Not racism

Submitted by Howard Freeman (United States), Dec 23, 2008 at 15:20

I find one fundamental flaw in the argument that racism was the cause of the Japanese relocation. That is the simple fact that the Japanese are not a race but a national ethnic group. They are no more a separate race from other Asians than the English are a separate race from other Europeans. The united states was allied with and helping China. the Chinese were not interned. Madame Chiang Kai Sek came to The U. S. in 1944 to raise money for the Chinese war effort and was voted the most popular woman in the United states. Any anthropologist will tell you that the islands of japan were inhabited by people from what is now China many thousands of years ago. I feel the use of the word "racism" or "race" when discussing the internment and relocation (these were two separate actions) is wrong and should be replaced with the phrase" fear of or hatred for the Japanese"

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