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Actually, it looks like Order 9066 applied to all ethnicities, not just Japanese:
Feb.-April 1942 Congress ratifies Executive Order 9066 authorizing the imposition of sanctions for violations of the order. Extensive military zones established on the east and west coasts, significantly expanding upon those originally created by DOJ, and in certain areas around the Great Lakes. Gen. John DeWitt issues a series of Public Proclamations creating Western Defense Command military areas and outlining curfews, travel restrictions and exclusion provisions, among other things, applicable to German, Japanese and Italian aliens, as well as Japanese American citizens. By military order, thousands of German, Japanese and Italian aliens required leave military areas on the West Coast. Later, approximately 100,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans are relocated from the West Coast to camps administered by the Wartime Relocation Authority. On an individual basis, "potentially dangerous" US citizens of German ancestry are also ordered out of military zones and forced to establish new lives with little or no government assistance.
However, Japanese were far more affected than other groups, but from what I have read it sounds like the other groups were treated pretty bad, if not equally as bad. There is a page, here, which discusses the myth that Japanese Americans were interned en masse.Regardless, the treatment of people with particular nationalities, especially the Japanese in America, appears to have been pretty harsh. But again I don't think this is comparable to anything that is going on today. Aside from limited acts of retaliation (e.g. right after 9/11) perhaps the opposite it true; for example, political correctness has mandated that profiling not be used at airport screenings.
I don't think it's search engine spiders who are signing up as spammers. Rather, it's programs that spammers have created to go around the internet and sign up automatically and post spam. These tend to be foreign spammers – Russian, Dutch, Asian – though I have run into scam artists from places like Brazil and Nigeria. I can say that I'm glad I live under the safety of U.S. laws, but the internet necessarily brings you out of this into the “wild west” form of government where things aren't so secure. That's why vigilante actions are sometimes required. 🙂 Ok, maybe not so much vigilante, but rather watching your own back and defending your castle.
The Junkers Ju 390 was a scaled up Ju 290 with a wingspan of 181 ft 7.25 in (55.35 m) and was powered by six 1,700 hp BMW 8011 engines.Two prototypes were built and tested in 1943. During the evaluation programme the second prototype was flown from an airfield near Bordeaux to within 12 miles (19 km) of the US coast north of New York before returning to France.This proved that the specification for a bomber that could attack New York could be achieved, but the scheme progressed no further.
This is where there is some dispute, though. Among other criticisms of the account, here is what I have read about the uncertainty of the Junkers Ju 390 flight:
Critics have also pointed to the vagueness of the aircraft's alleged position and even the date of what would have been a milestone flight. The best known (and maybe earliest publication) of the claim in English was in William Green's Warplanes of the Third Reich in 1970, where he wrote that the Ju 390 flew to "a point some 12 miles from the US coast, north of New York". Critics say the vagueness of detail and lack of corroborating evidence are hallmarks of an urban legend.
So Holibar, are you saying that this is less of an "urban legend" than some claim it to be?
Animals are supposed to be able to sense when danger is approaching. This was the case when the tsunami hit Thailand in 2004, and I think when a tropical storm hit somewhere in the Carribean. What is interesting is that shelling is a man-made danger, and 30 minutes notice suggests it didn't have to do with hearing vibrations from firing. Perhaps the smell of loading artillery gave it away.
I found this story linked to on Drudge today: Mexican fishermen found after 11 months at seaSeems somewhat similar to what happened on the Mary Celeste...except these Mexicans survived! Amazing stuff...
Historywonk, in response to your request about the source, you can view the underlined links in my previous post to see the page where I got the info from. One of those sites is a comprehensive detailing of the internment of German Americans during WWII: http://www.foitimes.com/
Thanks for the suggestion. I may have to check it out sometime. I have been to Greece before and it's really quite beautiful. Athens is a city of ancient structures surrounded by a concrete jungle of modern urbanism.
Your point is well taken – it was basically a reaction against an entire group for the possible action of a select few who might be from the group. Granted, it was a cautionary measure designed to pre-empt calamities without considering the effects on the innocent who would undoubtedly be punished.
Nothing even remotely like it was done to, or even suggested, against Italian-Americans or German-Americans. And all of this was after the FBI had identified all enemy aliens that were deemed as suspect and they were either rounded up or under surveillance.
Actually, this isn't true, so it wasn't only a singling out of Japanese Americans. Read this:
During WWII, the US Government interned at least 11,000 persons of German ancestry. By law, only "enemy aliens" could be interned. However, with governmental approval, their family members frequently joined them in the camps. Many such "voluntarily" interned spouses and children were American citizens. Internment was frequently based upon uncorroborated, hearsay evidence gathered by the FBI and other intelligence agencies. Homes were raided and many ransacked. Fathers, mothers and sometimes both were arrested and disappeared. Sometimes children left after the arrests had to fend for themselves. Some were placed in orphanages.
Also read this:
According to the latest research, dozens of Italians lost their fishing boats and hundreds more -- largely bakers, restaurant workers and garbage men -- had to give up jobs because of curfews. About 1,600 Italian citizens were interned, all of them here, and about 10,000 Italian-Americans were forced to move from their houses in California coastal communities to inland homes.And the 600,000 legal Italian immigrants who had not become U.S. citizens were put under travel restrictions. Dozens of American citizens of Italian origin who had shown sympathy for Mussolini were temporarily banished from California.
So the situation was not quite as similar to what you are proposing (i.e. different race = "lock 'em up"). Actions were taken as "sweeping measures". Let's face it, in world war, all sides end up losing in one way or another. Where I will disagree, though, is the comparison of internment to current politics. We're truly facing a different enemy now, and the actions by democratic nations are hardly comparable to those of WWII.
First, I am not going to defend maltreatment to any group of people. I haven't studied this episode of history enough to have an accurate understanding of the process of forcing Japanese Americans into internment camps. However, any unjust treatment toward them was wrong. That said, I'm not so sure that the "only proof" was based on the lies that you suggested. I recall a History Channel program that spoke of Japanese work on chemical or biological weapons in Manchuria toward the end of the war (for example, see the story of Shiro Ishii). They were also working on high altitude, long range bombers that would fly too high for American fighters to engage. These bombers would have had the ability to strike targets on the U.S. West Coast, such as San Diego. There were other scenarios as well:
Proposals included use of these weapons against the United States. They proposed using balloon bombs to carry disease to America and they had a plan in the summer of 1945 to use kamikaze pilots to dump plague infected fleas on San Diego.
Here's another account of the danger and uncertainty faced on the West Coast soon after American joined the War effort. Rumors - whether intentional or not - may have been spread about Japanese ships off the coast of California, but they weren't something to take lightly:
Along the Pacific coast in December 1941 there were, for example, only forty-five thoroughly modern fighter planes to defend a coast line which extended for 1,200 miles, and along which were located such important aircraft plants as those of Boeing in Seattle, Douglas and Lockheed in Los Angeles, and Consolidated in San Diego. In heavy bombers, the defenders were even less well equipped; for at the close of 1941, there were only ten such planes stationed along the entire coast and the number within reach for concentration against an enemy force was indeed limited.
That same site describes how California had been hit by Japanese sea warfare:
During the course of a fireside report to the nation delivered by President Roosevelt on 23 February 1942, a Japanese submarine rose out of the sea off Ellwood, a hamlet on the California coast north of Santa Barbara, and pumped thirteen shells into tidewater refinery installations.
All this said, suspicion and fear that a massive Japanese attack would hit the West Coast were quite understandable. I'm not sure how much the U.S. government knew about plans to spread biological agents in California - perhaps this came out after the War. But if the government did know during the War, it would add an extra need for very high security.I'm not saying that any of this justifies any particular thing that happened to Japanese Americans or any policy directed at them during the War. However, I am saying that suspicion of Japanese spying within the U.S. - and the potential for major destruction - was more understandable during the time of conflict. Of course, we can look back and judge some 60 years after the fact, but remember that they didn't yet know the outcome of the War.
Interesting. Reuben Branson was your ancestor? That's who Wikipedia says was the postmaster in the 1880s. I had heard of Branson before but I wouldn't have known that it was so small these days….less than 7000 people.
The MiG was improved over the Cold War years, perhaps with a little espionage help from the KGB. Read here for a post I made on the MiG 21 and the Canadian Arrow.
I think I will add a board entitled soemthing like “Europe in the Modern Age”. This would cover Europe from 1900 to basically the present day, except it would not cover WWI or WII (or the Cold War). Also, I will need to add something covering America after the Late 19th Century until the "Roaring Twenties". This will probably be an "Early Twentieth Century" board....great for all of the Teddy Roosevelt fans here!
To this day, Peter's Pence is collected in Catholic parishes, probably throughout the world, around the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (see here).
