Michael Dorosh
Army.ca Veteran
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Infanteer said:Well, if you look at alot of the literature, you'll see that racism was a big factor in the lead up to the Pacific War - I think it was called "yellow fever"; I remember Glorified Ape talking about it. Government and the standard of intellectual debate within a society certainly act as filters on the actions states take on behalf of their citizenry - this is why we only interred Japanese while the Germans burned Jews and other untermench to ashes. But these filters don't exclude the fact those same base emotions led to the outcomes being considered in the first place. Why else would Canadians approve of wholesale lockup of Canadian citizens based upon their race? Because they quite simply saw all "Japs" as a threat; we dropped our convictions in the act of giving into fear. For the good of the Aryan race, the Germans accepted their course - in this case, the voice of reason was overwhelmed by base hatred, fear and scapegoating.
Ah....okay, reread this, and I think this is reasonable. As I indicated, yes, fear was at the heart of it - and good dose of racism. But I still don't think the decision was easy (or hope it wasn't) and will reiterate that it wasn't done simply out of spite. They thought it was the right thing to do - and you'll notice that those alive at the time never apologized for it. Compensation and apology was still being fought over during Mulroney's term as PM. By then it was no doubt embarrassment and guilt that prevented them from doing so - or just chintziness, as was also the case I think with the Merchant Marine and their veteran's benefits.
Whatever it is - certainly not black and white, eh?
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