Hiroshima

[Dave70968]

Yellow Peril is the common term or expression from the time. There are also a few good reads of the camps and subsequent vetting process available.

The camps in reference were an early on response to the attack of Pearl Harbor. Please understand the American mindset at the onset as being one of fear based upon not knowing wherein the sympathies were. Plus the simple fact America was caught off guard and unprepared on many fronts. At that point in time, we did not know and understand the enemy until later on.

I understand the mindset completely. It's the same one that people now use to justify banning Muslims from entering the country, or even forbidding the construction of Muslim worship/community centers. It's fear, tapping into a (human-nature) overestimation of the prevalence of a threat from the existence of a few high-profile events. Humans are really bad at judging risk when there are a few really bad events. I get it; it truly is human nature.

Justice Scalia even gave an interview not too long before his death (a couple of years, maybe?) in which he said that he could easily see another Korematsu-style case winning the Court's approval today. Didn't approve of it, but acknowledged that fear produces such results.

As I originally said, "for the most part" referring to when we knew. Granted, there were Japanese spies at home and abroad, but for the most part....The Imperial Japanese military were in uniform, thereby distinguishable to a greater degree.

In Nam, charlie could hide in plain sight. I could expound on that, but this thread is pertaining to Japan.

I get that too. I would distinguish Japan from Vietnam in the fact that we didn't invade the mainland. If we had, I imagine a lot of non-combatants would have been shot. It's not just that the Japanese military wore uniforms, it's also that they had to leave their homes to fight. That's a critical distinction; if anything the internment camps were a lot more like the situation in Vietnam because we couldn't identify the individuals, so we dealt with them en masse.