# A weird article: "My Family Was Interned. Now They’re With Trump." **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043 "2016-12-18T16:30:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/1 "2016-12-18T16:30:14Z")
> **[Opinion | My Family Was Interned. Now They’re With Trump. (Published 2016)](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/opinion/sunday/my-family-was-interned-now-theyre-with-trump.html)** > > They responded to years in confinement by rapidly assimilating into American culture — and supporting the president-elect. I read the article and I don’t understand either what the author is trying to say or why this was written at all. The topic (Trump) for which the article is named is referred to tangentially, and the bulk of the article is describing Japanese internment and the American-Japanese stoicism. Which is fine, I guess, but what does Trump have to do with it? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/2 "2016-12-18T16:57:38Z")
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Trump has proposed a Muslim registry, deportation forces, and has said stuff like this: > [@Trump](#): > > “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” We didn’t have German or Italian internment camps during WWII, even though we were at war with these countries. But for some reason, we felt it necessary to single out Japanese Americans (hell, even some [non-Japanese](http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/10/us/us-acts-to-repay-interned-non-japanese-too.html)). If you think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that we’d ever have Muslim internment camps, you’re deluding yourself big-time. The point the author is making seems pretty clear to me. Her family members dealt with their humiliating experience by “rapidly assimilating” American culture and values. And now they are no different from the people who “voted” for them to be imprisoned. Meanwhile, a lot of their fellow voters don’t seem them as “American”. [They see them as furriners coming to take their jobs.](http://nextshark.com/racist-trump-supporting-flyers-targeting-asians-now-popping-peoples-cars/) I share the author’s “WTF!” sentiment. Cuz it really is fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/3 "2016-12-18T17:42:44Z")
**Okrahoma** , if you Google “Trump Japanese internment” you get lots of hits for Trump and people on his team pointing to the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry as a possible precedent for similar actions against Muslims. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/4 "2016-12-18T17:51:36Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > **Okrahoma** , if you Google “Trump Japanese internment” you get lots of hits for Trump and people on his team pointing to the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry as a possible precedent for similar actions against Muslims. Did you read the article? The article was a plaintive description of the author’s family experience with internment. With a “now they voted for Trump” thrown in as a seemingly unrelated afterthought (but elevated to title). I just don’t understand the reason for the article at all. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/5 "2016-12-18T18:57:02Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > We didn’t have German or Italian internment camps during WWII, even though we were at war with these countries. But for some reason, we felt it necessary to single out Japanese Americans Wrong. > **[Internment of Italian Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Italian_Americans)** > > The internment of Italian Americans refers to the US government's internment of Italian nationals during World War II. As was customary after Italy and the US were at war, they were classified as "enemy aliens" and some were detained by the Department of Justice under the Alien and Sedition Act. But in practice, the US applied detention only to Italian nationals, not to US citizens, or long-term US residents. Italian immigrants had been allowed to gain citizenship through the naturalization pr > **[Internment of German Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans)** > > Internment of German resident aliens and German-American citizens occurred in the United States during the periods of World War I and World War II. During World War II, the legal basis for this detention was under Presidential Proclamation 2526, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt under the authority of the Alien Enemies Act. > With the U.S. entry into World War I after Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, German nationals were automatically classified as enemy aliens. Two of four mai... ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/6 "2016-12-18T19:33:28Z")
As long as Democrats are not in control of the government, we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone being unjustifiably incarcerated like the American citizens of Japanese ancestry were during WW 2. It was John Dingell a _Democrat_ Representative from Michigan who suggested in August 18, 1941 incarcerating 10,000 Hawaiian Japanese Americans as hostages to ensure “good behavior” on the part of Japan. (This was _before_ the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the war!) It was _Democrat_ President FDR who signed Executive Order 9066 which called for the incarceration of Japanese Americans into internment camps. It was in February 27, 1942 that _Democrat_ Governor of Idaho Chase Clark told a congressional committee in Seattle that Japanese would be welcome in Idaho only if they were in “concentration camps under military guard.” It was the Roosevelt packed United States Supreme Court that in June 21, 1943 that ruled on the Hirabayashi and Yasui cases, upholding the constitutionality of the curfew and exclusion orders the clearly violated the human rights of the Japanese Americans being held in what Roosevelt called “concentration camps”. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/7 "2016-12-18T19:38:12Z")
And let’s not forget who fought slavery (AND vampires!). Honest Abbe…a Republican (gasp). PS…that whole underground railroad / timing thing was BS. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/8 "2016-12-18T19:41:52Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > As long as Democrats are not in control of the government, we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone being unjustifiably incarcerated like the American citizens of Japanese ancestry were during WW 2. > > It was John Dingell a _Democrat_ Representative from Michigan who suggested in August 18, 1941 incarcerating 10,000 Hawaiian Japanese Americans as hostages to ensure “good behavior” on the part of Japan. (This was _before_ the attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the war!) > > It was _Democrat_ President FDR who signed Executive Order 9066 which called for the incarceration of Japanese Americans into internment camps. > > It was in February 27, 1942 that _Democrat_ Governor of Idaho Chase Clark told a congressional committee in Seattle that Japanese would be welcome in Idaho only if they were in “concentration camps under military guard.” > > It was the Roosevelt packed United States Supreme Court that in June 21, 1943 that > ruled on the Hirabayashi and Yasui cases, upholding the constitutionality of the curfew and exclusion orders the clearly violated the human rights of the Japanese Americans being held in what Roosevelt called “concentration camps”. So Republicans feel they should have a turn? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/9 "2016-12-18T19:59:37Z")
The only translation for the article that makes sense to me is this: A) The ethnic Japanese who were interned were forced to become more culturally American. B) Now, 70 years later their descendants are fully culturally American. So much so that they vote for the Rs, the only True Blue American party. so therefore C) It was good for the Japanese to go through this experience; they’re better for it. D) The sooner we set up the ethnic Muslim internment camps the sooner we force their cultural assimilation. And the sooner their kids too will be culturally True Blue R-voting Americans. Seems like a pretty obvious and sensible syllogism to me. NOT! ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/10 "2016-12-18T21:55:20Z")
“And American blacks are so much better off than blacks in Africa today, so slavery was a good thing.” “My paw used to beat me with a stick when I acted up, and I turned out just fine, so laws against child abuse are bad!” People really say and believe crap like this. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/11 "2016-12-19T03:04:25Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > If you think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that we’d ever have Muslim internment camps, you’re deluding yourself big-time. Seeing as how much we (and the world) have changed since Japanese-Americans were placed in detention approximately 75 years ago, and that internment of Muslims was never remotely considered as a result of 9/11\*, it strikes me as an enormous leap of paranoia to think any religion-based internment camp could ever be implemented here, short of multi-city nuclear strikes and mass insanity. For some reason I read the name of the article in the thread title as “My Family Was Interred. Now They’re With Trump.” :eek: \*not counting the possibility that someone like the municipal dogcatcher in Athol, Mass. went on record as supporting such a thing. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/12 "2016-12-19T03:30:42Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Seeing as how much we (and the world) have changed since Japanese-Americans were placed in detention approximately 75 years ago, and that internment of Muslims was never remotely considered as a result of 9/11\*, it strikes me as an enormous leap of paranoia to think any religion-based internment camp could ever be implemented here, short of multi-city nuclear strikes and mass insanity. Frankly, I’m tired of people belittling such concerns as “paranoia”. That label is not appropriate given the rhetoric coming from [Trump and his friends](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/17/japanese-internment-is-precedent-for-national-muslim-registry-prominent-trump-backer-says/?utm_term=.2510c267fda8). In this [article](http://time.com/4140050/donald-trump-muslims-japanese-internment/), the president-elect comes pretty close to cosigning the Japanese American internment. He seems to think you can do anything you want if “winning” is the outcome. So I’m not being paranoid at all. I’m simply listening to what is coming out of his fat mouth and responding accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/13 "2016-12-19T04:27:36Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > And let’s not forget who fought slavery (AND vampires!). > > Honest Abbe…a Republican (gasp). > > PS…that whole underground railroad / timing thing was BS. People know that the republicans were the party to end slavery and promote reconstruction, and the democrats were the party of the KKK, jim crow and segregation. But it isn’t about parties, it is about southern whites. Southern whites used to feel at home in the democratic party, but in the 1960s there was a realignment and now they are republicans. In 100 more years, maybe southern whites will align with a different party. When they do, I’m sure black people (and other minorities) will en masse align with whatever opposition party that Southern whites line up with. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/14 "2016-12-19T11:50:17Z")
(tasteless joke) “Okrahoma” sounds like a _location_ for a Japanese internment camp. (/tasteless joke) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/15 "2016-12-19T13:14:51Z")
And the rice served there is really, really sticky. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/16 "2016-12-19T14:06:23Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > (tasteless joke) “Okrahoma” sounds like a _location_ for a Japanese internment camp. (/tasteless joke) Naw, that’s the musical that “citizens” of the camp put on. Better than Hamilton…or so I hear. To me the OP title sounds like when you tell the kids Old Yeller “went to live in the country” or “he’s gone native” or they “drank the koolaid”. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/17 "2016-12-19T17:05:23Z")
I read that essay yesterday and was just as perplexed as Okrahoma. What she seemed to be saying was: Look at how my family went from being in a concentration camp to wanting to put Muslims in one. No she didn’t say that, only that they sucked it up, became super-Americans, and now support Trump, although it was totally unclear why they do. Maybe they love Putin too. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-weird-article-my-family-was-interned-now-they-re-with-trump/775043/18 "2016-12-19T20:31:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > “And American blacks are so much better off than blacks in Africa today, so slavery was a good thing.” > > “My paw used to beat me with a stick when I acted up, and I turned out just fine, so laws against child abuse are bad!” > > People really say and believe crap like this. Yeah that was my first reaction. It’s the same psychology that perpetuates hazing. I had to endure it so its only fair that those who come after me have to endure it too.