Editor,
The city is planning to construct a memorial near Tanforan condemning the Japanese internment camps. I wonder why more than $600,000 of public funds are being spent on this project. President Roosevelt signed Executive Order #9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, two months following the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Because of President Roosevelt’s order, 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry were evicted to internment camps. Tanforan was a temporary detention facility where those of Japanese ancestry were held pending the construction of more permanent facilities. Tanforan opened on April 28, 1942, and closed about five months later. At all times beds, food, clothing, medical services and supplies, schooling, exercise programs and play yards were provided by the U.S. government. They lacked liberty, the freedom to leave the camp. For this lack of liberty, I agree that the order was wrong. But in 1981, Congress enacted legislation whereby the United States formally apologized to everyone interned and gave the internees $20,000 each.
On the other hand, U.S. citizens and U.S. prisoners of war captured by the Japanese military, held for over 3 1/2 years under intolerable conditions in concentration camps, without medical help, supplies, proper food, clothing, received no apology and no money from Japan. Why are U.S. taxes being used to further a memorial condemning the mistake of President Roosevelt?
O. Osborne
Belmont
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