SHAME

The World War II years will forever be testimony to America’s collective and individual resistance to tyranny, its awesome and ingenious industrial machinery, and what may be its greatest strength, the common values of its richly varied population when faced with a common threat. Any celebration of America’s strengths and qualities during those years of courage and sacrifice, however, will be tempered by the stains of racism that were pervasive in practice and in policy. As it was an era of great glory for America and its people, it was also, indisputably, a time of shame.

One does not cancel out the other, but any accounting of the war years is incomplete without the stories of those who were serving their country while fighting to protect their individual rights and dignity. What they experienced would be shocking enough if the acts of prejudice had been simply the work of a few misguided bigots, but the most shameful acts of discrimination and oppression were officially sanctioned by the highest officials in the land.

Black Americans were called Negroes or Colored in polite company and official documents, but the hateful epithet nigger was a common expression, even when referring to black Americans in uniform. They had few champions of racial equality outside their own ranks. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke up for them, but her husband, the president, the great champion of the common man, was mostly quiet on the subject.

Japanese Americans were subjected to even greater discrimination during the war. Their fundamental rights were swept aside in a campaign organized by some of the most distinguished figures in public life. The relocation of Japanese American citizens from their homes and businesses on the West Coast was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the name of military security. In a contemporary review of that decision, the current chief justice, William Rehnquist, concludes that civil liberties are not expected to have the same standing in wartime as they do in peacetime, but he does believe the courts in the future will review more carefully the government’s arguments for curtailing fundamental rights.

Past practices and court decisions aside, the most compelling arguments against the wartime racism and official acts canceling civil liberties can be found in the lives and attitudes of the people who were the victims of those shameful episodes.