#internment — Public Fediverse posts

When the Emperor Was Divine

"Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens"

Sale: $17 to $1.99

by Julie Otsuka
4.3/5 (2,408 Reviews)

#books #historical #fiction #japaneseamerican #internment #heritage #war #novel #booksky #literature

When the Emperor Was Divine

When the Emperor Was Divine

"Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens"

Sale: $17 to $1.99

by Julie Otsuka
4.3/5 (2,408 Reviews)

#books #historical #fiction #japaneseamerican #internment #heritage #war #novel #booksky #literature

When the Emperor Was Divine

Elementary school children in a detention camp for Japanese-Americans, California, USA, WW2, 1942

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/1994440/elementary-school-children-in-a-detention-camp-for-japanese-americans-california-usa-ww

Elementary school children in a detention camp for Japanese-Americans, California, USA, WW2, 1942

https://piefed.social/c/historyphotos/p/1994440/elementary-school-children-in-a-detention-camp-for-japanese-americans-california-usa-ww

Local leaders in Social Circle—a town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump—have been begging for answers.

They have asked for engineering reports. They have asked for security plans.

Homeland Security has responded by dodging calls and skipping scheduled meetings with city officials.

They aren't even pretending to care about the communities they are overwhelming to build #industrial-scale #internment #camps.

They think because they are the federal government, they can operate in absolute secrecy and ram this down the throats of the locals without any accountability.

We are sending investigative journalists to document the site,
talk to the furious locals,
and expose the reality of what ICE is building.

We are sending organizers to amplify the bipartisan resistance emerging in the town.

We are preparing an ad campaign to make sure everyone in the state knows exactly what is happening in their backyard.

We are going to make them answer.

This rapid-response deployment is moving fast, and we need the resources to sustain it on the ground for as long as it takes to expose this monstrosity.

Will you chip in to support our work?
https://save-am.org/warehouses

-Steve Schmidt

Local leaders in Social Circle—a town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump—have been begging for answers.

They have asked for engineering reports. They have asked for security plans.

Homeland Security has responded by dodging calls and skipping scheduled meetings with city officials.

They aren't even pretending to care about the communities they are overwhelming to build #industrial-scale #internment #camps.

They think because they are the federal government, they can operate in absolute secrecy and ram this down the throats of the locals without any accountability.

We are sending investigative journalists to document the site,
talk to the furious locals,
and expose the reality of what ICE is building.

We are sending organizers to amplify the bipartisan resistance emerging in the town.

We are preparing an ad campaign to make sure everyone in the state knows exactly what is happening in their backyard.

We are going to make them answer.

This rapid-response deployment is moving fast, and we need the resources to sustain it on the ground for as long as it takes to expose this monstrosity.

Will you chip in to support our work?
https://save-am.org/warehouses

-Steve Schmidt

Stanford University: Newly digitized papers shed light on WWII internment. “Stanford University Libraries have digitized the Kazuyuki Takahashi papers, an ‘extraordinary collection’ of letters and photographs that expand the historical record of wartime incarceration in the United States.”

Stanford University: Newly digitized papers shed light on WWII internment. “Stanford University Libraries have digitized the Kazuyuki Takahashi papers, an ‘extraordinary collection’ of letters and photographs that expand the historical record of wartime incarceration in the United States.”

An event was held on Friday to honor Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American civil rights activist who fought against U.S. forced detentions during World War II. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/01/japan/japanese-american-rights-activist/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #wwii #immigration #us #japaneseamericans #internment #fredkorematsu

An event was held on Friday to honor Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American civil rights activist who fought against U.S. forced detentions during World War II. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/01/japan/japanese-american-rights-activist/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #wwii #immigration #us #japaneseamericans #internment #fredkorematsu

@mookie I've watched #TheDayAfterTomorrow more times than I can count. 🤷‍♂️

It's right up there with #2012 (2009) . 😉

But for some reason, still can't stop watching it even if #DennisQuaid is a #MAGA a$$hole, which makes me sad because #TheRookie (2002) is one of my favorite #baseball #movies too. ☹️

And the thing is, he made a movie about the #Japanese #internment too -- #ComeSeeTheParadise (1990) with #TamilynTomita (who also plays a bit part in The Day After Tomorrow) in which he tries to reunite with his #JapaneseAmerican wife & #Happa daughter while they are still imprisoned in a camp.

So, I really don't get what happened to #Quaid to make him a MAGA & #Drumpf supporter. 🤦‍♂️

@mookie I've watched #TheDayAfterTomorrow more times than I can count. 🤷‍♂️

It's right up there with #2012 (2009) . 😉

But for some reason, still can't stop watching it even if #DennisQuaid is a #MAGA a$$hole, which makes me sad because #TheRookie (2002) is one of my favorite #baseball #movies too. ☹️

And the thing is, he made a movie about the #Japanese #internment too -- #ComeSeeTheParadise (1990) with #TamilynTomita (who also plays a bit part in The Day After Tomorrow) in which he tries to reunite with his #JapaneseAmerican wife & #Happa daughter while they are still imprisoned in a camp.

So, I really don't get what happened to #Quaid to make him a MAGA & #Drumpf supporter. 🤦‍♂️

"That's it, time to put them in camps"

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1620560/that-s-it-time-to-put-them-in-camps

"That's it, time to put them in camps"

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1620560/that-s-it-time-to-put-them-in-camps

Businessman goes extra mile to help Japanese group settle in Utah during WWII

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Gently flipping through her grandfather’s scrapbook, Vilate Whittle proudly shared the life highlights of George A. Fisher. The sc…
#Japan #JP #JapanNews #FredWada #GeorgeA.Fisher #Internment #Japanese #JapaneseAmericans #Japanesenews #KeetleyFarm #news #Resettlement #Utah #worldwarii
https://www.alojapan.com/1427212/businessman-goes-extra-mile-to-help-japanese-group-settle-in-utah-during-wwii/

https://www.alojapan.com/1427212/businessman-goes-extra-mile-to-help-japanese-group-settle-in-utah-during-wwii/ Businessman goes extra mile to help Japanese group settle in Utah during WWII #FredWada #GeorgeA.Fisher #Internment #Japan #JapanNews #Japanese #JapaneseAmericans #JapaneseNews #KeetleyFarm #news #Resettlement #Utah #WorldWarIi SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Gently flipping through her grandfather’s scrapbook, Vilate Whittle proudly shared the life highlights of George A. Fisher. The scrapbook, with easily two dozen pages, chronicles the journey of

@randahl They did, but at the same time they had #internment camps for #Japanese people and Jim Crow laws - so yes they helped to defeat nazism, but at the same time we should have never looked up to them as an example of a society.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, the U.S. government sent those of Japanese ancestry to internment camps in remote areas. Eighty years later, many see troubling echoes of that time. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/04/japan/wwii-japanese-americans-internment-history/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #wwii #japaneseamericans #internment #discrimination

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, the U.S. government sent those of Japanese ancestry to internment camps in remote areas. Eighty years later, many see troubling echoes of that time. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/04/japan/wwii-japanese-americans-internment-history/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #wwii #japaneseamericans #internment #discrimination

Every veteran serving nonprofit should stand in solidarity with the Japanese American Citizens League in denouncing the Fort Bliss Concentration Camp

JACL: New ICE Dentention Center at Fort Bliss Dishonors Japanese American History

#ICE #FortBliss #nonprofit #veterans #racism #facism #internment #concentrationCamp

https://jacl.org/statements/new-ice-detention-center-at-fort-bliss-dishonors-japanese-american-history

Every veteran serving nonprofit should stand in solidarity with the Japanese American Citizens League in denouncing the Fort Bliss Concentration Camp

JACL: New ICE Dentention Center at Fort Bliss Dishonors Japanese American History

#ICE #FortBliss #nonprofit #veterans #racism #facism #internment #concentrationCamp

https://jacl.org/statements/new-ice-detention-center-at-fort-bliss-dishonors-japanese-american-history

New ICE Detention Center at Fort Bliss Dishonors Japanese American History

"...Last week, it was announced that a new ICE detention center had opened at Fort Bliss, an active U.S. military base once used as an internment camp for first-generation Japanese immigrants. With a capacity to hold up to 5,000 detainees, Fort Bliss is now the largest immigration detention facility in the country. The decision by the administration to use a former internment site as a detention center is a disgrace to the memory and legacy of the more than 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans unjustly imprisoned during World War II.

Fort Bliss was among several facilities used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to confine Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrants, under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. These everyday business owners, community leaders, teachers, and fathers were labeled as “enemy aliens” not for any wrongdoing, but because the law kept them from becoming naturalized citizens. Until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the Issei were legally barred from becoming naturalized citizens...."

https://jacl.org/statements/new-ice-detention-center-at-fort-bliss-dishonors-japanese-american-history

#ICE #Fascism #Internment

New ICE Detention Center at Fort Bliss Dishonors Japanese American History

"...Last week, it was announced that a new ICE detention center had opened at Fort Bliss, an active U.S. military base once used as an internment camp for first-generation Japanese immigrants. With a capacity to hold up to 5,000 detainees, Fort Bliss is now the largest immigration detention facility in the country. The decision by the administration to use a former internment site as a detention center is a disgrace to the memory and legacy of the more than 125,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans unjustly imprisoned during World War II.

Fort Bliss was among several facilities used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to confine Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrants, under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. These everyday business owners, community leaders, teachers, and fathers were labeled as “enemy aliens” not for any wrongdoing, but because the law kept them from becoming naturalized citizens. Until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the Issei were legally barred from becoming naturalized citizens...."

https://jacl.org/statements/new-ice-detention-center-at-fort-bliss-dishonors-japanese-american-history

#ICE #Fascism #Internment

Close enough for government work.

#JapaneseAmerican #ClasticSites #ScrubNothing #Internment

The obvious demonstration that #Trump is not mentally healthy

Trump has cut humanitarian #food #aid,
and ... to be sure they did not receive food
made> Burn <food stocks already sent
(Thousands of children are starving to death).
trump established #racial #laws and built #internment #camps where prisoners die
has destabilized the #world #economy
ruined millions of people
has criminalized poverty

a perverted convicted fellon a sexual abuser pedofile

And the imbecile demands ... a #Nobel prize

A quotation from George Carlin

Folks, I hate to spoil your fun, but — there’s no such thing as rights. Okay? They’re imaginary. We made ’em up. […] Now, if you think you do have rights, one last assignment for you. Next time you’re at the computer, get on the Internet, go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia I want you to type in “Japanese-American 1942,” and you’ll find all about your precious fucking rights, okay? […] Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took ’em away. And rights aren’t “rights” if someone can take ’em away — they’re privileges. That’s all we’ve ever had in this country is a Bill of Temporary Privileges. And if you read the news, even badly, you know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter.

George Carlin (1937-2008) American comedian
Show (2008-03-01), It’s Bad for Ya, Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, California (HBO)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/carlin-george/54395/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #georgecarlin #godgivenrights #internment #abuseofauthority #billofrights #civilrights #government #power #privileges #rights

“They Called Us Enemy” is now on #Webtoon reaching many people who knew nothing about that history!
https://www.webtoons.com/en/graphic-novel/they-called-us-enemy/list?title_no=7685
#WWII #Internment #History #Comics

“They Called Us Enemy” is now on #Webtoon reaching many people who knew nothing about that history!
https://www.webtoons.com/en/graphic-novel/they-called-us-enemy/list?title_no=7685
#WWII #Internment #History #Comics

WWII Fort Missoula internment exhibit opens #montana #internment #cartoon #imigration

🇺🇸 📖 **Not White Enough: The Long, Shameful Road to Japanese American Internment**

“_This book is the first to trace the full arc of prejudice against Asian Americans that made internment inevitable and serves as a legal and political history of anti-Asian racism, beginning with the California gold rush and ending with Korematsu._”

🔗 https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700634255/.

#Nonfiction #Book #Bookstodon #History #Histodons #Racism #Prejudice #USA #US #UnitedStates #Japanese #Asian #Internment @histodons

🇺🇸 📖 **Not White Enough: The Long, Shameful Road to Japanese American Internment**

“_This book is the first to trace the full arc of prejudice against Asian Americans that made internment inevitable and serves as a legal and political history of anti-Asian racism, beginning with the California gold rush and ending with Korematsu._”

🔗 https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700634255/.

#Nonfiction #Book #Bookstodon #History #Histodons #Racism #Prejudice #USA #US #UnitedStates #Japanese #Asian #Internment @histodons

That awkward moment.... Staring at an old, small, out of place building on Google Streetview, noting the Japanese or perhaps Chinese accents, panning back and forth and around to decide whether it looks old enough to perhaps be from 1942... and then realizing I'm looking at an abandoned Burger King. 🤦‍♂️

The distinguishing feature of the WCCA Civil Control Stations and Departure Sites was their ordinariness. But... not that kind of ordinary.

#japaneseamericans #internment

From #Wikipedia: Internment of Japanese Americans

"During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority (#WRA), mostly in the western interior of the country. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens.

"These actions were initiated by Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, following the outbreak of war with the Empire of Japan in December 1941. About 127,000 Japanese Americans then lived in the continental U.S., of which about 112,000 lived on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei ('second generation'; American-born Japanese with #USCitizenship) and Sansei ('third generation', the children of Nisei). The rest were Issei ('first generation') immigrants born in Japan, who were ineligible for citizenship. In Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans comprised more than one-third of the territory's population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were incarcerated.

"#Internment was intended to mitigate a security risk which Japanese Americans were believed to pose. The scale of the incarceration in proportion to the size of the Japanese American population far surpassed similar measures undertaken against German and Italian Americans who numbered in the millions and of whom some thousands were interned, most of these non-citizens. Following the executive order, the entire West Coast was designated a military exclusion area, and all Japanese Americans living there were taken to assembly centers before being sent to concentration camps in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Arkansas. Similar actions were taken against individuals of Japanese descent in Canada. Internees were prohibited from taking more than they could carry into the camps, and many were forced to sell some or all of their property, including their homes and businesses. At the camps, which were surrounded by barbed wire fences and patrolled by armed guards, internees often lived in overcrowded barracks with minimal furnishing."

[...]

Prior use of internment camps in the United States

"The United States Government had previously employed civilian internment policies in a variety of circumstances. During the 1830s, civilians of the indigenous #CherokeeNation were evicted from their homes and detained in 'emigration depots' in Alabama and Tennessee prior to the deportation to Oklahoma following the passage of the #IndianRemovalAct in 1830. Similar internment policies were carried out by U.S. territorial authorities against the #Dakota and #Navajo peoples during the American Indian Wars in the 1860s.

"In 1901, during the Philippine–American War, General J. Franklin Bell ordered the detainment of #Filipino civilians in the provinces of Batangas and Laguna into U.S. Army-run #ConcentrationCamps in order to prevent them from collaborating with #Filipino General Miguel Malvar's guerrillas; over 11,000 people died in the camps from malnutrition and disease."

Read more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans
#ICEDetention #IllegalDeportations #SecretPolice #HumanRightsViolations #ConstitutionalRights #HumanRights #SCOTUSIsCompromised #SCOTUSIsCorrupt #USPol #ForcedDisappearances #MemoryHoled #1798AlienEnemiesAct #PrivatePrisons

From #Wikipedia: Internment of Japanese Americans

"During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority (#WRA), mostly in the western interior of the country. About two-thirds were U.S. citizens.

"These actions were initiated by Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, following the outbreak of war with the Empire of Japan in December 1941. About 127,000 Japanese Americans then lived in the continental U.S., of which about 112,000 lived on the West Coast. About 80,000 were Nisei ('second generation'; American-born Japanese with #USCitizenship) and Sansei ('third generation', the children of Nisei). The rest were Issei ('first generation') immigrants born in Japan, who were ineligible for citizenship. In Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans comprised more than one-third of the territory's population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were incarcerated.

"#Internment was intended to mitigate a security risk which Japanese Americans were believed to pose. The scale of the incarceration in proportion to the size of the Japanese American population far surpassed similar measures undertaken against German and Italian Americans who numbered in the millions and of whom some thousands were interned, most of these non-citizens. Following the executive order, the entire West Coast was designated a military exclusion area, and all Japanese Americans living there were taken to assembly centers before being sent to concentration camps in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Arkansas. Similar actions were taken against individuals of Japanese descent in Canada. Internees were prohibited from taking more than they could carry into the camps, and many were forced to sell some or all of their property, including their homes and businesses. At the camps, which were surrounded by barbed wire fences and patrolled by armed guards, internees often lived in overcrowded barracks with minimal furnishing."

[...]

Prior use of internment camps in the United States

"The United States Government had previously employed civilian internment policies in a variety of circumstances. During the 1830s, civilians of the indigenous #CherokeeNation were evicted from their homes and detained in 'emigration depots' in Alabama and Tennessee prior to the deportation to Oklahoma following the passage of the #IndianRemovalAct in 1830. Similar internment policies were carried out by U.S. territorial authorities against the #Dakota and #Navajo peoples during the American Indian Wars in the 1860s.

"In 1901, during the Philippine–American War, General J. Franklin Bell ordered the detainment of #Filipino civilians in the provinces of Batangas and Laguna into U.S. Army-run #ConcentrationCamps in order to prevent them from collaborating with #Filipino General Miguel Malvar's guerrillas; over 11,000 people died in the camps from malnutrition and disease."

Read more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans
#ICEDetention #IllegalDeportations #SecretPolice #HumanRightsViolations #ConstitutionalRights #HumanRights #SCOTUSIsCompromised #SCOTUSIsCorrupt #USPol #ForcedDisappearances #MemoryHoled #1798AlienEnemiesAct #PrivatePrisons

The Alien Enemies Act was deployed to imprison both citizens and noncitizens during World War II. Survivors have a few things to say about Trump’s abuse of it now. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/03/26/japan/japanese-incarceration-alien-enemies-act/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #japan #donaldtrump #wwii #japaneseamericans #internment #us #venezuela #immigration #alienenemiesact

The Alien Enemies Act was deployed to imprison both citizens and noncitizens during World War II. Survivors have a few things to say about Trump’s abuse of it now. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/03/26/japan/japanese-incarceration-alien-enemies-act/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #japan #donaldtrump #wwii #japaneseamericans #internment #us #venezuela #immigration #alienenemiesact

7.3: They Sent Us to Camp: My Family's Experience of Internment During WWII

If you meet a Japanese American, it’s also a pretty good bet, they probably won’t spontaneously start talking about what they or their family went through, how they feel about it, and how they or their family recovered from the ordeal.

I (Christina) wanted to rectify that by sitting down with my old friend Chie Furuya, whose parents (as tiny children), grandparents, and other family members were “sent to camp”, to ask her about it. The answers and stories she had for me were both fascinating and unexpectedly heartening. Her people are a resilient, cheerful people and I feel like there are life lessons for all of us here, in terms of withstanding and recovering from severe injustice (and coming out on top).

Ariel’s addition to this episode description is to point out that Japanese internment occurred in Canada in the early 20th century as well. We (by which she means Canada, or perhaps so-called Canada, as she likes to call it) aren't some bastion of anti-racism and tolerant plurality (if we ever were). Check out our blog post for links for further edification if you are interested or want to know more about the Canadian side of the story.

https://youtu.be/nI3FJIJNkak

#episode #season7 #solarpunk #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #podcast #InterviewPodcast #StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate #JapaneseAmericans #Nisei #Sansei #Internment #WorldWar2 #JapaneseAmericanInternmentCamps #xenophobia #politicalXenophobia #USpol #USpolitics #AmericanPolitics #History #Histodons #Racism #RacialTension #AssumptionOfGuilt #JailingAmericans #Citizenship

7.3: They Sent Us to Camp: My Family's Experience of Internment During WWII

If you meet a Japanese American, it’s also a pretty good bet, they probably won’t spontaneously start talking about what they or their family went through, how they feel about it, and how they or their family recovered from the ordeal.

I (Christina) wanted to rectify that by sitting down with my old friend Chie Furuya, whose parents (as tiny children), grandparents, and other family members were “sent to camp”, to ask her about it. The answers and stories she had for me were both fascinating and unexpectedly heartening. Her people are a resilient, cheerful people and I feel like there are life lessons for all of us here, in terms of withstanding and recovering from severe injustice (and coming out on top).

Ariel’s addition to this episode description is to point out that Japanese internment occurred in Canada in the early 20th century as well. We (by which she means Canada, or perhaps so-called Canada, as she likes to call it) aren't some bastion of anti-racism and tolerant plurality (if we ever were). Check out our blog post for links for further edification if you are interested or want to know more about the Canadian side of the story.

https://youtu.be/nI3FJIJNkak

#episode #season7 #solarpunk #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #podcast #InterviewPodcast #StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate #JapaneseAmericans #Nisei #Sansei #Internment #WorldWar2 #JapaneseAmericanInternmentCamps #xenophobia #politicalXenophobia #USpol #USpolitics #AmericanPolitics #History #Histodons #Racism #RacialTension #AssumptionOfGuilt #JailingAmericans #Citizenship

Weathered post, Manzanar Internment Camp, Independence, California. April 2021. When we give in to fear and xenophobia we get places like this #shame #manzanar #photography #cemetery #internment camp #blackandwhite #racism #Japanese #xenophobia

Weathered post, Manzanar Internment Camp, Independence, California. April 2021. When we give in to fear and xenophobia we get places like this #shame #manzanar #photography #cemetery #internment camp #blackandwhite #racism #Japanese #xenophobia

…“Desperate families coming to our border to seek refuge do not constitute an invasion by a foreign government within the meaning of the #law,” said Lee Gelernt, a leading attorney w/ the #ACLU, which has put up legal challenges to many of #Trump's previous moves.

#Democratic lawmakers in the US #House & #Senate reintroduced a bill in Jan that would repeal the #AlienEnemiesAct, pointing to its use in the #internment of Americans & arguing it violates individual & #CivilRights.

#immigration

…“Desperate families coming to our border to seek refuge do not constitute an invasion by a foreign government within the meaning of the #law,” said Lee Gelernt, a leading attorney w/ the #ACLU, which has put up legal challenges to many of #Trump's previous moves.

#Democratic lawmakers in the US #House & #Senate reintroduced a bill in Jan that would repeal the #AlienEnemiesAct, pointing to its use in the #internment of Americans & arguing it violates individual & #CivilRights.

#immigration

Obelisk, Main Cemetery, Manzanar Internment Camp, Independence, California. April 2021. When we give in to fear and xenophobia we get places like this #shame #manzanar #photography #cemetery #internment camp #blackandwhite #racism #Japanese #xenophobia

@markstoneman (not to detract from the OP, but) "Coming soon, Mexican-American Internment camps v2.0" if we don't stop them

https://greattransformation.substack.com/p/mass-deportations-a-dark-history

#Internment #Deportation #Mexican #Scapegoat #Racism #Racist

when you give in to fear and hatred you get a place like Manzanar. Guard Tower, Manzanar Internment Camp. Independance, California. #manzanar #internment #japan #WW2 #prison #shame #photography #blackandwhite #guardtower

The Edinburgh Hostels for Women Students: the thread about their wartime role as Internment Camps for “Enemy Aliens”

This thread was originally written and published in January 2023.

An intriguing image was tweeted today, with the caption “WWII Prisoner of War Camp, Scotland, November 1939“:

Where was this camp? The soldier is very obviously equipped by the British Army, but the building doesn’t look very Scottish, does it? In fact it looks more like a French chateau. Is it a school, a hospital wing or a sanatorium? I didn’t know, so I shared the picture and quickly the answer came back (thanks Sean McPartlin, Graeme Dickson and Ian “Silverback”). It is the Suffolk Road Halls of Residence or to give them their proper name, the Edinburgh Hostels for Women Students. These were used as an internment camp for “enemy aliens” at the start of the war.

A 20 acre site in Newington, which had formed part of the the Craigmillar Golf Course, was purchased in 1913 for £10,000 by the Edinburgh Association for the Provision of Hostels for Women Students for a purpose-built accommodation hostel – or halls of residence. The Association was a joint venture between the Edinburgh Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers, Edinburgh University, the Edinburgh College of Art, the Edinburgh Merchant Company and the Edinburgh Episcopal Training College. The hostels were “for the more satisfactory housing of women students” and were intended to eventually have a capacity for 350, with 250 reserved for teaching students at Moray House College. There already existed two small halls of residence for women medical students, converted from houses, on George Square.

Each hostel had a common room, library and dining room and 52 separate study bedrooms. They were grouped around a quadrangle which had a hockey field and tennis courts. The architect was Alan Keith Robinson. This was the first large commission for Robinson and his partner Thomas Aikman Swan, but would be his last. Both volunteered to fight in WW1 and Robinson refused a commission so that he could fight “in the line”. He was severely wounded and was invalided out of the army in 1917. He attempted to restart his practice and partnership but his wounds prevented him properly realising this and he died from them in May 1925.

The first three hostels (Buchanan, Balfour and Playfair) were opened in June 1917 by Sir J. Alfred Ewing, Principal of the University at a cost of with £79,000; £44,000 from the Treasury and the bulk of the remainder from the Carnegie Trust. The running costs were to be met entirely by fees, in 1917 this was an annual £30 (about £2,600 in 2023).

The glory of the Scottish Universities is that they are open not simply to the rich but to those of very moderate means indeed. In Scotland we have always been proud of the fact that we have to cultivate the Muses on a little oatmeal, and even at the present price of oatmeal a Scottish University Education is cheap! There will, I feel sure, be a great satisfaction to all that a comparatively new side in university life will be developed in Scotland, namely the communal life; true education is not simply a matter of listening to lectures and studying books.

Opening speech by Sir Alfred Ewing

Two further hostels – Carlyle and Darroch – were added in 1928 to Robinson’s original designs by Frank Wood, at a cost of £60,000, adding 120 additional bedrooms.

So how did the hostels end up in the photo at the top of this page, fenced off behind barbed wire and with armed guards in watch towers? A brief notice in the Edinburgh Evening News of 30th October 1939 states that the hostels had been “taken over for national purposes.” But the “prisoners of war” in the picture are not servicemen, they are interned civilians. Most were sailors who had been caught in – or en route to – British ports, or in service on ships of Allied-aligned nations at the outbreak of war. Others were simply people of German birth who had been resident in Scotland but now found themselves to be undesirables; “enemy aliens“.

One of the latter category was Adolf Theurer, an hotel chef at the North British Hotel in Edinburgh who “hated the war, and hated the Nazis, but was a German.” Theurer, 61, had lived in Scotland for 44 years and had been at the NB for 37, but had never become naturalised – with war approaching he felt his poor health and good record as a citizen would stand in his favour. He had been interned during WW1 for 4 and a half years and had declared to his family that we would “rather be put against a wall and shot than be interned again“.

However, when he appeared at the “Aliens Tribunal” on October 12th 1939 they found against him and interned him at East Suffolk Road. Those subject to appearance at the tribunal were allowed no legal representation, but Theurer’s manager at the hotel had attended and spoke in his favour. He never saw his family again, and died 5 days later, “broken hearted”, from a heart attack. His family, at 16 Claremont Crescent, were only informed after his death and had not been allowed the opportunity to visit him during his final illness.

Theurer had been an active member of the German Congregation of Edinburgh, which had been forced to disband during WW1, and had assisted in the sale of its chapel to the Brethren after the war, an order in which he was also active. His wife – Johanna Becker – was also German (although her mother was Aberdonian and she was born in London) and they had three children in Edinburgh; George Adolf, Christina and William. His family were not allowed to take possession of his body, instead it was kept in the police mortuary. He was tragically unlucky; at this early stage of the war, relatively few Germans had been incarcerated. In May 1940 the Minister of Home Security, Sir John Anderson, informed the House of Commons that of 73,535 “aliens” in the country, only 569 – less than 1% – had been interned. There was an outcry of public sympathy for him and his funeral at Piershill Cemetery was well attended. John Mcgovern, the Independent Labour Party MP for Glasgow Shettleston raised a question in the House of Commons about the circumstances surrounding his death. Anderson replied that a “report would be prepared“.

This was not even the end of the Theurers’ travails however; on Friday 10th May 1940, two detectives knocked on the door of the Theurer house in Edinburgh while the family were eating a meal and requested that Johanna Theurer pack a case and follow them. Despite her protest, she was taken to Saughton Prison and sent into internment too. Her younger son, William, was a promising footballer who played with Blackpool and in Edinburgh, St. Bernards and later Hibs. He was a British citizen and was exempted from war service as a conscientious objector, telling his tribunal “I am not a member of any church, but my father was a member of the Plymouth Brethren. The horrors of war have been brought to my own door by his death“. He accompanied his mother to the prison gates.

William’s younger brother, George Adolf, went on to become a successful wigmaker in Edinburgh after the war. He was usually known as Adolf, one wonders if this was a direct tribute to his late father given the connotations such a name would have had at the time. He became a local politician, town councillor for Broughton Ward for the Progressives, 1959-74, senior Baillie and Deputy Lord Provost of the city and, after political reorganisation, Lothian Regional Councillor 1974-82.

An observation about the photo was made (by Adam Brown of the Scottish Military Research Group) that some of the men were dressed rather like sailors; zooming in we can definitely see men dressed in what look like peaked caps, sweaters and trousers tucked into sea boots! Contemporary newspaper reports confirm that all inmates were required to sew a circle of contrasting coloured cloth on to their outer garments and that most of the 100 kept at East Suffolk Road at this point were merchant seamen – unsurprising given the trade between the Port of Leith and the Baltic.

On November 18th, three men escaped from the camp, described as “a bow-legged boy of 15 and two others aged 17” The 15-year old was Rudi Platta and the other two were Walther Bartels and Gunther Berger. They were merchant seaman and had managed to steal khaki uniforms – including caps and boots – from off-duty guards while they slept, climb through a window, climb the barbed wire fence and a 10 foot high wall to escape under cover of darkness. Without money, with no English spoken amongst the three and with no real idea where they were going, their chances were not high. They were found 10 hours later walking along the road to Peebles some 20 miles away after a motorist who had passed them heard of their escape on returning home.

Further embarrassment was caused to the authorities (and further sensation was reported in the papers) just 3 days later when two men escaped on the night of 21st November. The pair – George Sluzalek (24) and Franz Feltens (22) were in their civilian attire and again had no money or food, little English, and no plan of where they were going. They became lost, thinking they were heading for the sea but actually they were moving inland. They resorted to eating turnips from a field that had been left out for wintering sheep and were later found nearby, cold and wet, hiding in a yew tree near Dalkeith by an alert gamekeeper.

A second pair of men – Eber Hord Rolf Fischer, aged 23, and Max Waderphul, aged 38 – also escaped that night, parting company with Sluzalek and Feltens after their breakout. Again they had little idea where they were and had no resources with them, but managed to make an impressive distance on foot. Around 430PM the following day they knocked on a cottage door to the south of Edinburgh to beg for tea in broken English. Although they aroused the suspicion of the householder, she showed them kindness and welcomed them in to her house and made them a small meal of bread and butter, cheese and cold mutton, telling reporters “I never saw anyone so grateful in my life“. They left after 15 minutes and she phoned the police; the men had disappeared by the time they arrived. They were on the run for 36 hours and a man hunt of hundreds of police and soldiers combed the Lothians looking for them. They were recaptured cold, wet, hungry and exhausted by the search parties near Heriot, some 22 miles south of Edinburgh and seemed glad to have been found.

Remarkably, a further three men almost escaped on the 21st but were spotted by a sentry who fired his rifle in their direction, raising the alarm. They were quickly captured by the camp defence unit. Some of the escapees were allowed to answer questions by press. when asked if they “had anything to complain about of the treatment they were receiving at the camp, one of them said emphatically, ‘No‘”. All of the men were reluctant to be drawn into answering questions about the quality and availability of food in Germany vs. Britain.

The Corporation of Edinburgh was deeply unhappy about the location and security of the camp, and at a meeting on the 23rd November it was resolved to make a formal request to relocate it out of the city boundary; Lord Provost Steele was able to tell the assembled councillors that he had already been given notification of the intention to move it. On Monday 4th November, the Aberdeen Evening Express announced that a “motley company” of almost 200 German men had left Edinburgh at Waverley station from “an internment camp on the south of the city – the camp which has been so much in the news recently because of escape bids.” The prisoners were reported to be in good spirits and waved and smiled to morning commuters. Some conversation was made between men who could speak English and railway employees, and cigarettes were shared with the captives.On Tuesday 5th, the Daily Record reported that in total 300 German internment prisoners had left Scotland for England “for the duration of the war”.

On 28th December, the Edinburgh Evening News reported that the camp would now be formally closed, with transit accommodation for processing prisoners “for no more than 48 hours” having been arranged at an unspecified hospital. The East Suffolk Road Hostels were turned over to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) officer cadets; the women’s branch of the British Army.

The requisition had caused something of a crisis for University Accommodation, which also saw 200 cadets billeted in its other accommodation. As a result most students who kept up their studies in wartime had to stay “in digs”, with the Scotsman reporting they were now sharing 3 and 4 to a single bedroom. The hostels were quickly returned to civilian use post-war, with adverts being taken out in the local newspapers for new wardens in August 1945. Later, they became the Newington Campus of Moray House Teacher Training College, closing in 1997 when this institution merged with the University of Edinburgh. They have since been converted into private housing.

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