It was seventy years ago today that America sent Japanese Americans to our own concentration camps.

[HeiressofBickworth]

48. It wasn't just the internment

The property, homes, belongings and businesses of the Japanese-Americans were sold out from under them and no, they didn't get the proceeds. They were allowed one suitcase each. After the war was over and they were released, they had nothing to go home to. They were further punished with years of deprivation, starting over, re-building the lives they were taken from. Yes, there are a few exceptions where some kind neighbor bought and held the property until the end of the war, but that was the exception, not the rule. They were sentenced to confiscation of everything, liberty, home, livelihood, based on the color of their skin. As it was pointed out in another post, Germans and Italians who were arrested were DOING something to warrant arrest. The Japanese-Americans were arrested for having the wrong color skin.

As for calling them concentration camps, I think it's appropriate. What I've always wondered is if the war in the Pacific had gone badly, how close was the United States to executing Japanese? If the Pacific war had gone badly, could the government keep people from demanding their execution. In other words, how close in mentality was the US to the Germans?