# When did you learn about the Japanese internment? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 21, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429 "2017-02-21T23:54:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/21 "2017-02-22T02:37:54Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > - Japanese immigrants could not become citizens until the 1950s. In the interest of accuracy, they could become citizens if they immigrated pre 1924 or when specifically excluded by law. Otherwise, how could there be Japanese-American citizens to draft? [http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration\_Act\_of\_1952/](http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration_Act_of_1952/) ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/22 "2017-02-22T02:57:22Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > In the interest of accuracy, they could become citizens if they immigrated pre 1924 or when specifically excluded by law. Otherwise, how could there be Japanese-American citizens to draft? > > [http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration\_Act\_of\_1952/](http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Immigration_Act_of_1952/) Are you forgetting that anyone who is born on American soil is automatically a citizen? ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/23 "2017-02-22T03:32:46Z")
I grew up on the west coast - so some time in elementary school. This would have been the early 80s. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/24 "2017-02-22T03:58:04Z")
I don’t recall ever hearing about it in school, or anywhere else, as a minor. I first heard of it after HS graduation. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/25 "2017-02-22T07:21:33Z")
I believe that it was during High School. I may have heard of the Trail of Tears earlier than that. I believe it was just a few years ago, on this site or just cruising around the Wikipedia that I found out about the American atrocities committed in the Philippines: > **[Philippine–American War | American atrocities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine%E2%80%93American_War#American_atrocities)** > > Throughout the war, numerous atrocities were committed by the U.S. military, including the targeting of civilians. American soldiers and other witnesses sent letters home which described some of these atrocities. For example, In November 1901, the Manila correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger wrote: Similar for the Tuskegee syphilis experiment: > **[Tuskegee Syphilis Study](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment)** > > The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (informally referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment or Tuskegee Syphilis Study) was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a group of nearly 400 African American men with syphilis. The purpose of the study was to observe the effects of the disease when untreated, though by the end of the study medical advancements me The Public ... And just in the last year, I learned of the Tulsa race riot: > **[Tulsa race massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot)** > > The Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long massacre that took place between May 31 – June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. T More than 800 pe... I think it’s safe to assume that there’s a lot of horror stories and inequities that have been committed by whites in America. On the other hand, we didn’t spread pox-infected blankets to Native Americans. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/26 "2017-02-22T07:48:00Z")
Maybe when they were still interned. I started school in 1943. I don’t think any secret was made of it. The country was awash with anti-Japanese and anti-Nazi propaganda. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/27 "2017-02-22T12:25:14Z")
I’m sure we never covered it in school. It was an episode of [Lou Grant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0636478/). I see that aired early in 1982, so I would’ve been 17. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/28 "2017-02-22T12:30:27Z")
Canada had its own version, but I don’t think I knew much about it until high school. Heck, I might have learned about it from [David Suzuki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Suzuki). ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/29 "2017-02-22T12:48:15Z")
My grandfather and my babysitter’s husband were both big time war/military buffs. I have very little doubt that at one point in my youth, a documentary about internment camps was playing on the family TV, as I played with my Lincoln Logs on the living room floor. So I’m sure I’ve at least _heard_ of internment camps before I even started school. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/30 "2017-02-22T12:56:44Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > I’m sure we never covered it in school. It was an episode of [Lou Grant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0636478/). > > I see that aired early in 1982, so I would’ve been 17. I remember that episode as well. I’d heard of the interment when the TV movie [Farewell to Manzanar](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074518/?ref_=fn_al_tt_8) was released (1976). That would have been high school for me, I thought it was earlier, so I clicked Middle School in the poll. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/31 "2017-02-22T13:05:06Z")
I’m another one that can’t remember not knowing it and again it could be a west coast thing. I remember my mom talking about it though I don’t recall if that’s where I heard it first. I have a vague memory of having a Girl Scout campout at Fort MacArthur and I thought all the out buildings were where they kept all the Japanese 😕 (they weren’t) Jeez, \*there’s \*a mark of shame on our great nation :mad: ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/32 "2017-02-22T16:26:09Z")
I am actually pretty impressed by the responses here. I hope this is representative of the country’s knowledge as a whole (but then the SDMB folks tend to be ahead of the curve !) I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know about it…because my parents were interned. (I did not participate in the poll because I kind of had this “edge”) But it was a kind of step-wise learning. With one piece not falling into place until way later (high school). My mom would often refer to “camp”, and I learned very early that this was a traumatic (although not entirely bad) experience. But she didn’t really lay out the details until we would look through old photos: “that’s right after we got out of ‘camp’ - we had nothing”, or “this is where we first lived after ‘camp’”. And even referring to it as “internment camp” didn’t come up until later. The piece that took a while to put together was that, growing up, we would attend this annual picnic in the LA area. As a kid, it was a blast. Not only did I get to hang out with all my cousins (and aunts and uncles), and there was a ton of good food, but they also always had games/competitions for the kids (sadly, most of the prizes were school supplies). My mom would always introduce me and my brothers to all these other people, who we’d never met. And she never really explained just who they were, or how she knew them. It wasn’t until years later that I learned that this picnic was the reunion of all the people who were at this same internment camp. And these people she introduced us to, were old classmates (my mom was in high school in camp) and neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/33 "2017-02-22T16:55:41Z")
I put middle school, because while I don’t remember learning it specifically I do remember that we had World History in that time, so I am going to assume then. If not, then for sure high school World History. I’m in Ohio and had no knowledge of life outside of Europe and Ohio, so I wouldn’t have had opportunity to learn about it from non-school sources like many posters here. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/34 "2017-02-22T17:15:34Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > …and I’m always surprised by how many people have never heard of it, or only learned about it later in life. I’m more surprised by how many people have absolutely no idea that many German and Italian immigrants were also placed in internment camps. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/35 "2017-02-22T18:07:24Z")
Early in life in my own reading and/or father’s discussion of history, probably before 13. The school periods aren’t relevant because I’m sure it was never covered in school. No history course I took before college ever got as far as WWII, and I took an intense engineering curriculum in college with almost no liberal arts courses. It was also paid much less attention in media when I was a kid than now, though closer in the past. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/36 "2017-02-22T18:36:22Z")
It was mentioned in high school, but I believe it was somewhat downplayed, to the point that I didn’t really understand it until later. Due to exact question asked, I chose high school. I knew there was such a thing. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/37 "2017-02-22T19:23:45Z")
I believe it was Junior High School, somehow connected with the book _Go for Broke._ I didn’t know there were internment camps and German POW camps here in Arkansas until I was an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/38 "2017-02-22T19:36:58Z")
From an episode of “Wonder Woman” with Lynda Carter. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/39 "2017-02-22T19:40:13Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Are you forgetting that anyone who is born on American soil is automatically a citizen? Good point. But I wonder if Japanese immigrants pre-exclusion laws were treated differently from the Euros? ---
**Author:** ![Emergency911](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/43a26b/32.png) [@Emergency911](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emergency911)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2017, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429/40 "2017-02-22T20:34:04Z")
I was pretty young, my grandma worked in a doctor’s office, he was a young Japanese/American teen in WWII and was in a camp with his family. I was a history junkie at a young age, so my grandma invited him to dinner so I could learn about them. He was a wonderful story teller and if I hadn’t already enjoyed history then, I am sure I would have been by the end of dinner. The one thing I remember him telling me was that there were people that were very upset about it and others that made the best of it. His family was one that made the best of it and he was forever thankful for that lesson from his parents. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-you-learn-about-the-japanese-internment/780429.md?page=3)