Attack in Pearl Harbor

Attack in Pearl Harbor

Attack in Pearl Harbor in December 1941 shocked United States to its core. It signaled not only an utter destruction of an important naval base and the loss of many lives, it in the first place signified the beginning of a great struggle for nation’s survival. At time when France fails to Germany, and Russia and Great Britain are at the verge of failing, nothing seemed to prevent the Nazi and its powerful allies to conquer the world. And though Attack in Pearl Harbor was shocking, the nightmare of expected upcoming tribulations was much greater.

While incidents similar to that in Pearl Harbor were perhaps unconsciously expected by many Americans as they were observing great struggles on European scenes of war, they still couldn’t accept so miserable defeat of their naval base. As Hitler came to blame the German Jews for the defeat of Germany in WWI, Americans came to blame the American Japanese for the defeat of their forces in Pearl Harbor. As there was no solid evidence of the German Jews treacheries activities against their German government also there was no conclusive evidence of even a single American Japanese engaged in treason against America.

Regardless how justifiable Internment of Japanese though to be during World War II (and by some today), it occupies, according to most historians an infamous place in American history. However it is possible to learn how to shape foresight policies during similar cases, if we learn from hindsight.

“What did the Internment of Japanese American Mean” book, edited by Alice Yang Murray introduces through 5 different essay, different aspects of Japanese internment: “Reasons for internment”, “Legality of internment then and after”, “Precedents of Japanese internment abroad”, “Resistance to internment by Japanese Americans”, “Perception of internment by the Japanese American families and communities”.

In the first part Roger Daniels describes the rise of paranoia against Japanese, and its underling racist motifs. He then goes into describing with some details on how the decision for mass evacuation evolved in the upper echelons of the government and military. The process of arriving to the decision is described by Daniels as intermingled with prejudices and lack of evidence. “Catch 22 situation” is particularly notable in this essay, which occurred when the absence of evidence ...

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...tensively and genuinely (that is by advocates of interment camps themselves). Even while most historians condemn Japanese Internment, a balanced debate of both sides is more informative than unilateral presentation of the issue.

We could relate Japanese Internment to current history, by referring to Patriot Act.

While Patriot Act doesn’t force Arab Americans into internment camps, it could be used to prosecute, and deny civil liberties to many Arab Americans, including citizens. It is possible to argue that Patriot Act is justified out of security reason as the attack during September 11 occurred from interior of the country, rather from exterior, as it happen at Pearl Harbor, nonetheless most of the Arab terrorists, lived a relatively short time in the United States and did not hold citizenship. As United States is a melting pot, even if its effect is not always apparent, the likelihood for Arab American naturalized (and especially born) citizens, as for Japanese American, to commit sabotage, is not significant greater than for a Anglo-Saxon naturalized citizen (like Timothy McVeigh) to do so. Respect for civil liberties of all Americans thus is not only just but justifiable.