There were a few parts in this article that literally made my jaw drop while I was reading, and immediately a long "Woow" came out of my mouth. One of these parts was when the author was describing the hunting of Japanese-Americans. In Nashville, Tennessee, one of the departments of conservation wanted millions of actual licenses that enabled people to "hunt" Japanese-Americans. When I read this I was in complete shock because they are treating these people like animals, like they are some sort of rare duck! I felt and know that this wrong in every way possible, you should not be allowed to hunt another human being no matter what. The response to the request of hunting licenses was even worse though. The purchasing department luckily rejected their request, but their response implied it was more than acceptable to hunt "Japs". They said "Open season on 'Japs'--no license required", and this was when the "wow" came out of my mouth because words cannot describe how terrible those seven words are.
After reading this article I realized how racist our country, especially the government of our country, was during this time. The president of the U.S., Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the one who technically started such segregation by signing the Executive Order Number 9066, which sent Japanese-Americans to internment camps. Out of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans sent away, 65% were U.S. citizens, meaning that our president at the time was separating people based on appearances and culture. "They had broken no laws...Their only crime was their heritage," a quote from the article states, supporting that the only reason Japanese-Americans were exiled from their homes was because our president was racist. He represented our country, and he represented racial segregation by signing this order. I also noticed that not only was the government racist, but they also tried to play off such discriminations with silly excuses such as Japanese-Americans being the enemy, and the fear of sabotage. For example, Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt tried to justify the means of internment camps by labeling the Japanese-Americans. He characterized them as a "menace that had to be dealt with." By giving them a silly name and label, he believed he wiped away all the wrong from this situation, but that was impossible. This situation was messed up one, and it only got worse. Another example of the government trying to excuse such inequity was when the FBI got involved. The FBI began arresting Japanese-Americans left and right without a trial or anything, and what was their reasoning? The only reasoning they had was the assumption or suspicion that such Japanese American citizens were helping Japan, but they had no proof what so ever because there was no documented evidence of spying activity. Government officials had no excuse for their racist actions, and now I see how racist our country really was against the Japanese.
In conclusion, I did spot a few references and connections to other historic events. The author described such internment camps as the "largest forced movement of people in the United States, since the relocation of Native American in the nineteenth century." This was a reference to the Trail of Tears, and I found it interesting that the author put a little preview of how American events mirror those of its past. Also, I made a connection between the worst concentration camps in Germany, and these horrible ones in America. One of the members of the authors family described their traveling experience as such: "The trip took us five days and four nights by train. A contingent of armed MP's guarded us at all times. We slept sitting up in our assigned seats." This quote reminded me of a scene from the novel, "Night" by Elie Weisel, when he was describing his journey experience to the concentration camps. They both traveled night after night by train, which were packed full, and had to sleep standing up. I thought it was weird to see so make such a connection to an internment camp in the U.S. to a concentration camp in Germany.
