American Detainment: Lessons to Learn From America’s Internment Camp Shame

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In light of the recent outrage over the ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy and the separation of families at the southern border, some people have made a comparison to the Japanese internment camps during World War II. Richard Cahan, a photo historian, former Chicago Sun-Times editor, and author of Un-American: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II, discusses the history of these camps and what we should learn from them.

Cahan’s book is a photo history of the Japanese internment camps, showing the conditions of life as a prisoner, and what came before and after. The internment of Japanese Americans is often brushed over in history and education, but the pictures and stories of this shameful event are both impossible to ignore and essential to our collective healing.

Cahan emphasizes that this act was completely un-American, going against what America stands for. In current times, it appears many Americans have a similar mindset to the Americans during the early days of World War II, and Cahan says we should be especially vigilant not to repeat our past mistakes.

During World War II, 110,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and settled in small, barrack-like dwellings with very basic facilities (at best) and no privacy. Eleven weeks after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the armed forces to decide their stance towards Japanese Americans. Because the army’s first concern is security and not civil liberties, the camps were a direct result of that decision by FDR.

Cahan says seeing the reality of what happened in these internment camps should strike a warning bell in people’s minds. He encourages us to take a good look at our past and learn from it.

To learn more about Japanese internment camps or to purchase a copy of Cahan’s book, visit the links below.