World War II Museum's exhibit shows Japanese Americans behind barbed wire and in combat

Japanese-Canadians were detained and relocated as well. And the conditions there were much worse than in the States. Australia and New Zealand did the same to their citizens of Japanese extraction, so we have good company in the bad neighbor business.

 

I am not too sure if the camps in Canada were worse than those in the United States. I am sure that our actions stained our honour as Canadians. I do not for one minute believe that we in any shape or form based our decision to intern Japanese Canadians to prevent injury to the Japanese Canadians. From what I can see our actions were based upon racism and greed. Now I am no libtard and a hundred miles away from politically correct and I understand the atmosphere of the times. But a Canadian is supposed to protect fellow Canadians, that is part of what it means to be a Canadian.

KTK

 

One minor modification if I understand the ruleing correctly American citizens of Japanese ancestry were evicted from the West coast areas. They did not have to go to the internment camps. They could relocate to the interior of the country. However if they had parents for example that were not US citizens and wanted to stay with them they were pretty much forced to go to the camps. It's also not clear what job prospects they would have had elsewhere in the country at the time. In the camps they were pretty much guaranteed food and housing.

Looking back on this I think it provides a very important warning. We too can fall into the trap of unreasonable prejudice and take actions that are contrary to what we should and profess to believe in.

 

I concur.

 

Perhaps the way I worded my description of Japanese-Canadian who were interned as "much worse" was a poor choice of words. "Much different" would have been a better phrase. I apologize to my distinguished colleagues from the "Frozen Far Nawth." I guess the extent of much worse could be limited to the extreme climate of the winters in the US as opposed to Canada, and the availability of foodstuffs which were stretched due to wartime concerns. The US hadn't started rationing in earnest in March of 1943 (when the relocations began). On the other hand, Canada had been on a war footing since the fall of 1939, and the availability of many commodities were few and far between at that time there. Camps were as differently run as the location of them allowed. After further reading, I found that in the US, camps were run by several different organizations such as the Justice Department, the INS, and the War Department. Each one were held to their own standards, such as camps run by the War Department built quarters based on military barracks, and fed the internees according to what troops were getting at the same time. The others were held to international standards (on par with prisons) which left much to be desired as far as the internees were concerned. Of course, no standard of living in the camps were considered acceptable to those who had to stay there. One thing that was much different in Canada was that the exclusion of internees from the Pacific coast area continued until some time in 1947 whereas internees were released from US camps on 2 Jan 45 and were allowed to return to whatever homes they had left in the exclusion zones.

 

http://app.ufv.ca/fvhistory/studentsites/wwII/japanesecanadianswwII/canadasresponse.html
http://www.sedai.ca/for-students/history-of-japanese-canadians/world-war-ii-internment/

 

Posted in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sept 26, 1941.

All Yids[a] of the city of Kiev and its vicinity must appear on Monday, September 29, by 8 o'clock in the morning at the corner of Mel'nikova and Dorohozhytska streets (near the Viis'kove cemetery). Bring documents, money and valuables, and also warm clothing, linen, etc. Any Yids[a] who do not follow this order and are found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilians who enter the dwellings left by Yids[a] and appropriate the things in them will be shot.

Exchange "penalites" with being "shot" and it's worded a lot the same as the above notice.

The massacre at Babyn Yar started on the 29th. I've visited Babyn Yar. Very moving experience. The Germans expected maybe 5,000 to 6,000 showing up. 30,000 came, expecting to be "resettled". Given that 30k were killed just after the revolution and other massacres occurred over the next 15 years, I will always be surprised they came.

 

There is a right interesting Brit orientated thread on this going on over on our sister site right now.
See: http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/60010-the-japanese-british-experience-during-world-war-ii/

 

Does anyone think it would be any different these days if the opportunity presented itself? For example, with all this ISIS business going on as of late, say if their attacks start in the US, and grow in frequency and intensity, how loving and benevolent would US citizens feel towards those who "look like the ISIS people" if their family were killed or maimed in an attack, or their homes or towns were savagely attacked, or churches burned? I tell you exactly how it will play out. It will be Executive Order 9066 and 19 Feb 42 all over again. And people now will not feel any different than folks did in 1942 America. Bet on it.

 

You make a good point...Vietnam vets had the same problem coming home to Australia, only to see Vietnamese refugees...
Tolerance and understanding is what defeats this...we CANNOT outlaw lslam...its what ISIS want and what will be the beginning of a massive sh*tfight...the likes of which Nostradamus forsaw...