Thoughts at a California Concentration Camp

[@al-farohernandez4977]

Hi Benji, thanks for recording your visit to Manzanar. Your tone was very passionate about the subject. Makes sense. Yes. I agree. The Sierra Nevada is a very majestic sight to see. Looking forward to your visit to the Central Valley (I once lived in Bakersfield, CA).

[@konazhang1025]

Well said! Thanks

[@RonnaHarlow]

I'm half Japanese but didn't know anything about the internment camps until I was an adult! thank you for sharing this video with us.

[@cmichaelhaugh8517]

Every time I go there my primary reaction is the incredible unfairness of being confined in this place without any judicial process, in sight of the freedom implied by those mountains.

[@cherylcampbell7495]

My family lived in National City, California in the 50’s and we had the sweetest Japanese family next door. We’re all the same even though we may not look alike.

[@phaedrussmith1949]

With the exception of a few minor differences that we are taught to pay way, way too much attention to, we all look pretty much alike.

[@GuitarSchoolVideo]

I encourage people to research the Ni’ihau incident. One of the Japanese fighter pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor crashed on the island of Niihau, and what happened next apparently had an influence on the decision to inter Japanese Americans during World War II. Considering the United States had just entered a world war with the outcome still unknown, it could have been worse.

[@thehapagirl92]

My dad is half Japanese and my parents and I visited Manzanar in 2011 after going to Mammoth for a trip and he truly enjoyed it and bought a dvd about it. Nobody in my family was ever interred though.

[@_natashav_]

Interned* But that’s neat you and your family visited 🙂

[@pdkrace]

Our Dad was a POW .He was in the Bataan Death March. Tell me who had it worse ??

[@roamingbenji]

Hi Mark- Your dad had it worse. I’m sorry your family had to go through that. Nobody should have to go through that. In this video, I wasn’t trying to compare American actions to those of our enemies. I was holding our actions up to our own standards of liberty and justice. The internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII was unconstitutional. I believe our constitutional rights should never be infringed upon. As a result, I believe Japanese-American internment was wrong. I agree with Ronald Reagan when he in 1988 said “we must recognize that the internment of Japanese-Americans was a mistake." America stops being the land of the free the moment we disregard our Constitution. I'm sure you would agree with me on that, and I hope you know I am forever grateful for the service of men like your own dad.

[@bhg123ful]

I think your thoughts highlights the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is love of country that revolves around living up to its ideals, but at least in the case of American patriotism, involves sometimes calling out and condemning government for not sticking to principles and ideals. Nationalism is disregard the high ideals and principles for an abstract idea of some idealized national past that never really existed. (The US has always been a melting pot from day one for example).

[@MstMori]

It's always easy to throw shade at goverment actions during times of crisis. And hindsight is always 20/20. But yes, pressure and circumstance can lead to making rash, broad and ultimately wrong decisions.

[@road_king_dude]

Wrong absolutely. But a Nazi Concentration camp or a Russian Gulag it was not. But yes so wrong. Heart breaking. I've visited Manzanar and it's so moving.

[@martharunstheworld]

It was not a concentration camp. It was wrong, 100%, but NOT a concentration camp. Internment camp is what it was. Visit a real concentration camp site in Europe and you'll see the difference. Sorry you're way off base here.

[@roamingbenji]

Hi Martha- President Roosevelt called them concentration camps. The definition of "concentration camp" is "a guarded compound for the mass detention without hearings, or the imprisonment without trial of civilians." The term "internment camp" is a euphemism for concentration camp. They mean the same thing - a camp where large numbers of people are detained and confined under armed guard, without any trial or due process. If you look up the definitions of both these terms you will see what I mean. Yes, the European concentration camps were objectively worse, which I noted in the video. European death camps make Japanese-American internment seem like a cakewalk. But you might be missing the point of the video. I am not trying to compare our actions to those taken by the Nazis. I am trying to compare American actions to American ideals and our own standards of liberty and justice. I'm sure you would agree with me that the "internment camps", or whatever you want to call them, were a mistake. Thanks for watching.