“Non-military advocates for exclusion, removal, and detention
Internment was popular among many white farmers who resented the Japanese American farmers. “White American farmers admitted that their self-interest required removal of the Japanese.”[15] These individuals saw internment as a convenient means of uprooting their Japanese American competitors. Explained one farmer on behalf of the Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association in the Saturday Evening Post:”
“It’s a question of whether the white man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown man. They came into this valley to work, and they stayed to take over.”[15]
“We’re charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. We do. It’s a question of whether the white man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown men… If all the Japs were removed tomorrow, we had never miss them in two weeks, because the white farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. And we do not want them back when the war ends, either.”
“Fear, combined with prejudice, was also at work, aided by the January release of the Roberts Commission Report, prepared at President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s request.”[15] “That report concluded that Japanese in America were responsible for espionage, contributing to the Pearl Harbor tragedy.”[15] Columnist Henry McLemore reflected growing public sentiment fueled by this report:
I am for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior. I don’t mean a nice part of the interior either. Herd “em up, pack “em off and give “em the inside room in the badlands. Personally, I hate the Japanese. And that goes for all of them”
“A viper is nonetheless a viper whenever the egg is hatched – so a Japanese American, born of Japanese parents – grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.”
State politicians joined the bandwagon embraced by Leland Ford of Los Angeles, who demanded that “all Japanese, whether citizens or not, be placed in [inland] concentration camps.”[15]. In fact internment was likely responsible for a massive influx in immigration from Mexico.[citation needed] Significant labor was necessary to take over the Japanese Americans’ farms at a time when many American laborers were also being inducted into the Armed Forces. Thousands of Nikkei, temporarily released from the internment camps to harvest Western beet crops, were credited with saving this industry.
Thank you President Roosevelt. While most of reveled over your “New Deal”, you did fvck over a set of people that no one ever really apologized for until
1980 (Reagan).
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I guess the only redeeming factor now, is that with SoCal a melting pot, who really is considered the minority?
All we need now to complete this eeriely similar picture is a war with China. I would be willing to bet 95% certain that such a conflict in this economic climate would have the public clammering to find an excuse to get rid of all those “educated asians who are stealing our wealth”. Come on, some of you that even post indirectly admitted. You hate china, you hate the outsourcing, and some of you have a disdain for some folks that attained education in a lot of these top tier schools and profession. I can say with certainty that some (not all) of you would be the same folks cheering for the export. (Not all, some)….
….Except…if it ever came to that, you’d see my entire family on the first boat up north singing Oh Canada….BTW: the nice thing , is I’ve noticed RE prices are falling in Vancouver,BC
