Reply #38: Well, what Hitler did was irrelevant to what FDR did in the US [View All]

[Selatius]

I agree with you that FDR probably did not think about interning Japanese when he won in 1932 as opposed to Hitler and the Jews, but the fact that he acquiesced where he should have remained firm is my criticism, and I believe it is an extremely valid one. When one deals with practical issues, I recommend pragmatism, but when it comes to issues that test one's principles, I recommend one should be as firm and uncompromising as possible.

Yes, there was a lot of ignorance in the US, and there continues to be quite a bit of ignorance in the US. I would assert that the level of ignorance over social and economic issues is still pretty high. We're ignorant, just not as ignorant as before. Otherwise, we would not be electing presidents of the caliber of Bush. Whether or not people have a college degree may not matter that much, especially when it comes to issues of prejudice and irrational hate. After all, would one bet his life on the proposition that all people who have a college degree are not racist or prejudiced in any way, shape, or form? Rich white people have been going to college for generations, but it didn't stop them from institutionalizing hatred of black people.

However, I will politely disagree and say that I don't think that in any way justifies interning Japanese-American citizens to protect them from the ignorance of white people. While it may have saved Japanese from being lynched or killed if there were Japanese in the deep south like Mississippi or Alabama or any "very rural" area (they're everywhere even in parts of California), it should also be stated again that it in no way justifies internment either, especially given that the vast majority of Japanese-Americans lived on the west coast. As I always say, "A wrong should not be answered with another wrong." I would think that the lessons learned from the experience with the Japanese led precisely to the decision, at least thus far, not to single out and intern hundreds of thousands of Arab-Americans in camps.