Scholar compares history to present

Sixty years ago, American citizens were taken from their homes and thrown into concentration camps. Tuesday, Feb. 19, marked the 60th anniversary of the signing of executive order 9066 ordering Japanese-Americans to evacuate their homes and leave all their possessions behind.\nThursday night, Roger Daniels, history professor at the University of Cincinnati, spoke to about 30 people in the University Club in the Indiana Memorial Union about the history of the concentration camps and the ramifications of that event on current issues. \nDaniels began with a brief overview of the events, not going into great detail. He referred to the executive order as the "now-infamous document" and reminded the audience it was not signed in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, but 74 days later. \nExecutive order 9066 resulted in the internment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans. They could only take with them the possessions they could carry, and everything else had to be sold. Daniels stressed these camps were not death camps, but that many more people were born in the camps than died in them. Considering his audience, Daniels decided to focus some of his talk on the college-aged Japanese Americans. \n"Universities were one of the friendliest places for Japanese Americans," Daniels said. \nBut not all universities were so welcoming. \n"Universities 'cleansed' the Japanese-American population before the end of the school year," Daniels said. "Many universities awarded diplomas and had special ceremonies for the students. The University of Washington held a special commencement for the students at the Washington State fairgrounds in Puyallup since that was where the Japanese were being held while the camps were being built."\nSome students were released from the camps to attend college, Daniels said, but they had to attend east coast schools, since most camps were concentrated on the West Coast and the West Coast colleges were not accepting Japanese students into their community. Daniels said some Midwest schools allowed Japanese students into their school, but said on an aside IU was not one of those schools. \n"I am sorry to say, IU deliberately refused to accept students despite many requests to do so," Daniels said. \nThough some people resisted internment, and a few committed suicide, there was no organized resistance to the executive order Daniels said.\n"What's hard for young people, in particular, to understand is the great respect for the federal government that existed," Daniels said. "It took until the '60s for Japanese Americans to realize something bad had happened to them."\nDaniels said the word 'concentration' upsets a lot of people, but concentration camps were around before the Nazis, and the United States concentration camps were not death camps. Every recent presidential administration has considered establishing camps for a variety of reasons Daniels said, and despite obvious similarities between Pearl Harbor and the events of Sept. 11, but there are dissimilarities as well.\n"I do not believe that everything changed," Daniels said, in reference to the events of Sept. 11. "There are obvious similarities. It is clear today prejudice and hysteria is still present. Tolerant words have not filtered through the chain of command."\nDaniels said some of the instances that have occurred as a result of Sept. 11 were "disturbing," referring to airline personnel and passengers being quick to ask people looking like the "enemy" to step off the plane. Ironically, Daniels said, the Secretary of Transportation is a child victim of the internment camps, and has done nothing about these actions.\nSept. 11 brought back a lot memories of Pearl Harbor, Daniels said, but he was not quick to say internment of a group of people would not happen again. Daniels acknowledges that it was a different time, but the hysteria and racism is still prevalent. \n"I shudder to think what might have happened if it had been a whole series of terrorist attacks," Daniels said.\nLee W. Formwalt, the executive director for the Organization of American Historians at IU, said he appreciated Daniels's demeanor during his talk.\n"I'm not sure I heard anything that's new tonight," Formwalt said. "I enjoyed his very casual approach. He's lived this life of the scholar." \nMaysee Yang, a graduate student, organized the event for the Asian Culture Center and was pleased with the evening.\n"I think it went very well," Yang said. "I've read his articles…and he's just very knowledgeable about the history of Japanese Americans. We're very thankful he could be here tonight."\nBoth Yang and Formwalt agreed Daniels' lecture was very informative.\n"You feel very comfortable the knowledge you're getting is trustworthy, which isn't always the case," Formwalt said. "I think we're all very fortunate to hear him tonight." \nThe lecture was co-sponsored by the IU History Department and the Asian Culture Center.