New Text On Japanese Internment Camps Strikes a Cord With Recent Arab-American Detentions

September 2, 2004

Source: The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~26~2373876,00.html

On September 2, 2004 The Denver Post reported, "A new book's claim that the U.S. was justified in interning Japanese Americans in WWII worsens the pain of their history, Colorado families say. The history-book interpretation of internment argues that the government erred, grievously, when it forced more than 100,000 Japanese immigrants into camps scattered across the West. But that approach is under assault by syndicated columnist, best-selling author and Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin in her new book, 'In Defense of Internment.' The book, which argues that the federal government made a rational decision when it ordered internment for Japanese immigrants living on the West Coast, has offended Japanese-Americans and inflamed historians, who have formed a group aimed at refuting Malkin's book. Malkin says she has experienced backlash from Japanese-Americans, including a letter of protest by the Japanese American Citizens League calling the book a "desperate attempt to impugn the loyalty of Japanese-Americans during World War II to justify harsher governmental policies today in the treatment of Arab and Muslim Americans."