Japanese Internment Camps
"Posted Japanese American Exclusion Order." Wikimedia Commons. N.p., n.d. Web.
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Luggage - Japanese American Internment. Wikimedia Commons, n.d. Web.
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One of the most controversial actions taken by the U.S. during WWII was the 1942 relocation and internment of thousands of Japanese residing in America. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was thrown into a state of panic, and an anti-Japanese attitude spread across the country. The U.S. decision for the internment camps played out during this atmosphere of fear and racial animosity. Today, this action has generally been acknowledged as an embarrassment, and a smudge on America’s record. America flipped their principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” to “guilty until proven innocent.” Yet the question still remains; have we learned from this mistake? Or does this attitude still exist in America today?
"Japanese Relocation During World War II." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web.
The Murder of Emmett Till
In the summer of 1955, a 14-year old African-American boy named Emmett Till was in Chicago, and was said to have whistled at a white woman. Later, he was brutally murdered by two men, and his body was dumped in a river. An investigation was opened, and an all white jury acquitted the murderers. No one was ever indicted for the murder. At that time segregation was not just something that existed among people, but it was a way of life that was enforced by law. Apparently in this case, a whistle to a white woman was seen as more criminal than cold-blooded murder.
PBSukchannel. "The Murder of Emmett Till | PBS America." YouTube. YouTube, 17 July 2013. Web.