BEEN HERE BEFORE

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Col. Writ. 11/11/01]

    What was the most common response heard to the devastation that struck New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon on 11 September, 2001?

    For tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people, especially those in their 50s or older, the carnage and destruction of the aerial attack of 11 September brought to mind the flying squadrons of Imperial Japan when  waves of them struck Pearl Harbor on 7 December, 1941. Over 2,300 Americans perished during that attack.

    As is often the case, people are often right.

    While there were obviously dissimilarities (Japan  was a nation, not an organization) the psychological impact was indeed similar: shock, fear, outrage, and a massive military and social response.

    After the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. declared war by  the next day -- December 8th.

    It also embarked on an internal war of sorts, against Americans of Japanese descent.  Within days of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the media agitated against Japanese-Americnas, as did the Los Angeles Times, which wrote:

    "A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg     is hatched - so a Japanese American, born of     Japanese parents - grows up to be a Japanese,     not an American."

    Racist editorials such as this paved the way for people like U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 9066, which removed tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast, and placing over 120,000 Japanese men, women, and children in concentration camps, over 60% of whom were American citizens.

    While there are far more Arab-Americans in the U.S. then there were Japanese-Americans in the U.S. in the 1940s, over 1,000 Arab-Americans are being held in secret, unlimited detention, with no meaningful access to lawyers.  The U.S. Justice Dept. recently announced that it will monitor  telephone conversations between detainees  and lawyers.

    So, that (internment) hasn't happened -- yet.

    At the time of World War II, the U.S. government announced it was fighting totalitarianism, and demanded hemispheric unity.  As a result, some nations, like Peru, waged virtual war against their Japanese citizens.  The Peruvian government froze and confiscated Japanese assets, shut down Japanese businesses and schools, and black-listed the entire Japanese community.

    Under U.S. pressure, the government forced some of its Japanese citizens to flee back to Japan; 1771 others were deported to the U.S., where they were confined to ugly, dusty concentration camps, in Texas.   

These were Spanish-speaking Peruvian citizens , whose  only offenses were having Japanese ancestry!

    Can what happened in the 1940s happen now?

    No?  Why not?

    What if another bombing were to occur?

    Who can say?

 

Text © copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

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