That Trump-Ugly Path That Better Not Be Before Us

Trump, with his fanning the flames of Islamophobia,  may be full of shit, but his message should not be ignored by the public. We've actually gone down that ugly road once before, in the form of FDR's Executive Order 9066, which resulted in Japanese Americans, including native born citizens, spending WW II behind barbed wire through no fault of their own. Having lived in Honolulu for 14 years, maybe I'm just a little sensitive to that subject.

Article: Fading Accounts of Japanese Internment Camps Important to Preserve (Elena Wirth, Santa Fe New Mexican, Aug, 2014).

Over the weekend, we went to Santa Fe to do some shopping and on the way back home, stopped at the memorial to the Japanese-Americans who were forced into a WW II internment camp that was right in The City Different. The memorial is a big white granite block with a bronze plaque embedded in it, located on the hill overlooking the house we bought in Casa Solana. The memorial, shown below, is on the edge of the big dog park, the Frank Ortiz Park.

Santa Fe Internment Camp.
Photo from Wikipedia

 Turns out the Casa Solana development is built on what was a concentration camp. Think about that next time you drive by the neighborhood. I think I need to put up a Zen sculpture or Yorishiro in the yard. Some more info in various places including here and here.

So lest we forget, we've gone down this Trump-ugly road before. Paranoia does strike deep. Let's not let real problems lead to unreal solutions.

 

 

Bullseye shows approximate camp location in this Topographical Map, 1952. Santa Fe, New Mexico. United States Geological Survey. Courtesy of the New Mexico State Library and the National Japanese American Historical Society Digital Archives.