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Ladies and gentlemen of the committee and its esteemed guests, I would like to thank your for the invitation to open this meeting and set the stage for our discussion today. The last 60 years of the twentieth century was a time of great social and political change in America. These years changed the way Americans looked at their fellow man and perhaps even themselves. The events that took place had a major impact on so many different aspects of this country. Beginning with the 2nd world war, to the Civil Rights Movement, and ending with the confrontation at Wounded Knee. Many people rose up and became important in the continuing fight for civil liberties.
World War II began on the first of September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. The United States wouldn’t enter the war until December 8, 1941, the day after Japan attacked the U.S. Naval base in Pear Harbor. The very same day (Desert Exile) the FBI went arrested any and every Japanese man living on the west coast that had any links to Japan. These men were then detained without being charged with anything. The prejudices against Japanese Americans started almost immediately. Many thought that they had cut arrows into sugar cane fields to help guide the Japanese bombers. Others thought that they used their fishing boats to conduct espionage. Others still thought that they interfered with vital American communications by radio signals. None of these were proved but because they were believed by a few government officials such as the Secretary of the Navy Fort Knox, they were given some credibility. A few months later, Japanese Americans from all over the country were forced to leave their homes and their lives and were put into concentration camps. The only group of Japanese Americans, who weren’t detained, were the ones that lived in Hawaii. They were considered to be too important to the economy seeing as how they made up a third of the population. Many of the people who were detained...