Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for the enlightening post Rick.

I remember coming across a book in college that was a collection of
photographs censored by the US Government during WWII. There were many
pictures of warehouses full of material collected in scrap drives--much of
the rubber, metal, etc. rotting away as it couldn't be recycled using
then-current technology.

Other pictures censored were of non-caucasian or mixed race people that had
either been successful, brave, or were shown mixing with caucasians
(especially if they were of African/Latin descent).

The photograph that stands out the most in my memory was one of a
Japanese-American man standing at the door of his car at the gate of one of
the internment camps. He had an agitated, confused look on his face--and was
neatly dressed in his heavily decorated WWI US Army uniform.

This only makes me wonder even more what is going on right now in Guantanamo
Bay.

http://web.amnesty.org/web/wire.nsf/April2002/guantanamo

Jon

> Andrew (Malaysia) and others who are interested,
> 
> I'm sure Jack and others can offer an explanation but as Andy kindly pointed
> out I am of Japanese descent (third generation Japanese American).  So
> perhaps, without assuming any moral high ground, I can offer some personal
> insights.
> 
> Unfortunately, unbeknownst to much of the US populace even today, several
> months after the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor (12-7-42) the
> President passed an emergency Executive Order that directed anyone with
> Japanese descent living in the Western United States to be incarcerated,
> without due legal process, in various relocation centers (i.e., prisons).
> The crime was never identified and the locations and length of time was
> undetermined. 
> 
> My parents and three siblings (age 11, 4 and 2) had 48 hours to gather what
> they could carry and were rounded up and sent to a processing center. As
> they owned and operated a grocery store in San Francisco they were bused to
> a local race track where they were assigned a filthy 10''x16' horse stall
> and told to make do with several cots, a pile of blankets, and a few pots
> and pans. There were communal outhouses, kitchens and, other than the wooden
> walls separating the stalls, no privacy whatsoever. What was supposed to be
> a three or five day stay turned into almost three weeks - all behind locked
> gates, barbed wire and no legal representation. At the height of the frenzy
> there was even hushed discussion in Congress of forced castration on these
> innocent people.
> 
> My family was eventually interned at Topaz, Utah - a dusty, hot-in-the
> summer/freezing-cold-in-the-winter high desert (i.e. a hell hole). They were
> there for 2 1/2 years. My father worked three jobs and, remember, my mother
> had three young kids with another born while they were there. This was
> definitely NOT a camping trip.
> 
> After leaving the internment camp and fearing extreme "anti-Jap"  sentiment
> on the West Coast they were accepted into a Catholic orphanage in Salt Lake
> City where they lived and worked, saving what money they could while waiting
> for the racism to subside so they could return to San Francisco. In 1950 -
> almost 8 years after being uprooted they were finally able to return to
> familiar surroundings only to find their personal effects, the business and
> property gone. 
> 
> My father passed away a few weeks ago (92 years old!) and in spite of
> surviving a catastrophic earthquake in Japan and the Great Depression,
> losing a young daughter and then his wife, and other tragedies and hardships
> that we all endure, he always said that the most emotionally and financially
> devastating and humiliating experience was having his family abruptly ripped
> from their home and business and forced to live like  prisoners for no other
> reason than skin color and nationality. Some will say it was for their own
> protection - bullshit - others will say it was for national security - more
> bullshit. The overarching reason was to rip-off homes, businesses and land
> from many of the hardworking Japanese in the cities and farming communities.
> 
> So political correctness aside - you can now understand why many of us who
> value freedom and humanity in this group and elsewhere (the real patriots)
> cringe and become gravely concerned when racial epithets - however innocent
> - are bandied about. And even more so, are really angered when the practice
> is rationalized as being either the norm, meaningless vestiges of an
> unfortunate past, or - which really pisses me off - written off as
> predictable responses from the overly sensitive, politically correct crowd
> (thanks Rush and Savage!).
> 
> So, Andrew and others, there's a wealth of info on the Web if you're
> interested. Even today, many high school US history books fail to offer any
> in depth information of the Japanese internment camps, if any, at all.
> 
> If anyone has any comment I'd be more than happy to discuss it further
> off-list.
> 
> It's time to move on!
> 
> Peace,
> 
> Rick Murai