8 thoughts on “History Repeating Itself”

  1. Dave Niewert wrote an excellent book on this topic “Strawberry Days”. I highly recommend it. Set in Bellevue , Washington during the first half of the 20th century.
    I grew up there and my mother was raised in Seattle. It was pretty much a topic one was not allowed to discuss, but I actually went to school in the 50’s and 60’s with the children of these folks. We had some real villains in town who were also the community leaders, who actively promoted internment. Naturally, most of the land owned by Japanese Americans was bought up in their absence.
    My mother would always tell us that internment was the only thing that could have been done because of the war, but she was pretty well filled with the propaganda of the day. She never really understood the Japanese, either, and still makes comments about Japanese tourist behavior she experienced during the years she lived in Hawaii. I think this was the result of wartime conditioning.

  2. I don’t mean to be picky, but you might want to change your comment about 1942 being a Presidential election year 🙁

  4. I remember when I was a lad and it was common to see movies made during WWII on television. My friends and I particularly liked war movies, which were, propaganda films, but offered an irresistable mix of explosions, airplanes and derring-do. The Japanese and the Germans were sinister caricatures and hard bitten villans. I suppose the effects are hidden somewhere in my psyche.

    I was fortunate to see an exhibit at the Portland, Oregon Historical Society a few years ago. It was a large collection of artifacts from the internment camps. There were pieces of furniture made from shipping crates, jars and vessels carved out of rocks and scores of objects both practical and ornamental, with the commonality that they were both beautiful and made from scavenged materials. I would like to think that it was impossible to see the exhibit without being deeply moved, but have lived long enough to know better.

    They had some some internment camp baseball uniforms with pictures of “Little League” teams made up of young boys from the camps, together with kites, dolls and other toys. These seem the most poignant reminders of that dark little event.

  5. I wonder what Michelle Malkin has to say on this matter? I understand she’s done extensive research of the Japanese internment question. As a matter of fact she’s an accomplished author and historian of some acclaim in this regard. Michelle is to the Japanese Internment issue what Bruce Catton or Shelby Foote were to the Civil War.

  6. A lady in my city was in the camps and wrote an excellent book about her experiences called “Nisei Daughter” and I have had the pkeasure of meeting her and hear her speak. The climate in this country today makes what happened then even more scary.

  7. I tend to agree with Mayor Bloomberg that this whole issue will disappear once the November elections are over.

  8. The hostility twoards moderate American Muslims – be it at Park 51 or the Kentucky Mosque they want to block makes as much sense as gang-raping a nun to punish the Catholic church for the actions of a pedophile priest. It might make you feel good, but it’s not addressing the problem.

Comments are closed.