An American Story Response

This article highlighted the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II as the United States government took active measures against these minorities that eliminated freedoms and liberties guaranteed under the Constitution. The government justified their actions by claiming that they were securing the safety of America's national borders. However, after the war, the federal government issued formal apologies, granted presidential pardons to Japanese Americans, issued monetary compensations to survivors of internment camps, and set up funding for an educational program aimed at preventing such atrocities as a result of racism from every occurring again. However, the author mentioned how many government officials still expressed racist views and noted several policies that emerged after the war that were discriminatory toward Japanese Americans. What was extremely interesting was that only thirteen years after the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, Congress signed the Patriot Act into law. Once again, the government depicted its ability to ignore civil liberties and target individuals based on race alone. This is particularly scary because it shows that history is repeating itself in many ways, and that latent racism still exists in American society, despite the general belief that racism is in the past.
What I found most interesting about the article was that it showed parallels between the Nazi state and the American government; both were willing to place "guilt" on groups based on their "race." Similar to the American government, the Nazis stated that targeting a certain "race" was in the best interests of the nation and was crucial to ensuring the survival of their own race. The American government was under the belief that the Japanese were attempting to ignite a race war, and justified their actions as a response to this "threat." The Nazis argued that the Jewish "race" posed a threat to the Aryan race. This article did not explicitly state such parallels, but it acknowledged the similarities to a greater extent than do most texts taught in the United States about American history.