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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (31527)	10/9/2001 2:28:33 PM
From: Poet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Hi there E, Hawthorne was a Bowdoin College alumnus, as am I (she said tangentially). How's your head? I had a whopper of a migraine yesterday, the kind where nothing works and you go to bed hoping you don't wake up with it the next morning. I hope you're over yours.

To: E who wrote (31527)	10/9/2001 6:32:22 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Respond to of 82486

Hi, E -- thanks for taking the time to pass that on. It has been a long time since I read that book. Hawthorne's prose packs a lot of power. No question that unreasoned hysteria has caused much harm and suffering throughout history. I keep thinking about the internment after our prolonged discussion. As often happens with a controversial topic, people dig their heels into their position and engage in a lot of rhetoric and posturing. Years ago I introduced my daughter to this event when she was doing a high school paper. She had never heard of it, and was appalled. In the course of her paper, she corresponded with some of the internment survivors. My own true feelings are that the internment was certainly a bad mistake, not in any way worth the stain it has left on our nation's heritage. Still, I won't condemn the authorities, because I give great weight to the circumstances at the time. We were one people then, a different people today. I believe internment of suspect groups on whatever basis was common among many countries during the war, including the Japanese. I think that the assertion that all JAs were wholly loyal to the U.S. goes against logic. I think it was a likely more a case of 1 to 10 scale. I am familiar with the Nisei (sp. ?) regiment and salute their bravery in every way. Yet, among a population of a 100,000 or so JAs, there were no doubt disaffected people, numbers unknown. Many JAs had no doubt tasted racism here in their lives. Just the other day I heard a Black leader, maybe Jesse Jackson (?), say that blacks are having a problem sorting out their feelings about the current war. That is understandable. With the JA population, so many variables would be involved, the length of time they had been here, their personal experiences in the U.S.A., etc. Japan was a strong culture, and roots are not quickly forgotten. I think it is a statistical certainty that an unknown number of JAs would have sympathized with their homeland. Heck, there were Mayflower descendants here who sympathized with the Axis. If Japan had been so inclined, they probably could have recruited a cadre of JAs willing to help the home nation, for whatever motives. Would that have constituted a serious threat to our security? Probably not. The experience of the French Resistance under occupation tells us that espionage and sabotage are more of an annoyance than a critical factor in war. So, in my opinion, it was a dumb-ass idea. Clearly not worth the cost of the damage done to our nation's honor and reputation. The best, JC