American Apologies

Throughout our history, problems of civil rights and racism have always been issues that have damaged our reputation. One of the more notable examples of prejudice against minorities was during World War II. For all our talk of constitutional protection, when things go crazy in this country, the government does some fucked up shit. A great example of this is President Roosevelt authorizing of Executive Order 9066, which called for the movement of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese residing in the United States to camps called “War Relocation Camps”. 62% of these people were U.S. citizens, but because of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, it somehow seemed logical to intern all those of the same ethnicity. Germany and Italy weren’t exactly the friendliest nations around that time, but the “relocation” of German-Americans and Italian-Americans wasn’t as widespread for reasons you could probably guess. While Roosevelt’s image in history is almost always favorable, for fear of him being deified it needs to be re-stated that Japanese internment was a terrible decision. In 1988, Congress passed legislation which apologized for the internment, admitting that the government actions were based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”, and over $1.6 billion in reparations were later disbursed. But paying off shame won’t erase a piece of history that truly reflects the illogical thinking that goes on amongst leaders during wartime.