Kishi Bashi Uses The History Of Japanese Internment To Explore America Today

Comparing Apple's and oranges when what happened in 1942 with today's illegal immigration.

Making broad and "simple" comparisons regarding specific, and complex issues can be troublesome. We have the luxury of 20/20 hindsight when judging our nation's actions more than seven decades ago. We also forget that in 1942, we had just suffered two of the greatest defeats in American military history (Pearl Harbor and Corregidor, where nearly as many men were taken prisoner as died in the whole of the Vietnam War), were facing a war on two fronts that we were woefully unprepared for, and were up against two of the most powerful military forces on the planet. We were the underdogs...the long-shots; and invasion, while less tenable that presumed, was not out of the question. I'm not suggesting what we did to Japanese-Americans was "justified", let alone "moral"...it wasn't, and we had other options that were not taken. But neither will I accept that "white privilege", or any of the other much-bandied about terminology was wholly to blame either...short-sightedness, paranoia, yes...but pure racism; no. It was admittedly hypocritical in the sense that we didn't visit the same on every German or Italian-American citizen in the country, but it would be historically inaccurate to presume that both of these ethnic groups (not to mention Catholics, Slavs, etc.) enjoyed a "protected" status merely because they were Caucasian. Did racism exist? Certainly... we need look no further than how African and Native-Americans, even those in uniform, were being treated at the same time. And yet, in the middle of this conversation, we must recognize the significant strides that were being made (officially, and unofficially) to overcome it that ultimately led to the Civil Rights Movement, and the swiftest, most sweeping changes in our nation's (if not the world's) history. Then, as now...the legitimate concerns regarding national security had to be balanced against the obvious evils of xenophobia and true racism. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is a vast difference between depriving legal, U.S. citizens of their rights and freedoms by force...and attempting to deter the very real risks presented by illegal immigration, by those whose reasons and intentions are completely unknown, whether they be from Mexico, Honduras, Somalia, Malaysia...or, as I suspect you'd agree... Russia.