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Most of them were Japanese Americans, born in America. One wonders why German Americans weren't given similar treatment.

blakesterz 10y ago
They were? I guess? Appears to have been different, but still done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans
- mikeash 10y ago
  A relatively small number of Germans were interned based on specific individual circumstances. This was still unjust in many cases, but I wouldn't call it "similar treatment."
mikeash 10y ago
Fun fact: Japanese Americans in Hawaii were never interned (aside from a select few) because they made up such a large portion of the population that it wouldn't have been practical. Just goes to show that the whole exercise was ridiculous.
Nadya 10y ago
Japanese, German, and Italians were all interned under the Alien Enemies Act.
- nbz118 10y ago
  True but they were overwhelmingly Japanese. It appears about 11K Germans and 2K Italians were interned compared to over 110K Japanese, despite there being significantly more Germans and Italians living in the US. Sources: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Italian_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Italian_American...
  - Mindless2112 10y ago
    It's not terribly surprising when you consider that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, whereas Germany and Italy did considerably less damage on US soil.
randcraw 10y ago
Because Japanese Americans look different from "the average American", while German Americans don't. Also, Germans had been immigrating into the US since the year 1700 and intermarried widely with other groups. So it would be very hard to decide where to draw a line and say someone is "sufficiently German" to be interned.
- krapp 10y ago
  This is entirely supposition on my part, from someone far too young to have lived through any of it, but I suspect it's less that Japanese Americans looked different, and more that Japan was a non-Christian culture, which made it easier to dehumanize people of Japanese descent. The Nazis might have been evil but at least they were "like us" in that they shared a common heritage, religion and linguistic root with Americans. Japan, meanwhile, was portrayed in American propaganda as an inscrutable hivemind run by a primitive death-cult. You can see the same strange mistrust of non-Christian culture applied to Muslims in America today - even though the vast majority in the world are not violent terrorists, many Americans suspect that Islam taints and "radicalizes" the mind with evil in a way that Christianity doesn't.
  - anon1094 10y ago
    Do you really believe that it was because Japan is dominantly a non-Christian culture and not because they look different? No, it was because they weren't white. And America has, for a very long time and even now, been painted as a mostly white and african american culture. Even in modern Japan itself ironically enough, it's hard for some people to really picture non-white and non-african Americans as Americans. The word 外国人 (gaikokujin) really only applies to foreigners of European and African ancestry. I believe it's hard for them to picture those Americans as Americans simply because of the image that has been painted of the country. Sincerely, A non-asian non-african non-white American interested in Japanese culture
    - krapp 10y ago
      >Do you really believe that it was because Japan is dominantly a non-Christian culture and not because they look different? I believe it was both - they're two sides of the same coin. Look at the propaganda of the time - the Japanese were portrayed as being fundamentally inhuman in a way that Europeans weren't. The myth of the "inscrutable Oriental" has been around in the West for a very long time, the Japanese mind and morality were considered to be incomprehensible. That Japanese Americans looked different probably made this xenophobia easier to act upon, though.
sverige 10y ago
Twenty-five years earlier, during WWI, my German ancestors were made to swear allegiance to the United States around a bonfire of their German-language books. By WWII, my great-uncle, who was one of the younger ones at that bonfire, volunteered at age 40 for the Army Air Corps "because the goddamn Nazis were giving the Germans a bad name." Only time I ever heard him utter a cuss word.
mxfh 10y ago
Func fact: it's Americans of German and Italian descent that brought you Trump. It's the Germans that were either eager or pressured into adopting that ego-fragile "American"-only identity. Even Trump's father said he was of Swedish decent if asked as a businessman. It's not like all axis powers heritage lines get a free shot on trying out fascism. http://www.electionanalysis2016.us/us-election-analysis-2016/section-4-diversity-and-division/why-are-the-german-americans-trumps-most-loyal-supporters/ http://www.electionanalysis2016.us/us-election-analysis-2016... https://www.buzzfeed.com/peteraldhous/trump-and-the-white-vote?utm_term=.md0a2QREJ#.hbLxzVRaq https://www.buzzfeed.com/peteraldhous/trump-and-the-white-vo...
anexprogrammer 10y ago
You should search FDR's views on Japanese and Jewish immigration and his writings in the 1920's and later. It should make it fairly clear, and reveal his views of Jewish immigration and hence why very few German refugees were accepted. Even during the war it's been revealed he had negative views of Jews and Asians. The picture of FDR making an uncharacteristic mistake is part of the whitewash.

blakesterz 10y ago

They were? I guess? Appears to have been different, but still done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans

mikeash 10y ago
A relatively small number of Germans were interned based on specific individual circumstances. This was still unjust in many cases, but I wouldn't call it "similar treatment."

mikeash 10y ago

Fun fact: Japanese Americans in Hawaii were never interned (aside from a select few) because they made up such a large portion of the population that it wouldn't have been practical. Just goes to show that the whole exercise was ridiculous.

Nadya 10y ago

Japanese, German, and Italians were all interned under the Alien Enemies Act.

nbz118 10y ago
True but they were overwhelmingly Japanese. It appears about 11K Germans and 2K Italians were interned compared to over 110K Japanese, despite there being significantly more Germans and Italians living in the US. Sources: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Italian_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Italian_American...
- Mindless2112 10y ago
  It's not terribly surprising when you consider that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, whereas Germany and Italy did considerably less damage on US soil.

randcraw 10y ago

Because Japanese Americans look different from "the average American", while German Americans don't. Also, Germans had been immigrating into the US since the year 1700 and intermarried widely with other groups. So it would be very hard to decide where to draw a line and say someone is "sufficiently German" to be interned.

krapp 10y ago
This is entirely supposition on my part, from someone far too young to have lived through any of it, but I suspect it's less that Japanese Americans looked different, and more that Japan was a non-Christian culture, which made it easier to dehumanize people of Japanese descent. The Nazis might have been evil but at least they were "like us" in that they shared a common heritage, religion and linguistic root with Americans. Japan, meanwhile, was portrayed in American propaganda as an inscrutable hivemind run by a primitive death-cult. You can see the same strange mistrust of non-Christian culture applied to Muslims in America today - even though the vast majority in the world are not violent terrorists, many Americans suspect that Islam taints and "radicalizes" the mind with evil in a way that Christianity doesn't.
- anon1094 10y ago
  Do you really believe that it was because Japan is dominantly a non-Christian culture and not because they look different? No, it was because they weren't white. And America has, for a very long time and even now, been painted as a mostly white and african american culture. Even in modern Japan itself ironically enough, it's hard for some people to really picture non-white and non-african Americans as Americans. The word 外国人 (gaikokujin) really only applies to foreigners of European and African ancestry. I believe it's hard for them to picture those Americans as Americans simply because of the image that has been painted of the country. Sincerely, A non-asian non-african non-white American interested in Japanese culture
  - krapp 10y ago
    >Do you really believe that it was because Japan is dominantly a non-Christian culture and not because they look different? I believe it was both - they're two sides of the same coin. Look at the propaganda of the time - the Japanese were portrayed as being fundamentally inhuman in a way that Europeans weren't. The myth of the "inscrutable Oriental" has been around in the West for a very long time, the Japanese mind and morality were considered to be incomprehensible. That Japanese Americans looked different probably made this xenophobia easier to act upon, though.

sverige 10y ago

Twenty-five years earlier, during WWI, my German ancestors were made to swear allegiance to the United States around a bonfire of their German-language books. By WWII, my great-uncle, who was one of the younger ones at that bonfire, volunteered at age 40 for the Army Air Corps "because the goddamn Nazis were giving the Germans a bad name." Only time I ever heard him utter a cuss word.

mxfh 10y ago

Func fact: it's Americans of German and Italian descent that brought you Trump. It's the Germans that were either eager or pressured into adopting that ego-fragile "American"-only identity. Even Trump's father said he was of Swedish decent if asked as a businessman. It's not like all axis powers heritage lines get a free shot on trying out fascism. http://www.electionanalysis2016.us/us-election-analysis-2016/section-4-diversity-and-division/why-are-the-german-americans-trumps-most-loyal-supporters/ http://www.electionanalysis2016.us/us-election-analysis-2016... https://www.buzzfeed.com/peteraldhous/trump-and-the-white-vote?utm_term=.md0a2QREJ#.hbLxzVRaq https://www.buzzfeed.com/peteraldhous/trump-and-the-white-vo...

anexprogrammer 10y ago

You should search FDR's views on Japanese and Jewish immigration and his writings in the 1920's and later. It should make it fairly clear, and reveal his views of Jewish immigration and hence why very few German refugees were accepted. Even during the war it's been revealed he had negative views of Jews and Asians. The picture of FDR making an uncharacteristic mistake is part of the whitewash.