On his way to my killfile, "Snidely" trolled:

We were absolutely justified in locking up Japanese during the war, to
suggest otherwise is retarded. Unlike the so-called "wars" the US has been
in since then, WWII was a fight to the death. When up against a capable
and ruthless opponent that thinks of all others as sub-human, there is no
room for any PC bull****. Those that applauded that day understand this.

Any Japanese (or anybody else) that are offended by this need to read some
history about how they (the Japanese) waged war at that time. Our locking
up a few people was absolutely harmless in every imaginable respect in
comparison. Don't believe it? Start reading. As good a place to start as
any is what is now called "the rape of Nanking".

1: There is a considerable difference between "Japanese citizens living
in US territory" and "American citrizens of Japanese ancestry." Interning
foreign nationals during time of war is legal, and obviously a good idea.
Detaining American citizens on the basis of their ancestry is neither
legal nor a good idea. (And I don't recall that any of my Prussian
ancestors were locked up during either of the World Wars.)

2: Even at the time the internment was condemned by various American
citizens, as both unconstitutional and a waste of resources. That includes
military commanders, who didn't want to tie up soldiers in guarding
American citizens, didn't want to spend the war twiddling their thumbs
as prison guards, and remembered that they'd taken oaths to defend
the Constitution.

3: Exactly how many of the internees were involved in the Rape of Nanking,
the Bataan Death March, the wholesale murder of Chinese citizens after
the Doolittle raid, or any other atrocity? For that matter, do you know
how many Japanese-American internees were locked up?

4: You *do* realize that the concept of collective guilt is one which was
embraced by the Axis powers when they executed innocent people in reprisals?
And that the US specifically rejected that concept when we signed the
Geneva conventions?

5: "PC bull****"? Idiots like you always whine about "political
correctness"
when they're tagged as the ignorant bigots they are.

--Bill Thompson