Post
Topic
Board Politics & Society
Merits 1 from 1 user
Re: WW2: California Sorry for Japanese American Camps - too little too late?
by
Cnut237
on 26/02/2020, 14:28:42 UTC
⭐ Merited by JollyGood (1)
Is it too little too late?

In a sense, yes, but 'too little too late' implies that there were actions the US could have taken that would have constituted sufficient reparation, when that's actually not the case. When people have suffered psychological and physical torment, had their livelihoods and reputations destroyed, been separated from their families, when people have died... there is no sufficient reparation. Throwing money at it or saying sorry does nothing except perhaps alleviate the weight of guilt on the conscience of the perpetrators. What needs to happen is that lessons need to be learned so that nothing similar happens in the future. The current demonisation of muslims and - thanks to Trump - those evil Mexicans, suggests that lessons have not been learned at all.

As an aside, you might be interested in reading about the life of Frank Emi, who was one of the people incarcerated, and a key member of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee, who fought the draft. That's right - those Japanese Americans who were imprisoned as potential traitors were in 1943 forced to take a loyalty questionnaire and then drafted into military service, and expected to fight and die for the country that had treated them as traitors and stripped away their rights! This makes the fact that Emi was forced to sell his family business at around 6c to the dollar at the time of internment seem relatively inconsequential...