General Wesley Clark’s recent statement that the U.S. should confine “radicalized” Americans in “camps” is drawing condemnation from two Japanese American organizations, reports Rafu Shimpo.
Clark made his remarks on MSNBC shortly after the Chattanooga shooting.
The remarks reminded many of the incarceration camps euphemistically known as internment camps where 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. It was something the U.S. government would apologize for in 1988.
“The apology to Japanese Americans says that we owe it to ourselves, to our own sense of honor, that we do not go down a path that jeopardizes the rights of Americans,” JACL said in a statement. “A response of mass segregation was wrong in 1942, and is no more right today.”
Bruce Embrey, co-chair of the Manzanar Committee also issued a statement.
“It is an ominous and deeply disturbing sign that a distinguished military leader such as Gen. Clark would suggest a solution to domestic terrorism that is unconstitutional, racist and involves violations of our civil rights,” said Embrey. “Incarcerating people simply because they believe certain ideas, practice the same religion, or look like the ‘enemy’ is contradictory to our beliefs as Americans, and is fundamentally at odds with our laws and philosophy.
“Although the threat of terrorism is real, we cannot allow ourselves to bow to emotional, xenophobic and politically expedient ‘solutions,’ as our country did with Japanese Americans during World War II. That was one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history, not to mention one of our most shamefully undemocratic and counter-productive.
You can read both statements in their entirety in Rafu Shimpo.
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rE: Japanese Americans respond to General Clark’s call for return of intermment camps: Right. We could put all the gays in Rhode Island, all the blacks in Texas, all the Jews in Iowa, all the atheists in Utah, all the Mexicans in Colorado… Is this guy completely nuts?