To Oppose Reparations to Interned Japanese-Americans Is to Miss the Point Entirely

Both Roy C. Brown’s and John S. Williams’ letters are laced with sprinkles of bigotry. This type of irrational thought is the root of what started the internment of American citizens of Japanese heritage during World War II. They both seemed to miss the point about why the internment of Americans of Japanese descent was unjust and simply ignore the fact that these are American citizens, not “Japanese.”

Somehow, they have rationalized that the Americans of Japanese descent had some control over the attack on Pearl Harbor or how the prisoners were treated in the Battle of Bataan. To put this in perspective, should we have considered all Americans of German ancestry responsible for the Holocaust?

It seems that all of us Americans, who stand for liberty and justice for all, seem to lash out in a fiercely prejudicial and irrational manner when we have our backs to the wall. We think that by attacking a group of people, no matter how insignificant the connection might be, this will solve or hide the real problem, us. This technique of deflecting blame on others has been used quite effectively in history but usually with tragic results. Hitler blamed the ills of the prewar Germany on the Jewish people.

LARRY HAYASHIGAWA, Orange