According to more than one source, many of the Japanese Americans living on the coasts and in Hawaii saw themselves as Japanese, not American. It's why everyone of Japanese descent living in America was rounded up and put into internment camps.
Yes, it was wrong. It was a violation of their civil rights--at least, it was for those who'd either been born here or gained citizenship.
It was also necessary, since enough were either spying or otherwise aiding an enemy during a time of war that it was difficult to pick out who wasn't.
I'm beginning to wonder if it's not time to do that with Muslims. I mean, how many sleepers are there in the U.S.? We don't know. We don't know where they are. We don't know what they have access to.
We do know that they want to hurt us. We also know that they see it as fully religiously justified. We know that almost all terrorist attacks within the last fifteen years or so have been related to Islam.
And we know that car bombs are a particularly favorite tactic. And we know that the Taliban has claimed credit.
It's a bit of a stickier situation--we don't have an officially declared war, they're a religious group not a group of immigrants from a single nation, and many Muslims are born U.S. citizens, and converted later. It may be necessary, regardless, to protect their physical safety.
I get the feeling that, if more of these attacks happen, and the public perceives that the current administration is not only not doing enough but hampering efforts to curb RIF terrorist attacks, we're going to see a lot of people arming up to play Cowboys and Hajjis.
4 hours ago
What happened to the Japanese in America during WWII is terrible but we'll never know how many acts of sabotage were prevented by doing such. We'll never know how many lives were saved in the process, including those of Japanese descent.
ReplyDeleteBack then, Americans had a different mind set. If Japanese in America had done acts of sabotage or terrorism, no Japanese person would be safe on the streets. The people back then would have went after them with a vengence and there was no way the Federal Govt could have stopped them.
Agreed. Depending on what happens that Obama doesn't react to, we may find out that that spirit has not left the American people.
ReplyDeleteIt would be easier to bomb out a few mosques!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, but that might encourage bombing of other religious buildings. Say, for instance, a radical fundamentalist Christian kills an abortion doctor. The government or a group of vigilantes bomb the church he came from, even though no other radical fundamentalist Christians go there, none of the people he went to church with condone his act, and would have reported it had they known what he was planning.
ReplyDeleteGranted, that last doesn't apply to RIFs, but they'd make the comparison.