DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

Don’t repeat shameful U.S. history

Each year as Vashon remembers the internment of the Japanese friends and neighbors, I write to remind us all that Executive Order 9066 also included Germans and Italians. Seamen were removed from ships in port and sent to internment camps. And the FBI investigated “enemy aliens”, especially those who participated in what were deemed suspicious activities or gatherings.

This government surveillance had been going on prior to the Executive Order, so that when it was declared, men of Italian and German descent were already chosen for arrest. This was done, not because of race as in the case of the Japanese, but because of national origin.

The climate of the current U.S. administration behooves us to be on guard for similar activity. Detention because of race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or any number of other reasons is a repetition of a dangerous and shameful segment of America’s history.

May our Vashon Day of Remembrance be more than a day; may it stand at the forefront of our minds at all times, and may we rise to meet the challenge.

Debbie Butler