Prejudice And Similarities Between Pearl Harbor And 9/11

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This famous quote by the novelist and philosopher George Santanya exemplifies the problem this country has with immigrants and foreigners. While the focus of certain immigrant groups has changed, the standards by which foreigners under fire are treated has not changed. That is to say, the peoples being discriminated against may change, but there is always a specific group or groups of people that are treated with prejudice, and continue to be discriminated against even by the government of the country they are in. The Japanese were treated outrageously after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. However, this attention has recently been shifted to a new group. After the attack on the Twin

Indeed, this was and is a widespread phenomenon after both Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Institutional Discrimination is the denial of opportunities and rights to individuals or groups, resulting from the normal operations of society. Following Pearl Harbor, the Japanese suddenly found themselves in internment camps. They had to get rid of most of their possessions and their property was seized by the American government. Eight hundred Japanese-American volunteers built the biggest national internment camp, Manzanar. There was no insulation, no privacy, and had very tight security. The Japanese-Americans were in these concentration camps from December 1942 to November 1945. After the camps were closed, the people had nowhere to go. Their land taken, most of their possessions gone, and no money. In addition, because of extreme prejudice, they could hardly find any work. Both Italian and German-Americans were also detained at some points during the war, although they were not put in concentration camps. Around 11,000 people of German descent and 3,000 people of Italian ancestry were detained. Many of them were

In September 1942, the NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, ran an article titled “Americans In Concentration Camps,” which courageously noted that “Color seems to be the only reason why thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry are in concentration camps. Anyway, there are no Italian-American or German-American citizens in such camps.” (Greene)
Fred Korematsu was a Japanese-American who refused to be put into a concentration camp, ignoring an Executive order by Franklin D. Roosevelt, went into hiding. In 1942, he was finally arrested. He took the case all the way to Supreme Court but lost. He was released after the end of World War II, but the conviction on his record was not overturned until