27 January IH Remembrance Day

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I have to disagree. Yes, the US internment camps were wrong. Locking up your own citizens for nothing more than being descended from the same ancestors as your enemy can never be right.

That said, locking up your citizens for the wrong reason, however shameful, is a lot more than one step away from wholesale slaughter.

But on the other hand, we had some of the same feelings toward the Japanese as the Germany had toward the Rom, Homosexual, Jew, .... They were considered sub-human. Look at the anti-Japanese propaganda of the time.

I wonder if we did have Japanese death camps, how many US citizens would really have protested? I hope we never find that out.

We can hate our enemy, but as soon as we start characterizing them as being less than we are, aka subhuman (Untermenschen), then what Fireftr18 wrote becomes more applicable.

I disagree that we were "one step from Dachau" but we easily could have started walking in that horrible direction.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Platapus

I disagree that we were "one step from Dachau" but we easily could have started walking in that horrible direction.

Yes indeed. I was comparing two particulars, but the lesson to be learned is that the day we start treating anyone as our inferiors is the day we become inferior ourselves. I have long been of the opinion that I could never be racist, sexist, or any "ist" until I could find someone I actually believe is worse than myself. With the exception of some particular dealings I haven't found that yet.