Posted by Eric Muller (visiting from <a
href="http://www.isthatlegal.org/";>isthatlegal.org</a>):
IN DEFENSE OF INTERNMENT, Part 10:
My time here at the Volokh Conspiracy is short. Eugene invited me to
guest blog yesterday and today; at midnight I turn into a pumpkin and
must return to my home at [1]IsThatLegal. I always appreciate and
enjoy the chance to guest-blog over here. I know I've been pretty, uh,
prolific this time around, and I appreciate the indulgence of those
regular Volokh Conspiracy readers who couldn't give a flip about the
Japanese American internment.
I'll close with a final observation about "In Defense of Internment."
In Michelle's final chapter (page 150), she details what she sees as
the many important similarities between the activities of al Qaeda and
its supporters today and the activities of Japanese Americans sixty
years ago:
"There are parallels between World War II and the War on Terror,
but the antiprofilers don't make the proper comparisons. The
Japanese espionage network and the Islamic terrorist network
exploited many of the same immigration loopholes and relied on many
of the same institutions to enter the country and insinuate
themselves into the American mainstream. Members of both networks
arrived here on student visas and religious visas. Both used
spiritual centers--Buddhist churches for the Japanese, mosques for
the Islamists--as central organizing points. Both used
native-language newspapers to foment subversive tendencies. Both
leaned on extensive ethnic- or religious-based fundraising groups
for support--kais for the Japanese, Islamic charities for Middle
Eastern terrorists. Both had operatives in the U.S. military. Both
aggressively recruited American citizens as spies or saboteurs,
especially (but not exclusively) inside their ethnic communities.
Both were spearheaded by fanatics with an intense interest in
biological and chemical weapons."
(Michelle might also have noted in this passage that American citizens
of Muslim faith and Arab ancestry have actually pled guilty to charges
of attending al Qaeda training camps (the Lackawanna, NY cases) and
seeking to levy war against the United States in Afghanistan (the
Portland, OR cases). Those, it would seem, are even clearer instances
of threat to the United States by American citizens than the handful
of vague references about Kibei and/or Nisei in the MAGIC cables.)
Michelle's purpose in writing the book, you'll recall, was to "offer a
defen[se] of the most reviled wartime policies in American history:
the evacuation, relocation, and internment of people of Japanese
descent during World War II." (p. xiii) "Even with the benefit of
hindsight," she argues on page 80, "it is not at all clear that mass
evacuation [of all people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.
citizens] was unwarranted." Why? Because information (especially from
the MAGIC decrypts) about subversive activities by Japanese Americans
(which, she notes, happen to be just like the sorts of subversive
activities that Arabs and Muslims are engaging in) provided a "solid
rationale for evacuation." (p. 141.)
So here's what I don't get.
On page xxx of the book's Introduction ("A Time To Discriminate"),
Michelle tells us to "[m]ake no mistake": she is "not advocating
rounding up all Arabs or Muslims and tossing them into camps."
She's not?
References
1. http://www.isthatlegal.org/
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