Virginia recently became the first state to pass legislation officially apologizing for slavery. Several other southern states are now considering similar legislation. Several black members of congress are seeking to have the United States apologize for slavery. No one can deny that slavery represented a very shameful and inhumane period it our nation's history.
This begs the question - should Americans apologize for slavery? I say no. Why not? Well, for one thing, slavery in this country was abolished in 1865, following the end of our Civil War. That was almost a century and a half ago. For another, we need to recognize how blacks became slaves in the first place.
Dominant African tribes raided the villages of other tribes, capturing their men, women and children, then selling them to Arab slave traders. Those Arabs then sold the captives to European slave traders who shipped them off to America where southern plantation owners bought them at open slave auctions. Thus, it would seem plausible that Africans, Arabs and Europeans should apologize for their part in slavery before we consider apologizing for America's participation in that sordid enterprise.
Many black activists are not only demanding an apology, but they also want the states and the federal government to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves. They point out that Jews who survived the holocaust, and the heirs of those who didn't, were paid reparations by post-Nazi Germany. That's pure unadulterated hogwash. Most of those reparations were made for property, businesses, bank deposits and personal belongings stolen from Jews by the Nazis and for life insurance policy claims. No reparationns were made for the thousands of Jews in concentration camps who were forced to work as slave labor in Nazi war plants.
If apologies are due for past wrongs, then what about apologies to the American Indians? Driven off their lands by white settlers, forced to live on reservations and robbed of their native culture by the government, American Indians were left to live in squalor and afflicted with a high rate of alcoholism.
While we're at it, do we owe Jews an apology? On November 9, 1938, "Kristallnacht" was the beginning of a Nazi progrom against Jews in Germany and parts of Austria which led to the relocation of Jews to concentration camps and the confiscation of their businesses and property. Many thousands sought asylum in the United States, but our government refused to allow in Jewish refugees, even though the Roosevelt administration knew that the Nazis intended to exterminate them. Just a relatively few Jews were able to immigrate, and then only if they had American sponsors who would guarantee to provide for all their needs. Thus, our government condemned thousands of Jews to extermination in the gas chambers of Nazi concentration camps.
This brings us to the Japanese-Americans during World War II. Right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry were uprooted from their homes, farms and businesses, and interned in relocation centers. The government claimed the relocation, which appeared to be racially motivated, was justified on the grounds that they might aid Japan to invade our country. With few exceptions, those interned in the crowded camps were loyal to the United States. When they were released, these hapless citizens found that many of their homes, farms and businesses had been appropriated (stolen) by white Americans. Eventually, the government paid reparations to most former internees for their losses. If we owe blacks an apology, don't we owe an apology to loyal Japanese-Americans for uprooting them into internment camps?
While I do not believe we owe anything to anyone for something that ended a century and a half ago, I do believe that we should apologize to blacks for the Jim Crowism which treated blacks in the South as sub-human, and for the nationwide discrimination against blacks in education, employment, housing and civil rights, which followed the abolition of slavery and continued well into the last century. That chapter in our recent history is just as shameful as slavery itself.
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About 62 percent of Japanese and Japanese Americans forced to move away from the West Coast were U.S. citizens. The remaining 38 percent were Japanese nationals. Foreign nationals are normally interned during war time (We also interned but never paid reparations to German nationals living in the United States.)
About 10,000 Japanese Americans were able to relocate away from the West Coaxt to other areas of the United States. About 110,000 went to the internment camps.
The camps were surrounded by barbed wire, but the barb wire's purpose was to protect the camp inhabitants. The Japanese Americans were permitted to leave to camp to go shopping or to movies in neary towns. Some towns hosted parties, dances and and social events for them. Students could leave the camps to attend college, which many did. People who could find work in other parts of the country could also leave the camps. So the internment camps weren't much like the Nazi concentration camps.
The loyalty of the Japanese American was somewhat suspect. Many Japanese Americans sent thier children to quasi-military academies in Japan where they were indoctrinated to "become Japanese first and U.S. citizens second." (When a Japanese fighter plane crashed on a small Hawaiin island after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the pilot was able to rally the Japanese Americans on the island to attack a U.S. radio station, but this was an almost comical incident that involved only a few people.)
The United States had cracked the Japanese code pior to the war. The "Ultra Secret,' as it was known, that spy rings were operating withing the Japanese American population on the West Coast and Hawaii. The government was afraid to round up members of the spy ring because it feared during so would tipped off the Japanese that we had cracked their code.
After assessing the situation, the U.S. Army advised against a force relocation of Japanese Americans, saying the spy rings didn't appear to be very effective. The Army was overruled by President Rooselvelt. However, there's no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Japanese were loyal to the United Sates.
The U.S. government paid raparations to Japanese Americans held in the internment camps immediately following the war. Eight-five percent of claims submitted by Japanese Americas for propery and lost income were approved as submitted. The most recent round of reparations was a reaction to movies and news stories that reminded Americans about the internment camps. They forgot to remind Americans reparations had already been paid.
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