Source: Orange County Register
by David T Beito
“Something significant is missing from the recent official apology by the office of the California attorney general for culpability in the World War II Japanese-American internment. The wording leaves out the name of the man who made it all possible: Franklin D. Roosevelt. In this respect, it has similarities to the 10 most widely used American history texts, which in contrast to California’s targeted apology, focus on the more general context. While the texts agree that Executive Order 9066 was a gigantic black mark for Roosevelt, most also subtly mitigate his blame, both in the phrasing and presentation of facts. A typical treatment is that internment (FDR called them ‘concentration camps’) was a ‘glaring’ or ‘painful’ exception to an otherwise good civil liberties record of the architect of the Four Freedoms speech of 1941.” (08/30/23)