http://www.ushistory.org/us/51e.asp
This article talks about the Japanese Internment camps that were instated after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. There are a lot of similarities between these camps and the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust but we don't acknowledge it as a genocide. Although the conditions at the camps weren't as severe as either of the two genocides it still qualifies. A little over 200 Japanese died in these camps. Another significant difference is that congress and the president apologized to the Japanese and paid 20,000 dollars in compensation to the survivors. I don't think 20,000 was enough because the survivors went back home to basically nothing. It's not as severe and the numbers aren't as high but I think it definitely does qualify as genocide.
I don't believe the Japanese internment camps were a form of genocide because the camps were made solely for relocation, not to completely exterminate the Japanese. The United States placed the Japanese in these camps for safety because they believed that the Japanese living in America were a threat after what happened with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. My grandmother was actually relocated to the Tule Lake internment camp when she was a teenager. She didn't receive her compensation until just ten years ago just like many other Japanese. That's almost 60 years after being relocated.
ReplyDeleteThe definition of genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people and I don't think that the U.S. government were trying to kill the Japanese people. The Japanese internment camps were unjust and wrong. Maybe some Japanese people living in the U.S. were a threat to national security, but I think most weren't. In my opinion though this was not a genocide.
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