History Question: Do you think FDR was correct in forcing all Orientals into Interment Camps during WWII?[/SIZE]
Originally Posted by WTF
The history prof must have been a recent victim of government school education:
Some Japanese-Americans were interned, not all orientals. In fact Madame Chiang Kai-Shek addressed a joint session of Congress and stayed at the White House for a while (but, not trusting American hygiene, she brought her own silk sheets). Of Japanese-Americans, only the ones residing near the west coast were interned, a total of about 115,000 people. Only a few were interned in Hawaii, despite the fact Japanese-Americans were about 1/3rd of the total population.
The main proponents of the internment policy were those paragons of civil liberties, Roosevelt and Earl Warren. Strongly opposed to internment were those famous oppressors, J. Edgar Hoover and Douglas MacArthur.
In retrospect it appears obvious that it was the wrong policy; imagining the fear and uncertainty on the west coast after Pearl, however, might usefully help a low-information type individual realize he could possibly be just as susceptible to over-reaction out of fear or an abundance of caution were he transported to a sudden state of sustained terror of the next blow.
....and
interment camps?? That was in Eastern Europe, until they became just too costly and were replaced by showers and furnaces.