The Progressive War

Award-winning author and well-known journalist, Dave Eggers, in his biographical work, Zeitoun, illustrates a Muslim-American family’s troubling experiences in a post-9/11, Islamophobic society in the wake of a natural disaster. Eggers’ purpose is to critique the flaws of the American government’s response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in order to reveal the human tolls of its injustice and discrimination. Using ethos, logos, pathos, and imagery, he adopts a poignant yet disappointed tone in order to bring awareness to such negligence and to convince the American people of the consequences of racism. Eggers effectively uses metaphors throughout Zeitoun to provide a better understanding of complex situations throughout the book.

Many were innocent children, women and men approximately 120,000, all held in Internment Camps across the country. Children and adults had to stand in line for many things, including eating and going to the bathroom and spent 4 years incarcerated surrounded by barbed wire.

When the Nazi’s arrested Jews and sent them to concentration camps, the conditions were terrible. The men, women, and children in the camps were not treated with the rights they deserved, since they were forced into harsh labor, placed in killing centers where gas chambers were used to effectively and quickly murder thousands of Jews a day, and experimented on to find new medicines and so the German scientists could find out how much pain and torture they could endure until death. In America, over 120,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated into camps during the period of World War II. Even though these Americans were not treated as harshly as the Jews in concentration camps, they lost

In 1942 thousands of Japanese were inturned after an attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. The U.S had been neutral up until that point, but the attack brought America into the war. The Japanese were interned because of the risk of espionage, at least according to the government. Although the government thought it was okay, the Government should not have inturned thousands of Japanese.

Once the Chinese began their propaganda efforts, many POW’s began to mentally break under the pressure. Eventually POW’s started to write letters, sign petitions, and engage in other activities in order to curry favor with the camp guards. Over 400 prisoners, including three eventual non-repatriates, signed a petition condemning NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) for killing innocent Koreans. Another petition was signed by over 200 prisoners and “called for an immediate end to

In your opinion, Can the First World War be regarded as a particularly Progressive conflict, or did it derail the Progressive Movement—or are both of these statements true?

War can be loud and visible or quiet and remote. It affects the individual and entire societies, the soldier, and the civilian. Both U.S. prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-American citizens in the United States during WWII undergo efforts to make them “invisible.” Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken hero, Louie Zamperini, like so many other POWs, is imprisoned, beaten, and denied basic human rights in POW camps throughout Japan. Miné Okubo, a U.S. citizen by birth, is removed from society and interned in a “protective custody” camp for Japanese-American citizens. She is one of the many Japanese-Americans who were interned for the duration of the war. Louie Zamperini, as a POW in Japan, and Miné Okubo, as a Japanese-American Internee both experience efforts to make them “invisible” through dehumanization and isolation in the camps of WWII, and both resist these efforts.

Anne Frank was a European Jew and Monica Sone was a Japanese American. Monica told her story of Japanese American prisoners being held captive in America, in the excerpt “Camp Harmony”. How is it possible for American citizens during times of war to be taken into captivity while in the U.S.?

Japanese Americans filed lawsuits to stop the mass incarceration, but the wartime courts supported the hysteria. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hirabayashi v U.S.,Yasui v U.S. , and Korematsu v U.S. that the denial of civil liberties based on race and national origin were legal. (momomedia.com)Through the relocation program the Japanese Americans suffered greatly. They first endured the shock of realizing they were not being sent to resettlement communities, as many had been led to believe, but to prison. They lost their homes and businesses. Their educations and careers were interrupted and their possessions lost. Many lost sons who fought for the country that imprisoned their parents. They suffered the loss of faith in the government and the humiliation of being confined as traitors in their own country (Michi Weglyn).Throughout the course of World War II, not a single incident of espionage or treason was found to be committed by

On 26 September 2002, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who born in Syria, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport while he was waiting for his flight . Mr. Arar was held in solitary confinement without any charges by United States authorities for two weeks without having access to a lawyer. The United States government suspected him of being a member of Al-Qaeda and deported him back directly not to Canada, but to his country of birth Syria, where he was tortured . Arar was held in Syria for nearly a year, during that time he was tortured, until he return to Canada. The Syrian government later admitted that Arar was not involved in anything and he was “completely innocent ”. There are too many questions that need to be answered,

Roughly 70,000 of the Japanese that had been displaced and relocated to theses camps were Americans citizens. There were never charges brought against them but they were not able to petition their incarceration. While incarcerated they lost their homes and all of their property. They tried to argue that this was unconstitutional to the government but the Supreme Court upheld their decision.

Guantanamo Bay, though started with good intentions, only highlights America’s negative side. Marine Major General Michael Lehnert, who played a significant role in the opening of Guantanamo, has drastically changed his opinion and said that it, “Validates every negative perception of the U.S.” (Sutton 1). One example of this occurred in 2006, when President Bush justified the use of “physical coercion” (torture) during interrogations (Fetini 1). Some of these torture methods include isolation, beatings, sleep deprivation, and general abuse. Other tactics such as disrespect for Islamic symbols or sexual provocation are used to encourage stress in detainees (Bloche 1). These immoral methods led to an international outcry. It was later remarked that the Cuban territory upon which Guantanamo is located is being used as a “concentration camp” of sorts (Fetini 1). Guantanamo and its unethical values are being recognized by nations around the world, displaying America in a bad light.

Shortly after the United States entered into war with Japan, the federal government initiated a policy whereby 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and herded into camps, 2/3 of these people were actually United States citizens. They were incarcerated without indictment, trial, or counsel - not because they had committed a crime, but simply because they resembled the enemy. These were similar to concentration camps that the Germans were using for the Jews, though no one was being killed and Japanese Americans were allowed to work within the camps. Not many Americans knew about the camps at that time, and some still don't know today. Like discussed in class, it was an embarrassing moment for this country. The book that was assigned in class, Desert Exile by Yoshiko Uchida, told the story of a family who lived through these horrible times. As we discussed in class

This law directly reflects the US’s value of human rights and justice. Yet, the prisoners in Guantanamo have no right to habeas corpus or any other legal compensation for their treatment. Despite the seemingly obvious moral obligations for closing Guantánamo, we must question if keeping these alleged terrorists detained is for the greater good? Are we potentially saving innocent lives that could be taken if the alleged terrorists were released?

In January of 2009, newly elected President Barak Obama annouced the signing of an executive order that states that Guantanamo Bay would be closed within the year; he did not fulfill this promise though. In November of 2009 President Obama announced that the base would not be closed due to not being able to find somewhere for the detainees to be relocated to. (Cohn, 2015) The fact of the matter is that Americans are the ones paying for this inhumane detention center. With the closure of the Guantanamo Naval Base detention center America tax dollars could be used in a much more effective way. We have veterans who are homeless, yet the money Americans are putting in the government is being used to torture other humans. In Guantanamo Bay there is a practice that is called pharmacologic water boarding. This is where guards administer the drug Mefloquine despite the knowledge the Pentagon had of the side effect, which include suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, and anxiety. This drug is meant to treat malaria, however it was administered to prisoners whether they were presumed to have malaria of not. Leopold said, “The government has exposed detainees to unacceptable high risks of potentially severe neuropsychiatric side effect, including seizures, intense vertigo, hallucinations, paranoid delusions, aggression, panic, anxiety, severe insomnia, and thoughts of suicide. These side effects could be as severe as those intended through the application of the enhanced interrogation techniques.” The effects of this drug are not easily reversed. In fact, with the massive doses administered to the detainees cause the side effects to take weeks or even months to wear off. When the drug began being administered to prisoners the psychiatric cases rose in extreme amounts. This drug has been said to be “human experimentation or enhanced interrogation”. The mind altering side effect of the drug may