The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120026   Message #2608170
Posted By: Jack Campin
09-Apr-09 - 01:55 PM
Thread Name: BS: WW2 made whites-only
Subject: RE: BS: WW2 made whites-only
The official history Rapaire linked to was impressive in its attempt to get to the truth, however unpleasant it might be.

It was a far more honest attitude that the suggestions that "it was all long ago" or "let's move on". I'm reminded of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one of the more successful efforts at resolving a protracted history of oppression in recent decades. They recognized that reconciliation *without* first establishing the truth was worth nothing. You can't honestly move on without knowing exactly what you're moving on from.

One bit in that official history that shows a further layer of oppression: it mentions Black soldiers doing duty in the Aleutians during the war. The Aleutians got the harshest treatment of any minority in the US - they were all summarily deported so the islands could be militarized for the Pacific War, despite having no links at all to the Japanese. Most never lived to see their homes again or get any compensation - token compensation was finally offered around 1990, long after the interned Japanese-Americans. Their culture was annihilated even more effectively than that of the peoples Stalin was deporting at around the same time. Black soldiers weren't considered good enough to fight white enemies, but they were fine when the enemy was an aboriginal people that had never shown a flicker of hostility to the US.