It occurred on February 19, 1942, following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan two months earlier. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, “with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores.” What the order actually did was one of the greatest atrocities committed by the United States in its history: the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans. Canada followed our lead first, then Mexico and several South American countries did too.
According to The History Channel, in the U.S., “Anyone who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evacuated, including 17,000 children under age 10, as well as several thousand elderly and disabled residents.”
I understand the ignorant temptation as it existed then, as many did in real time. That same ignorance is being openly refreshed and rebooted today following the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel, and the full-scale war that has followed in response.
Florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, did not equivocate in his racist perspective on Oct. 15, saying, the United States should not take in any Palestinian refugees if they flee the Gaza Strip because they “are all anti-Semitic,” according to the Associated Press. He also appeared on “Face the Nation,” expanding his hostile comments, by adding, “They teach kids to hate Jews, the textbooks do not have Israel even on the map. They prepare very young kids to commit terrorist attacks. So, I think it’s a toxic culture.” In this ignorant rant, he makes the error of using “they” as the unspecific villain, failing to differentiate people in any discernible way.
Those hateful comments seem different than those made in a letter Indiana Rep. Jim Banks (R-3rd District) sent to the U.S. secretaries of state and homeland security on October 8. In it, Banks requests that Israel’s admission to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program be expedited for the purpose of “removing an extra hurdle for…
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