<
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a1-revisited-the-seattle-times-coverage-of-the-1942-removal-of-227-bainbridge-residents-left-a-harmful-legacy/>
"Sometimes the only way forward is to look back.
This week marks the 80th anniversary of the first removals of Japanese
Americans from their homes on the West Coast. Starting with 227 residents of
Bainbridge Island on March 30, 1942, women, men and children were forced to
leave their jobs, schools, homes and the lives they knew for an uncertain
future. By the end, 120,000 Japanese Americans — two-thirds of them U.S.
citizens — would be incarcerated in desolate camps in remote regions primarily
in the Western interior during World War II.
Today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 and the mass
incarceration of Japanese Americans is widely seen as one of the country’s
grossest violations of civil liberties. But in the years leading up to it, the
U.S. media’s anti-Japanese fear mongering, racism and war hysteria created a
rationale for the suspension of civil rights that was accepted by the public.
A rare number of media outlets — most notably the Bainbridge Island Review —
took a principled stand against incarceration. Others, including The Seattle
Times, did not. Eight decades later, Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen
called that decision a “low point” in the paper’s history.
Today we launch a project called A1 Revisited, scrutinizing our coverage of
historic moments — starting with the day Japanese Americans were forcibly
removed from Bainbridge — to begin to be accountable for the impact of past
mistakes on our region."
Via John Wehrle, who wrote "This is important work" and Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
