@Spendulus: We may disagree here, but I think that if I hadn't invoked the spectre of Trump, then we might more or less have the same conclusion: an apology is not sufficient; the best form of reparation would be to step up the fight against endemic racism and xenophobia. I may believe that Trump is part of the problem, but I will concede that he is at least partly a symptom as well as a cause.


You do raise an important point here. A line must be drawn, but where? Let the Japanese citizens do whatever they want. Okay, but what about those Japanese citizens who have no children and no roots in the US? Those who are in the US temporarily, perhaps on holiday, and had zero intention of staying? What about Japanese holidaymakers who are also Japanese army officers? What about those who are Japanese military intelligence officers? Those who are influential figures in Japanese industry and society?

My point I suppose is that with each increase in potential threat, we reduce the numbers dramatically: most Japanese citizens who are also US citizens must be trusted, and would in any case have little power to influence the war. Japanese army officers who happened to be on US soil are perhaps a different case. If we focus on those Japanese citizens who do constitute a genuine threat, we are likely left with a handful. In which situation these cases can be judged on their individual merits. The important point here is that we are making the distinction not because they are Japanese, but because they are in the enemy army. We are judging not with a blind racial distinction, but instead with genuine reason.

But instead of this, what they actually did was go with a simplistic broad-brush approach that dealt harshly with a huge number of innocent people on the basis of ethnicity. This sort of decision is fundamentally counterproductive and works to inflame tensions within a country, promoting racism and xenophobia and fostering division at a time when everyone should be pulling together.

We agree on this much, right?