That’s the spirit! You’ll be celebrating Life Day before you know it! 

The Star Wars Holiday Special

That’s the spirit! You’ll be celebrating Life Day before you know it! 

The Star Wars Holiday Special

February 19th 1942: Japanese internment begins

On this day in 1942, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which allowed the military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps. A climate of paranoia descended on the US following the attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan, which prompted the US to join the Second World War. Americans of Japanese ancestry became targets for persecution, as there were fears that they would collude with Japan and pose a national security threat. This came to a head with FDR’s executive order, which led to 120,000 Japanese-Americans being rounded up and held in camps. The constitutionality of the controversial measure was upheld by the Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States (1944). Interned Americans suffered great material and personal hardship, with most people losing their property and some losing their lives to illness or the violence of camp sentries. The victims of internment and their families eventually received an official government apology in 1988 and reparations began in the 1990s. This dark episode of American history is often forgotten in the narrative of US involvement in the Second World War, but Japanese internment poses a stark reminder of the dangers of paranoia and scapegoating.

Tsunkatse.

paramaline

Vincent Price, from the book “Cooking Price-Wise with Vincent Price”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking in Syracuse at the New York Democratic State Convention in 1936.

FDR’s satirical rebuke against Republicans who opposed Social Security and the New Deal during the 1936 election.

80 years later the very same Republican Party used the same rhetoric unironically to justify taking away health insurance from 20 million Americans.

Bearing Witness- Marking 78 Years to the Events of Kristallnacht “the Night of Broken Glass”.

78 years ago today, the Nazi government led people to attack Jewish-owned businesses, buildings and synagogues throughout the country and in parts of Austria, at a time of intense discrimination of Jews, which included boycotting their businesses.

The attacks were called “Kristallnacht”: the “Night of Broken Glass” because of the shattered windows throughout the cities. Synagogues were burned, 91 Jews were murdered, and 30,000 Jews were arrested and taken to concentration camps simply because they were Jewish.

Let us never forget that the horrible crimes against humanity that occurred in WWII were not sudden, but a product of gradual and increasing persecution.

To those who lost their lives,We remember.

To those who survived, We hear you

To the next generation,We must never forget.