Highly Recommended.....

Spoiler warning....I do talk about some things in the book below, so if you have read it, read on, if not, maybe come back after you have. It's an amazing book!

My reaction to “When the Emperor was Devine” leaves me with more questions than anything else. To start, I picked up the book with the intention of reading a little every night. After the first 5 pages, I knew that wasn’t going to be the case. Three hours later I was putting it back down, finished, and sat for 5 minutes in silence and awe. I never knew. How could I have not known these things happened within the walls of our own country whose very foundation was built for freedom? How could these actions have happened in direct violation of almost every section of our own “Bill of Rights” that was signed 253 years earlier? Habeas Corpus anyone? I couldn’t help but to peak around at some of the statistics surrounding these camps and found some numbers; 120,000 Japanese descendents, some citizens and some not taken with what they could carry and forced to live in inhumane camps on U.S. soil. Imagine what would have happened in this country if September 12th, 2001, our government rounded up all the Middle Eastern members of our communities and placed them in those barracks. It would have been mayhem!
One of the main themes I saw was fear. Fear that does not discriminate any race, culture, or religion. The fear that there is imminent danger; the fear for life. America was afraid; it had never seen such an attack. They were terrified of a repeat or worse. The Japanese (in America) were scared to be themselves. Scared to practice their religion, have “slanted eyes” that could not be hidden and scared to die for crimes they did not commit. Our soldiers were scared they would be the next to lie bleeding in a field, watch their comrades die and never be able to return to American soil. If we take away sides (of the War), reasons, morals, race, religion and belief, we have 2 groups of people directly affected. We have our American POW’s (and soldiers) sent to fight a heroic battle. They laid on cots, floors, or maybe even nothing for days, months, years. They prayed to God to return home, to stay alive, and to have peace. Then we have the Japanese members sent to these camps that lay on iron cots in barracks for days, months, years. They prayed to God to return home, to stay alive, and to have peace. Then their prayers are answered. They go home. Parades ensued for our troops (and rightfully so, please note, that I believe in harming no one and am in no way, shape or form underplaying the torture that POW’s and other service men endured), welcome arms, and the safety of American grounds. The members of the “internment camps” sent home, the ones who had them left. What remained for them? FEAR. Fear that their house would be burned while they slept, fear that they would never have a job and fear that life was over even though they still took breath.
Our world has committed this act before (and I’m sure known to us or not it is still done in parts of this sorted world). We have seen it in Germany with the mass murdering of the Jews, in the witch hunts throughout Europe and the early colonies (most famously Salem, MA), and as far back as enslaving the Hebrews in Egypt. It is part of our history, but it is stories like this that have inspired me to become an attorney. To be the voice for the people who don’t have one in a forum that was otherwise unavailable to them be they black, white, Japanese, Dutch, Islam, Christian, housewives, business men, soldiers, children, or animals. We can never stand up and be a great nation if we become what we fight against or react on fear alone.