Communications and Media

President Franklin Roosevelt broke the code of ethics and violated civil rights when he ordered internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War just as President Bush and his regime committed the same offences and were wrong to stereotype Muslims and citizens from Middle Eastern countries after the unfortunate terrorist attacks on several targets in the USA on September 11th 2001. Discriminating against people on the basis of race or religion for atrocities committed by others of their kind is tantamount to declaring a war based on hate.

Q1 In 1942 during the course of the Second World War, Imperial Japan attacked American ships in Pearl Harbor. Thereafter, the then president Franklin Delano Roosevelt Executive Order 9066 that authorized forcible relocation and internment of more than 100000 Japanese Americans and ordinary Japanese living in some parts of the United States. However, the internment was not carried out equally. All residents of Japanese ancestry in the West Coast were interned. In Hawaii where Japanese Americans were over a third of the total population, only about 1200 out of over 150000 Japanese Americans were interned.

President Franklin Roosevelt was not right, from many perceptions, to authorize the detainment of citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry. It therefore came as no surprise when46 years later in 1988 the US congress passed a bill that the then President Ronald Reagan passed without much procrastination apologizing on behalf of the government for all atrocities committed against Japanese Americans as a result of that executive order. Critically analyzing the Executive Order 9066, Roosevelt violated the American constitution which states that The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. (The US Constitution, Article 1, Section 9). According to the location of this clause in the constitution, internment is permissible if and only if the UC Congress passes the order, not the president. Through issuance of this order, Roosevelt violated not just the constitution but also the civil rights of Japanese Americans.

Secondly, the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor was made by the government of Imperial Japan. Most Japanese Americans living in the west coast and in Hawaii were American citizens, without any connection or vested interest in whatever was happening in the land of their ancestry. Punishing them for the decisions of a government thousands of kilometers away, a government they were not allied to or dependent on was an act of racial discrimination and prejudice translating into political failure on the part of Reagan and his government. In any case, many Japanese Americans were serving the United States of America in the Second World War with all their hearts, so hearing of this development and being granted furlough to return home and resettle their families in relocation centers was an act of sheer betrayal.

One reason given for internment of Japanese Americans is that many of them were spying for the Government of Imperial Japan and that arresting and trying them at the time world have forced the US government to present its ciphers to court as evidence. Proponents argued that if that was done, the Japanese military would change its encryption technologies therefore compromising the advantageous position held by the US and the Allies during the war. However, if that was the case, there would have no barrier to trying espionage suspects after the war. Since noting was done, these claims are therefore invalid and unfounded. Internment was just a systematic scheme of punishing innocent people based on war hysteria.

Q2 It was widely accepted that the Al Qaeda terrorist network was responsible for the attacks on the world trade center on September 11th 2001. As President Bush said, that attack was not just an attack on the American people and buildings, it was also an attack on the principles upon which the American society is built on, the fundamental freedoms and respect for individual liberty. But by embracing a policy of discriminatory harassment against Muslims in general and citizens of Middle Eastern countries, the president went against fundamental freedoms inalienable to each individual member of the human society.

People who orchestrate terror, be they Islamic, Christian, pagan or any other religious, cultural or political orientation do so out of their own convictions. It is however good that they are from a minority and no doubt they should be fought and their motives defeated. But when these militant minorities are being fought against, it is necessary that only they be targeted. Most Middle Easterners are peaceful men and women who desire to live quiet and peaceful lives just like most of us here. They harbor no prejudice or hatred against anyone. It is therefore unfortunate that Bush and his government capitalized on the fact that Al Qaeda is an Islamic militant group to build a stereotype for all Muslims.

Being discriminated against for the crimes of others is unfair by all means. Not all Muslims are fundamentalists. When the Bush administration started harassing innocent Muslims on suspicion of being involved in terrorism, it not only violated human rights but also lost considerable goodwill of the Muslim world towards fighting terrorism. As the adage goes, two wrongs dont make a right. Of course the American nation and people suffered due to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, but going extreme on Muslim faithful was never going to heal the pain. Only those proven to be really affiliated with terrorism groups should be charged for their crimes.