We Did What We Had to Do to Win
As a conservative, I feel compelled to respond to the liberals wallowing in their anti-American mire. I know that liberals love to feel guilty about being wealthy Americans. I can accept that, even though I won’t feel guilty about it. I recognize that America is great and wealthy because of our liberty. It is no accident.

One of the key differences between liberals and conservatives is that liberals always put themselves ahead of their country and conservatives put their country ahead of themselves. Much of the information presented and implied was how much the Nisei students were required to personally sacrifice for their country. I find their sacrifices great and worth reporting and even honoring. While I appreciate their sacrifices, I don’t find the government guilty of any crimes against them. The government did what it had to do to win the war.

They weren’t the only ones who were required to sacrifice. First and foremost are the soldiers who risked and gave their lives (including soldiers of Japanese descent). Other regular citizens were required to ration gasoline, rubber, steel, etc. Speed limits were reduced to conserve gasoline. Contrary to information presented in Nancy Ann Holtz’s letter to the editor [“Letters,” March 2006], Americans of German and Italian descent were also sent to camps.

If I belonged to a group that had members who threatened the security of this country, I would willingly go to an “assembly center.” It seems like a logical sacrifice. It wouldn’t be enjoyable, but if it meant saving my country from destruction, I would rather spend some time in a camp than have my family beheaded for practicing a Christian religion. But then I’m conservative, and I put my country ahead of myself.

Japanese, Italians and Germans aren’t the only groups that have been singled out in relation to our nation’s security. Even currently, people with higher incomes are singled out to pay higher taxes. They haven’t committed any crimes any more than the Nisei students did.

The author, Columns Editor Tom Griffin, couldn’t get any of his interviewees to express any bitterness for staying in internment camps. It is possible that there is no bitterness. It is possible that they complied out of a sense of duty for their country. They thought of country before self. I am offended that Griffin implied bitterness where none was offered. I’m offended that Griffin is using the sacrifice of great Americans to further his liberal anti-American agenda.

Susan Smith Stephens wrote in her letter to the editor [“Letters,” March 2006]: “Perhaps if either President Bush or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld had been at the UW at that time, tens of thousands of young Iraqi citizens might still be alive.” Our troops are not in Iraq to kill but to protect Iraqi citizens. Perhaps if Saddam Hussein were still in power, he would have killed another 100,000 Iraqi citizens. Perhaps if the Islamic terrorists weren’t so busy in Iraq, they would be spreading mayhem and destruction in our country.

I appreciate the courage displayed by Gordon Hirabayashi to take on the U.S. government at the time of war to defend his own civil rights, to whose story half of the “The Stolen Years, Part Two” was dedicated. I honor even more the short paragraph dedicated to George Mukasa, who volunteered to join the U.S. Army, accompanying General Douglas MacArthur all the way to Japan. Now that’s real courage.

Chris Jolley, ’92
American Fork, Utah

Editor’s Note: Chris Jolley is in error when he states “Americans of German and Italian descent were also sent to camps.” German and Italian citizens were interned, not U.S. citizens of those nationalities except in a few rare incidents. In contrast, more than 70,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese descent were sent to the camps in 1942.

Sober Truths and Pabulum
I would like to thank letter writer Chris Jolley for his cogent and concise commentary in the June edition of Columns (“We Did What We Had to Do to Win”). He made me proud to be a UW alumnus.

I learned that, as a liberal, I put myself ahead of my country. I also learned that there is no subject—even a sober and thoughtful examination of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II—that cannot be enhanced by the inclusion of standard right-wing pabulum, even if such references lack relevance to the purported topic. I was reminded that it is “anti-American” to question our government, that it would be a “logical sacrifice” for Christians to go to an “assembly center” to avoid beheadings for practicing their religion and that high-income Americans are “singled out to pay higher taxes” in the interest of national security.

Additionally, I’m guessing the Japanese Americans who were relocated to internment camps will be buoyed by Jolley’s assertion that “other regular citizens” also were asked to sacrifice during the war effort. Reduced speed limits? Rations on gasoline, rubber and steel? Oh, such deprivation!

Mark Wardlaw, ’81
Santa Rosa, Calif.