living god by the Japanese people and it was even written into the Japanese Meiji Constitution. With that belief and assumed power, ALL Japanese (regardless of where they lived) were expected to follow the orders of the Emperor and lay down their lives for him. His decrees were unquestionable and to be followed regardless of any personal disagreements. It was a different era, and the beliefs are difficult for people to grasp today. Additionally, the Japanese military was brutal in the extreme and they looked at most other ethnicities as inferior and expendable (read about Bushido some time, and its hold on Japanese warriors during the WWII era, not the glorified Samurai stuff). Read the book "The Rape of Nanking", read about Unit 731, read about the Bataan Death March, and so on. After the Battle of Okinawa, preparations for Operation Downfall were underway for the invasion of Japan. The US War Department had already ordered 500,000 Purple Heart medals, and expectations for US casualties ranged from 250,000 (just for the initial invasion) to one million. That was a major deciding factor in the deployment of the two atomic weapons at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Going back to the Japanese mentality at the time, it was fully expected that every Japanese encountered in an invasion of the mainland (man, woman, child), would fight to the death for their Emperor. In the last couple decades, almost all reference to the internment has been categorized as 'unjust' with so much emphasis on racial stereotyping. Well of course there was racial stereotyping, and of course the gross incarceration was unjust. But to only cover the one side without looking into the other is unjust as well.

 

I’m aware of the empire building of Japan in the lead up to WW2. Empire building is a nice way of putting that where the Japanese military was, an almost unfathomable amount of deaths followed. Manchuria, Burma, the Philippines, etc. Where I take issue is conflating 4 year old American born children whose grandparents came from Japan in the late 19th century for legitimate military targets, to be rounded up, stripped of their constitutional rights and put into POW camps. Yes, it was a different time. And it was Reagan that made reparations to the survivors in the late 80s. War is ugly, and every side makes violations that are uncomfortable to look at later. My feeling is that if we truly are some beacon of democracy that the rest of the world should follow, we should own up to where we fell short. When I think of Pearl Harbor, my first thought is not of the internment camps. I’m not confused about who were the victims that day. We had Japan under heavy sanctions at the time because of what they were doing to expand their empire. They stayed the course, responded militarily and the rest is history.
I think my biggest sin here was to bring up the camps on December 6th, which was completely unintentional. If I had kept that in my back pocket until a random day in April, it wouldn’t have been so inflammatory.

 

The above 2 posts are amazing examples of how to be gentleman and use decorum.. Not to mention all y’all should be teaching history!!

 

My bad on that front also. A weird coincidence....

 

Yeah. And there’s really no good time to critique US history/policy in general. Too often it’s not well received and people misinterpret the motives behind the criticism. And I get it. It’s a lot easier to bask in the glory of the coalition forces that liberated Western Europe of fascism, and the victory over Japanese imperialism in the western Pacific. Who wants to dwell on the scandals that tarnish the legacy of the greatest generation?

 

The sergeant without a doubt knows a lot more than I do. And he devotes quite a bit of time to becoming even more educated. Although I’ve spent my entire career working for military subcontractors, I’ve never served personally. But I paid attention in school and have done a reasonable amount of homework on certain topics.

 

Who enjoys a good Rothschild ball? Some say that this infamous party inspired Stanley Kubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut.
25 Bizarre Photos From The 1972 Rothschild Surrealist Ball

 

I didn't read any posts where "shut down" was suggested; by neither mods nor members.

What was suggested was moving this thread to a PM.

Totally different.

 

Has no one cared enough to mention the "misappropriation" of funds that has taken place in Minnesota?

Close to a billion dollars and almost all responsible by one demographic?

 

Fraud and waste everywhere. We had a scandal here locally in CT involving millions in Covid funds. People are being prosecuted. As far as Minnesota is concerned, we'll see how that pans out. I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed when nothing happens.