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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Responsibility for the Holocaust: Reply to Saumya Debray
Message-ID: <225@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Jun-85 17:32:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: kontron.225
Posted: Tue Jun 11 17:32:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Jun-85 10:23:53 EDT
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> >  or the concentration camps we had in California for Americans of
> >  Japanese descent.  Of course they were only interned not killed,
> >  but still, it was a violation of their civil rights, they lost
> >  their properties and businesses and a couple of years of their
> >  lives...it was still a concentration camp right here in our 
> >  U.S.A.
> 
> Yes.  But for what it is worth, part of the motivation for moving the people
> of Japanese ancestry out of the general population was to protect them, and
> prevent killings and riots.  The wartime fervor against ``the Japs'' (which
> was necessary to support the superhuman effort and sacrifice that won the war)
> was a great hazard to the public safety, especially on the West Coast, where
> invasion paranoia reigned supreme.
> 

I recall reading some years ago that in the nine months between Pearl Harbor
and the start of the relocation, there were only a few incidents of the type
being described above --- something like 28 extra-legal actions, and seven
deaths of Japanese-Americans.  (From Bill Hosokawa's book, _Nisei_, which
was a history of Japanese-Americans, and not just about the camps.)  It 
seems clear at this point in time that the motivation was more related
to the desire of non-Japanese to reduce economic competition.

While the grand tradition of warfare is to whip up nationalistic hatred of
the enemy so as to persuade the population to sacrifice and fight (for
example, anti-German feelings in World War I), World War II was somewhat
different.  While anti-German feelings were definitely present, much of
the material I have read from that time clearly distinguishs the *Germans*
from the *Nazis*.  Bill Mauldin's book _Up_ _Front_ has a portion where
he discusses how silly the distinction seemed to the soldiers fighting
in Europe.  Similar relocations were not done on the East Coast for
ethnic Germans and Italians --- and there was at least as much provocation
for concern about ethnic German sympathy for "the motherland".  (See
Eric Severeid's autobiography _Not_ _So_ _Wild_ _A_ _Dream_ for a 
disturbing portrait of the Silver Shirts in Minnesota.  Why is not
surprising that Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, and stack of other
collectivists came from there?)

By contrast, racial hatred *was* whipped up towards the Japanese as a
race --- although it didn't take much work.

> I'm not saying that the action was right --- only that it was well intentioned.

I would strongly dispute this claim --- especially in light of the 
suit being fought this month in Seattle.  It appears that the decision
to relocate the Japanese as a military decision may have been based
on purposeful suppression of the facts.

> Further, a number of people around Roosevelt argued against it.  Had anyone
> among Hitler's advisors argued against Hitler's ``struggle'', he would have
> been removed from his post and executed.
> -- 
> 
> 	from Mole End			Mark Terribile
> 		(scrape .. dig )	mtx5b!mat
>     ,..      .,,       ,,,   ..,***_*.

In medieval times, the peasants held the king in so much awe, that they
assumed when some new evil was foisted upon them, that "if the king only
knew!"  In modern times, I have seen this reaction from partisans of
both Presidents Carter and Reagan, who find it hard to believe that their
hero could really approve such a thing.

President Roosevelt told his aides, when he signed the Executive Order
for the relocation ("be reasonable").  This is rather akin to handing
a criminal an automatic weapon during a blackout and saying "be reasonable".

I can't imagine any way to justify the relocation, except based on
complete and total ignorance of what happened.