It's also the day when the United States decided to take every Japanese American on the mainland, strip them of their rights, and throw them into concentration campus.
It is the day that America really, really fucked us, as Asian-Americans.
Now, please, don't take no bullshit on this subject. Japanese Americans at the time did not represent a national security threat. The U.S. military intelligence had documented evidence that the Japanese embassy had advised the Japanese imperialist government that the Japanese Americans were not to be considered loyal to Japan. Japanese American newspapers regularly had columns discussing how to prove their loyalty. And the very acceptance of the Japanese American community to move into concentration camps without bashing the shit out of every American they saw, was a sign of their patriotism and loyalty to the United States.
Not saying that this country deserved that much loyalty. But it got it.
Recognize, really, that like slavery, the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans represents actual, practical, and a very real form of racism. Not your controversial "hate crime" racism, or "they said a racial slur on TV" racism, this is real racism, that hurt real people, that oppressed large communities, that threw whole families in disarray. This was not controversial. This was just wrong.
So please remember, when you hear on the TV or newspaper, or from friends, family, professors, and peers, about Dec. 7th, 1941, the day America got brutally attacked by the Japanese imperialist army. Please remember that this date is also the date that America really, truly, fucked your people.
Fig. 1.1 Dorothea Lange "Pledge of Allegiance"Picture of a young Japanese-American girl giving the Pledge of Allegiance before being shipped off to the Japanese concentration camps
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