screw you too!

[surei]

I just finished reading the last chapter of When the Emperor was Divine. It's about a family sent off to concentration camps during WWII. It's about the way, for the sake of pa-something the American populace turned against members of itself who just happened to look a little different and fucked up their lives. Because they were scared. Because they were angry. Because they wanted to feel superior. It makes me want to be an obviously caucasian sensible person at the time. Just to tell them what assholes they are and to spit in their faces. "But they're Japs! They worship the emperor! They deserve whatever they get!" NOT the children, hello. Not the people who are third generation. Not the people who have been a good and supporting member of society for who knows how long. Not anyone, in fact. No one deserves that kind of shit. You feel vengeful. Screw you. I'm taking vengeance for them -- on you.
This gets me riled more than slavery, actually. When they had slaves it was okay with the government, with their mode of life. They never welcomed people to them and then knocked them down and tied them up and carted off their husbands and took their belongings and tried to brainwash them and deported anyone who resisted such treatment. They never made rules in the very basework of the government - I'm talking about the Constitution here - and then said, 'I'm feeling paranoid, so I'm going to ignore what we're so proud of -- just for the people who look like this.' Slavers were wrong and nasty people, but they were never hypocrites on the same order that we were when we decided to move everyone of Japanese descent into confinement and confiscate their stuff.

...

I feel much better now. Thank you for being patient with me. *bow*