MCLC: Wang Dan on Chen Guangcheng (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: A. E. Clark <aec at raggedbanner.com>
Subject: Wang Dan on Chen Guangcheng (1)
*******************************************************

Professor Wang Rujie is right that it took the US government a long time

to apologize and make reparations for the internment camps.  But in
seeking to compare the WWII round-up with the Beijing 1989 massacre, he
offers a lopsided comparison:

"the day when people are able to gather in Tiananmen Square to
openly mourn"

<>

"it took the U.S. government over 60 years to disburse more than $1.6
billion to Japanese
Americans"

If the relevant event in China is for people to be able to gather and
openly mourn, then we must ask when were people in America able to
publicly mourn (and/or say the internment ought not to have happened)?

February 1942:  President Roosevelt issues executive order 9066.

December 1944  Supreme Court upholds order; three justices dissent,
one of them scorning it as a "legalization of racism."

January 1946  First formal reunion of Japanese-Americans who had
been detained at Catalina Federal Honor Camp.

1947  Kennie Namba files suit against State of Oregon, and two
years later a law which had facilitated the expropriation of interned
Japanese-Americans is overturned.

1972  Manzanar Relocation Center is made a California Historic Landmark.

1983  After lengthy public hearings, Congressional report condemns
internment and calls for reparations.

Every society is slow to change course and redress wrongs.  But it helps
to have a constitution that protects the expression of differing opinions.

Andrew