Comments about ‘Two Utahns who spent childhood in internment camps say history must not repeat’

I enjoyed the article up to the point that it tried to equate putting the Japanese in camps with Hispanics that commit illegal immigration. People resent all those who come here illegally, the fact that they comprise 75-80% of our illegal population creates the resentment. People don't resent the ethic group, just the actions by some of their people and organizations that promote illegal activity.

Every war has atrocities on both sides. The Japanese still have not apologized to the Chinese for using kidnapped women to entertain their troops. And Americans living in Japan during WWII were put in POW camps and most killed when the US dropped the bombs. America needs to stop hanging our heads over our relocation camps. We prove to be no better or worse than the rest of the world.

America does not have an anti immigration attitude towards Hispanics. They make up 36% of our legal immigrants, yet are only 7% of the worlds population. Non Hispanic Caucasians receive 16% and Africans receive 7% by comparison. They receive preferential treatment.

This travesty, plus the justification of nuking of civilians may have been the beginning of the end of a noble America as we once knew it.

Let the same advise apply to those who were tortured, murdered, and abused by the Japanese at Batan, in China, and Korea during the war.

I don't thing all that much has changed. When Iraq and the Islamic culture became perceived enemy, many of those sharing that culture and religion in the US were are are under fire. I have heard people talk about "rounding 'em up" or something like that to "keep America safe."

Enough fear and we would, sadly, do the same thing again today.

oh boy ...xmas and already satan clause is out there..i feel for you sir ..seems america got its idea on the concentration camp from the reservation camp which was created to segregate and genocide a people who gave em the constitution by the way of the Iroquois...then without the navajo , who weren't allowed to vote as utah was the last state to recognize Native Americans as citizens in 1956 while all the polygamous were allowed to and possible still vote while not living the law of the land which emanates from that consitution. So smooth are the words which make a wrong seem right, want some free land?

"biggest blemish on the U.S. Constitution this country has ever seen"

Hardly. Has this guy ever had a history class? I am tired of these Japenese concentration camp articles that pop up every now and then. Has he heard of the Native Americans? the black slaves? The order to exterminate Mormons? The civil war?

Yeah, it was a difficult experience for him and his family and they lost a few years of their lives. So did my grandpa when he was captured by the Germans. Millions of Americans' lives were shattered when their brothers, fathers, cousins were killed by Japanese soldiers. It was war and war is terrible. The problems finding work and places to rent after the war had nothing to do with the government lockdown; it's simply human nature do distrust the people who look like, talk like and are related to the people killing your friends and family members.

The real testament to the greatness of America is that despite our mistakes and follies we have a national conscience that seems to make us try to right our wrongs. These people ended up having good lives and fared much better than those in Japan

Racism is something that abounds in every country. At least we admit it is here. And, true, every generation has to deal with it.

Wayne Rout: they are talking about AMERICAN citizens!!! whatever the Japanese did to their Asian neighbors during the war has nothing to do with them.
Pat1: accepting its existence does not mean we have to be complacent about it.

Where is the AL Sharpton of the Japanese?

That's just it...you won't find one!

I have a profound respect and love for my Japanese fellow Americans....their contribution to American Society is Priceless!

Racism still exists in the US and this could happen again. This can happen to US citizens purely because of race. You see it with people who are anti immigrant, even legal ones all the time.

America has been taken over by that nasty, racist, rich-worshipping group that calls it self "conservative."
The only thing I see that is being conserved is a stark resemblance to the 3rd Reich.

@LOL:

We should all be like you.

The remains of Utah's Topaz War Relocation Center are still there to be visited amid the sagebrush and sand near Delta, Utah. There is a very enlightening set of monuments (authored by Mr. Nagata and others) in the parking lot, and you can still walk around and see foundations and bits and pieces of the buildings and their contents (which you have to leave in place, of course).

You can see it on, say, Google Earth at 39°24′40″N 112°46′20″W.

Internment camps were not about racism. Many German-Americans were also interned in camps, most in Texas and New Mexico rather than Utah and other western states.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the country was concerned about loyalty. Everyone -- from the President, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court on down -- was concerned about the issue of loyalty. I don't think we can blame them or the country for their reaction. It was normal in those days.

Personally, I blame the Government of Japan. It attacked a country it knew had many of its own -- and their children -- living within its borders, without thinking twice about them or their well-being.

It should not have been done. The same idiocy happened here in Canada. I targeted the wrong people.

Be that as it may, the only Canadian executed for war crimes in Japan, was a Japanese Canadian who went to Japan and was employed as a prison camp guard. He beat many of his fellow Canadians to death,

I'm confused... Did somebody suggest we SHOULD repeat it???

So why the need for this article?

As the radical right-wing continues with its uber-nationalism, war-mongering, sexism, racism, and now clamoring to put laws put into place to pick up and dispose of undesirables, we inch closer and closer to unbridled fascism.
And the easily duped, by talk-radio pundits (just like Goebbels did) go merrily on their way promoting all of it.

The attitude in many of the comments seems to be something like: Well bad things happen everywhere so mentioning what happened to the Japanese-Americans during WWII is a waste of space in the Deseret News website.... Well my friends sometimes we just have to become aware about things that happened...so that we do not repeat them again.

It is impossible for anybody from the bizarre neoconservative movement to admit fault in their twisted thinking process.
To them it would be the biggest blow to their ego.
Liberals on the other hand would like to see America formally apologize for the internment and for the wanton destruction of Japanese civilians in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
This was America's darkest moment and even Republican and General of the armed forces, Dwight David Eisenhower knew how appalling the act was.