Japanese American Internment

76th Anniversary Of FDR Death, And His Impact On The Nation Continues!

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Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away on this date in 1945, being the last President to die of natural causes in office.

The debate about many actions and policies of FDR continue 76 years later, but there is no doubt that his impact on the nation was the greatest of any President other than Abraham Lincoln.

Right wing critics still condemn FDR in so many ways on domestic and foreign policy, even in 2021, but can one imagine what the nation and the world would have been like if FDR had never been President?

So much of America today is based on FDR and the New Deal, and even those elderly citizens who are right wing conservatives, are not about to repudiate Social Security, and they all benefited in so many ways from FDR policies in other ways that many may not be even aware of.

There are certainly plenty of issues and policies that even an FDR scholar, such as this author, can find fault with, particularly the Japanese American internment, and the issue of the Holocaust, but in FDR’s defense, he was faced with a myriad of issues and also health problems that it is hard to imagine any future President handling the circumstances at the time any differently.

Donald Trump’s War On Children And The American Future For Present Day Greed And Profit, And Based On Pure Racism And Nativism

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President Donald Trump has committed many crimes for which he should face justice, and incarceration.

But in many ways, the worst crime of all is his war on children and the American future for present day greed and profit, by a man who has zero compassion, empathy and concern for those who are suffering.

Trump claims to be pro life on abortion, but he is a phony, as he has no concern about children, whether born in America or in other nations.

He is willing to separate young children from their parents, something not done by Franklin D. Roosevelt with the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II.

Thousands of vulnerable children from Central America and elsewhere have been basically kidnapped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Homeland Security, and they are suffering mightily in emotional terms, as well as being poorly treated with inadequate food, clothing and housing, and many have been sexually and physically abused.

There are young children taken from their parents at ages under two years old, who now cannot speak or walk, and are permanently disabled, and will never be normal. To blame parents escaping bloodshed, crime, rape, and death in gang ridden Central America for what has happened requires one to have absolutely no concern for human life and dignity, and anyone who has no concern about the crime against humanity being perpetrated by Donald Trump and his despicable criminal collaborators is indeed an evil, uncaring person.

The only real difference from Nazi concentration camps is that so far as we know, no children have been executed, although about seven children have died in the captive conditions provided by the evil doers who collaborate with Donald Trump and his evil supporters who refuse to speak up for morality, ethics, common decency, and equal justice.

Additionally, Trump has worked to pollute the environment; deny health care to millions; and take no steps to cut the dangers to children in schools besieged by gun nuts who have made our education system captive.

Racial and ethnic minorities have been pushed into further poverty and degradation by a President who utters racial and nativist rhetoric on a regular basis.

The ultimate answer should be for Trump and his band of evil doers to be tried under international law in the Hague, being held accountable for his crimes against humanity!

How Will Reparations For Slavery Resound? Compared To Japanese American Reparations

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In 1988, the American government officially apologized to the Japanese American community for the mass internment of about 110,000 people of Japanese ethnicity, who had been denied their civil liberties from February 1942 to late 1945 during World War II.

It was the proper and moral thing to do to recompense the 50,000 survivors of those internment camps with $20,000 compensation for each survivor.

But no payment was made to the offspring and later generations of Japanese Americans who had not lived in the camps.

Now a movement has begun to call for reparations for African American slavery, and it is making steam among many Democratic Presidential aspirants.

There is no question of the horrors and abuses visited on 4 million African Americans, who were born slaves, emancipated at the end of the Civil War, and suffered segregation, lynchings, denial of civil rights, and economic exploitation.

An attempt was made to provide “40 acres and a mule” for each black family after the Civil War, promoted by the Republican Party, but it never really got off the ground.

That was an historical wrong, and compensation similar to this brief attempt should have been pursued in the late 19th century, but sadly it was not done.

But all those who were in slavery are long dead, and many of those who suffered under segregation, lynchings, denial of civil rights, and economic exploitation are also gone.

The African American experience has put that community at a disadvantage, but how can anyone figure out how to, in theory, compensate people who were not directly the victims of past wrongs?

Who would qualify, and how would one decide what an appropriate response in economic terms would be? It could lead to every ethnic and racial group demanding the same, and there is no way the US government could implement such a compensation plan, and not alienate those groups that would feel they were being blamed and assessed for something they had no role in bringing about.

Certainly, economic opportunity and new civil rights enforcement should be provided, but to have a compensation package in money terms would be an endless situation subject to much fraud.

So the answer is NOT to provide any specific compensation, because for the victims of slavery and segregation, their lifetimes have passed, and instead work on promoting fair and equitable treatment for all those whose ancestors were so shabbily treated.

This would include compensation for marijuana drug convictions for possession, and compensation for those imprisoned for years on the basis of failure to provide for a fair trial on various other charges, as often has happened in many states, particularly in the South.

Donald Trump: From Roy Cohn, Joseph McCarthy Henchman To Stephen Miller, Trump Henchman

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Donald Trump learned how to be mean, nasty, unprincipled, vain, and obnoxious, along with many other adjectives, from Roy Cohn, Jewish born aide and henchman to Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, during the second Red Scare, also known as “McCarthyism”.

Cohn was a wretched human excuse for a being, who set out to destroy many people’s lives and fortunes with accusations of being “Red” and “Pinko”, and he went on beyond McCarthy’s downfall and death, to represent Organized Crime figures, and persecute gays while himself being a closeted gay man.

Cohn met the young Donald Trump, and taught him well, and although Cohn has been dead since 1986, his impact on Trump was massive.

Now Donald Trump has a new young Jewish born henchman, Stephen Miller, age 33, who has disgusted all decent Americans by his hardline prejudice and promotion of an intolerant attitude toward any immigrants. Miller is now the survivor in the battle over an ever tougher immigration policy, including the separation of children from their parents, and declaring the borders closed to all who wish asylum, undermining the history of the United States as a place of tolerance and acceptance of refugees.

Trump has adopted Miller as his Cohn, and now has created a new crisis of ever more hardline attitudes and policies, which are an abuse of executive power, and puts America into the camp of tyrants such as Benito Mussolini, Juan Peron, and even Adolf Hitler.

The only thing that could be worse is to have mass loss of life of these women and children and also male immigrants. Already there have been a few, and who can say that it will not happen, since Donald Trump is totally out of control and has no regard for how human beings are treated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.

Even when Japanese Americans were put into internment camps in World War II, the families were not split up, as happened and is now to continue with the new maniacal attitude of Donald Trump.

This is just another of many reasons why action must be taken against the tyrant in the White House, who will stop at nothing to gain absolute power, and has threatened he will not leave if he loses the Presidential Election of 2020.

The “Achilles Heel” Of Ten Presidents: What Harms Their Historical Reputation

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When one studies the Presidency, it always comes down to one issue that can undermine their historical reputation.

So for John Adams, for example, it is the passage and enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

For James Madison, it is the burning of the White House and Capitol Hill in 1814 by the British during the War of 1812.

For Andrew Jackson, it is the forced removal of five Indian tribes to Oklahoma in the 1830s, the so called “Trail of Tears”.

For Franklin Pierce, it is the signing of the Kansas Nebraska Act in 1854, bringing the nation closer to the Civil War of the future.

For Woodrow Wilson, it is the violation of civil liberties during the First World War, and immediately after, during the Red Scare of 1919-1920.

For Franklin D. Roosevelt, it is the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

For Lyndon B. Johnson, it is the escalation of the Vietnam War in the mid 1960s.

For Richard Nixon, it is the engagement in the Watergate Scandal in the early 1970s.

For George W. Bush, it is the provoking of the Iraq War in 2003 and after.

And for Donald Trump, it is the collusion with the Russian government Vladimir Putin, which is going to bring down his Presidency.

The Muslim Ban Decision Of The Supreme Court (Trump V Hawaii) Will Go Down As One Of Worst Decisions In 229 Years Of Our National History!

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The Supreme Court has just made one of the worst decisions in its 229 year history, and has besmirched its own reputation in the process.

It will match such decisions as the Dred Scott Case of 1857; Plessy V Ferguson 1896; and Korematsu V US 1944—all racist decisions justifying slavery, racial segregation, and the internment of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II.

All have been roundly condemned, as violations of basic human rights and civil liberties, and now, once again, the Supreme Court has proved how it has allowed itself to promote discrimination and racial prejudice, all in the name of “national security”.

Instead of labeling African Americans or Japanese Americans, now the whole Islamic religion has been judged as a threat to national security, based on the hysteria and racism of Donald Trump.

We have, therefore, allowed an authoritarian who threatens our whole system of government to win a case based purely on bias and religious hatred.

This is a slippery slope that can lead to victimization in the future of people from other nations and other religions.

Jews who were refused entrance in the late 1930s, and now people from Central America who want to escape similar violence and bloodshed and are being held in detention away from their children, are just further examples of how religious prejudice and racism are winning out.

The John Roberts Court has undermined its own reputation in the process, and will be condemned in history.

And the fact that Merrick Garland, appointed by President Obama, was denied a hearing for the Supreme Court vacancy in 2016, led to Neil Gorsuch, who predictably now and in the future will advocate an extreme right wing agenda, harming our constitutional liberties for the next thirty years.

The fact that three members of the Court would not be there if the popular vote had won out in 2000 and 2016 just adds to the tragedy, as George W. Bush would not have been able to appoint John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and Donald Trump would not have been able to appoint Neil Gorsuch.

Sonia Sotomayor registered her vehement dissent, along with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the opposition of Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. But it was all for naught!

America’s reputation has been permanently damaged, and we are no safer against those Muslims who are extremists, who are now emboldened to do harm more than ever, and at the same time, those Muslims in America who have served in our armed forces honorably, and those who have done good work in other fields, have been slapped in the face.

Our most ugly side as a nation has been displayed for all to see, and anyone who believes in justice and fair play is weeping today, and will for the long term of our history as a nation, as tolerance and open mindedness have been denied!

Executive Order 9066 On Japanese American Internment 75 Years Old, As Trump Starts Massive Deportation Of Undocumented Immigrants, Mexico Wall, And Muslim Ban

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It has been 75 years. since February 19, 1942, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the arrest and detention of about 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps, for no reason other than their race, 74 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 11,000 German Americans, including some German Jews, and 3,000 Italian Americans were also interned.

Japanese ethnicity citizens and aliens were put into camps in seven states, losing their businesses and homes and many of their possessions, and living in communal housing in remote locations, and when a few tried to escape, they were shot dead by tower guards.

Some were killed by civilians in the two and a half months before the internment.

The young men in the group volunteered for World War II service in Europe, in the 442nd Infantry Regiment,and won more medals, honors, and awards than any other military units in World War II, while their families lived behind barbed wire.

Finally released in December 1944, and nearly three years interned, they were not given any help to readjust their lives.

Only in 1988, after 44 years, did the US Government and President Ronald Reagan apologize for the internment, and each survivor, about 50,000 out of the 120,000, were given $20,000 compensation with no tax withheld.

Now we are seeing similar treatment against people of Muslim heritage, by the executive order utilized by Trump, but temporarily under hold due to federal circuit courts intervening to stop the ban, but with a new executive order on the way victimizing Muslims, as if they are all terrorists, when none of the nations involved have sent over terrorists, and we have had lots of domestic terrorists who are white Anglos perpetrating violence.

And massive deportation of undocumented immigrants, whose only crime is entering the nation illegally, but with very small numbers of criminals, is now growing, with the possible use of the National Guard and new immigration border staff, as Sanctuary Cities refuse to cooperate.

Many of these immigrants are utilized by the farm industry, hotels, gardeners and restaurants, and other service workers, who, if they are deported, will create a shortage of labor and cause massive increase in prices.

And of course, the proposed Mexico Wall will cost tens of billions of dollars, and will not be able totally to prevent migration and even crime, and funds for it will come from increased taxes, and cutting off federal programs that should not be ended.

Trump is involved, basically, in a reign of terror, which will look horrible in the future, when we look back at the deterioration of the unity of the United States, and the end of the land of the free and of opportunity.

The War Against Latino And Other Immigrants And Latino American Citizens Begins, Including Crisis With Mexico Over Proposed Wall

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The war against Latino immigrants and Latino American citizens has begun, less than one week after Donald Trump took the oath of office.

We will see victimization of people from not only Mexico, but also Central America, South America, Caribbean Islands, and also from the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, and other Asian nations, as well as Muslim nations all over the world.

Racism and nativism is in full swing, and the lady on the Statue of Liberty near Ellis Island is weeping, as we have now seen the worst attack on immigration and minorities from Latin America, Asia and the Middle East that we have had in our lifetime, except for those who were alive and remember the terrible victimization of Japanese American citizens and Japanese immigrants 75 years ago after Pearl Harbor, with 120,000 interned in camps.

Not only will the government now seemingly deport more immigrants and break up more families, but one can be sure that there are plans to intern Muslim Americans when and if a few Muslim terrorists strike in America.

Civil liberties, Civil Rights, and liberty and justice are being ignored as the Trump Fascist era begins, and the question is how to bring it to an end as soon as possible, since the possibility of a dictatorship and martial law is not something we can be assured will not happen at this delicate time.

And expect a possible low level war situation at the 2,000 mile long Mexico-US border, with the plan moving ahead to build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it, which the President of Mexico declared would not occur, leading to the cancellation of a meeting at the White House. Tension will certainly rise, and we are in the worst relationship since the 1920s with our neighbor to the south.

We do not need a new foreign policy and national security headache, but Donald Trump is insuring it with his reckless and dangerous decisions.

Asian Americans: The Ultimate Swing Vote In Florida, Virginia, Nevada In the Presidential Election Of 2016, And Influence Nationally!

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One group that has not gained much attention in the fury of the Presidential Election campaign of 2016 are Asian Americans, the fastest growing group in America.

With a little more than 5 percent of the population, and rapidly growing in Florida, Virginia, and Nevada, and already substantial in New York, California, Illinois, Maryland, Washington State, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado and other states, Asian Americans are very likely to play a pivotal role in who wins the Presidency.

Asian Americans could also affect Senate and House races, as they are very likely to vote, and the vast majority have tended to vote Democratic in recent years.  The growing numbers of Asian Americans in Central and South Florida, Northern Virginia, and the Las Vegas metropolitan area are likely to insure that those three key swing states should influence the Democratic candidate’s likelihood of winning the Presidency.

Many do not realize how  many different Asian groups are included–including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, as well as those from India, Pakistan and other nations in Asia.  Very accomplished and very dedicated to their civic duty to participate in the electoral battle is a great way to describe Asian Americans.

And the history of Asian Americans is always in the background–particularly the banning of Chinese immigration from 1882-1943, and the mistreatment of Japanese Americans in California early in the 20th century, and the forced internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans in World War II.

Asian Americans know that they must fight against nativism, racism, and religious discrimination, including those of Muslim faith.

So the Republican Party has a major problem in drawing Asian American support, with 73 percent voting for Barack Obama in 2012!

Urgency For Republican Party And Entire Nation To Condemn Donald Trump And Prevent His Presidential Nomination In 2016!

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Racist, nativist, bigoted Fascist demagogue Donald Trump has just gone beyond the pale with his call for the banning of all Muslims to the United States, including any Muslim citizens who are traveling overseas as tourists or on business.

This is against the 1st, 5th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, and reminds us of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese American internment in prison camps from 1942-1945!

We cannot sit idly by as this dangerous man is stirring up the extremist groups in America, and even his rhetoric is bound to cause violence against decent, law abiding Muslims in America, which would mean Trump has blood on his hands.

The Republican Party must declare that under no circumstances will they allow Trump to be their nominee, or else they will lose their status as a serious political party, as the party of Lincoln, TR, and Ike, cannot sit idly by as Trump totally destroys their historical image!

Anti Trump rallies must be organized around the nation, and make it clear that anyone who supports Trump on this matter shall be repudiated and isolated by family and colleagues as unAmerican!