[quote=salinator;22351]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim O
That is just rationalization by the US Government to justify it's illegal treatment of their own citizens. The Japanese reached the Hawaiian Islands and the Aleutian Islands, no serious threat of invasion of the 48 states by the Japeanese ever existed. In fact, it was the paranoia of sabotage by ethnic Japanese that allowed the US Army Air Corps to be so easily destroyed during Pearl Harbor, and the Pacific Fleet to be manhandled.
Simple fact is that the US citizenry of Japanese descent was easily identified and stood out like a sore thumb compared to citizenry of German and Italian descent. How was the US any less safe from the ethnic Japanese than German or Italian saboteurs? German U-boats were sitting off the coast of the US eastern seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico, and within distance of light signals. A German or Italian spy on the east coast would have a much better chance of fowarding intelligence than some Japanese guy in San Francisco or Los Angelos.
The internment of the Japanese were wrong. I understand it was a different time then, but I pray that we never again make such a mistake.
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All of your points are correct, except suspension of
habeas corpus was (and still is) completely legal. The outstanding issue was one of discrimination not legality.
Also, the way it was handled was that the West Coast was made a military exclusionary zone. People were free to relocate but most went to the camps because they had nowhere else to go.