Blackhorse
Posts: 1983
Joined: 8/20/2000 From: Eastern US Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: btbw Oahu and loyal? Seriously? What about FIVE internment camps. Or natives, do you remember how PH become as american and what status it have? Yes, Oahu and Japanese-American and intensely loyal. On the mainland, Japanese-Americans from the West Coast were -- to America's shame -- put in internment camps. The (eventually) most prominent of those internees was Norman Y. Mineta, later the Mayor of San Jose California, a US Congressman, and a Cabinet Secretary for both President Clinton (Commerce) and George W. Bush (Transportation). Secretary Mineta is also my mentor and my friend. Mineta's older brother was 19 when the family was moved to a camp on a barren, windswept plain in Wyoming. The first time Mineta ever saw his older brother cry was when he received his draft notice -- his brother wanted to join the US Army, but he was classified as an 'enemy alien'. As soon as that wrong-headed policy was reversed, he, and several thousand other internees, enlisted. Despite all that America had done to them, they wanted to prove that they were 'real' Americans, believing that America's promise that "all mean are created equal," would someday be fulfilled. In Hawaii, Japanese-Americans were not interned. They were, temporarily, removed from military units. Here is an account of what happened when, late in 1942, the War Department decision that 'Nisei' (Japanese-American citizens) could now enlist was announced at college campuses: "As soon as he said that we were now eligible to volunteer, that room exploded in a fury of yells and motion. We went bursting out of there and ran - ran! - the three miles to the draft board, stringing back over the streets and sidewalks, like a bunch of marathoners gone beserk. And that scene was repeated all over Oahu and the other islands." That account came from Daniel Inouye, who lost his arm, and won a medal of honor, fighting in Italy. He is now Senator Inouye, one of the most prominent United States Senators, and, as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, third in line to be President, after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. So on balance I'd say the Japanese-American community was very much American, and very little Japanese, during World War II.
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WitP-AE -- US LCU & AI Stuff Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? Moriarty: Crap!
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