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_opi nion Japanese deserve more than apology Years ago, there were a people ? many witl similar jobs, views and ideologies as Americans who were incarcerated in detention camps, strippe< of their pride and denied of their rights. The natives of the country, caught up by th< speeches of the Political Machine, closed their eye: and ears to the cries of these people as a wa continued. The country was not Germany, and the people were not Jews. The place was the United States and the people imprisoned were Japanese Americans. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, som 120,000 Japanese Americans along the West Coas ? ? ? t _ i were hauled away trom their homes to oe guarae< by the military like criminals. About 35,000 of those were allowed to leave th camps in order to go to war, college or farthe inlano. In Washington, President Roosevelt adhered t< an anti-Japanese public opinion and sent th Japanese ? many of them U.S. citizens ? to th detention camps, where many of them stayed unti 1 O A /, Kilt iv-r~t. What is even more shocking is that the Suprem Court upheld the legality of FDR s action although most German Americans and ltaiiai Americans were never piacea in camps. Now, two wars and more tnan 40 years later, th Ammiccinn W/ Qrftrnp T2 *-?l 11 <"\n nn A ^UUVJIIUI VlllllUOOlUll W11 n WI UIIIV 1WJVVUUVU vvai Internment of Citizens recommends an "act of n?= tional apology." The commission asks Congre? and President Reagan to sign tne apoiogy, and gi\ the 60,000 survivors a one-time payment of $20,0C each ? costing taxpayers SI.5 billion. A Japanese-American group has taken anothi action ? filing suit for S25 billion in damages fc the surviving victims. The Japanese Americans were not the first to t oppressed, nor, unfortunately, will they be the las ! rvnn ranollc tVlfi truroil nf flip mar Ill I til l inv. n uvan v/1 in*- lyiuv. Americans and the American Indians. The reign c the ku Klux Klan and the tragedy at Wounde Knee remain a blight in American history. Few people, however, realize the heartbreak < the Japanese Americans. The Nisei evacuation ai Manzanar are relatively unheard of. Students are taught about the Holocaust ai tested on Auchwitz. But most people fail remember the same thing ? although not as sev< ? happened in America, "land of the free." The commission's request is a step in the rig ,]: : uii iruuun. But how can money repay the stripped dignity those imprisoned? How can an apology replace 1 broken homes of people? Compensation and saying "We e sorry" is i enough. t? -Gamecock I Editor in Chief Johnny Boggs Copy Desk Chief Curt Cottle Copy Editor Allison S News Editor John Vaughan Asst. News Editor Susan Muir General Manager Ron Ei Sports Editor Sammy Fretwell Ad Manager Linda S. Ha Wire Editor Leslie Katz Business Manager ... Jean Hat< Opinion Page Editor ... Janet Edens Production Mgr Mark McE Photo Editor Dave Grimley Graduate Asst Wanda M. Copy Editor Leigh Jones Adviser Mark Ethridgi f Newsroom 777-7181 Advertising 7774 Business Office 777-3888 Production 777-2 The Gamecock welcomes letters and guest editorials. All letters and g editorials must be typewritten, triple spaced on a 85-spsce line. Letters should he no longer than 300 words and guest editorials should be lin I I ? to one newsworthy subject no longer than tour typeo pages, lbuuis anu i editorials MUST be signed with the writer's name, telephone number, mailin) dress, class standing or faculty position and major. Pseudonyms are unaccept but the writer's name may be withheld upon request if the circumstances war We reserve the right to edit guest editorials and letters. Address letters and columns to: Opinion Page Editor, Gamecock, Drawer A, Columbia, S.C. 29208. ! I f ll T Jetters e : II Q inirniuPiTiP WBWH III K Ui w VP* w Eduor: e In response to the letter "El ci Salvador shouldn't become Vietnam , II" (June 22), this person said President Reagan is seemingly trying to get 1 vis involved in C entral America. He or e she warns of another Vietman. This K) person seems to know all about El Salvador. Is the U.S. again supporting e a military dictatorship and fighting ^ against the poor peasant?This person saici our iear 01 communism ib prehistoric and doesn't threaten our way of life. Marxist propaganaa. ^ We are, like it or not, involved in Central America ? part ot our * hemisphere, part ot our problem. Tor it communist ideology spreads to even id our southern borders, it, like cancer, would be very hard to stop. It is a con f flict of ideologies; communism chains all people to the state to which they "id belong. The people have no voice in the affairs of that state. The state "cares" for the people (like a zoo). The communist point of to " Conflict in El 2 Editor: The Gamecock published an interestii of issue. The letter was also misinformed tion in Central America. President Reagan is not trying to j Salvador. He is trying to prevent an ov< lot ment. The difference between the two The first statement implies we have a t ready to interdict troops at the first threat. The second statement implies th I terl to nrpvpntino a mmmunict (oIpaup A second fallacy of the letter is its < named military personnel ready to stori say I've heard such reports, but recentl; in the Wall Street Journal that asserts t tein the country do not want to become inv in El Salvador. nler A third fallacy of the letter is its invol ines of Vietnam." Conservatives and libe -hell differently. wan Conservatives will tell you if you're g Hite in, blow the hell out of the enemy and r .lr i :i i i a.. ? _c lauciao miu inc wrucr ui me icuei not to get involved in someone else's \ If there is "a lesson of Vietnam," it middle of these two extremes, and wh cannot be blithely transferred to the si A fourth fallacy of the letter is the mest Latin America has not improved un communism is the answer. To begin ftitoH /aC itr hicfArw Kac Kaaii r\r\r\r """" I U1 1IIU31 V.7 1 113 III.->IV'I y , IIUD l>k/VII luest capitalism and has just recently begur 3 " The ills of this oppression have indi 8ble' problems that have led to the prcser rant' unrest was aimed at improving life, i use I bac1' But 's not' A *??k at Lat'n ^ ' I As for our fears of communism beir I nient is only partiality correct. While _ CFQDDBSICM1BLH ^ WSTItOTMlP KmremrrumtcBrr ii\ i ivmy "ii V IMIA K QN&,A?msra h wis? nt in Centrai Ar \rioii' ic tnrpQrl at thf nrwnf r\t a V IV v* lo opi VUU VHIVIIJ Ul H?v J/Viiii V/I V* gun (lalk to the people of Syria, etc.). El Salvador is not Vietnam. Vietnam was more than 6,000 miles away; this tinv nation is about 1,000 miles from Texas. The Marxists will never go for tree elections in El Salvador (they would never win). Instead they threatened to kill anyone voting in the recent democratic elections. Although not as polished as our political system, El Salvador is, except for Costa Rica, the most democratic nation in Central America. As for a "prehistoric" fear of communism, Stalin had millions of his own people murdered; Mao Tse Tung murdered more than 100 million Chinese who opposed his Marxist viewpoint. Recently, the spokesman tot the group in El Salvador that claimed responsibility for the murder of a U.S security agent was in this country drumming up condemnation for the government in El Salvador. He should Salvador not an rorists or commum ng letter in last week's Moscow, the Sovi and misread the situa- share of trouble. Cuba is one exa get us involved- in El another example, erthrow of the govern- nent also. Bulga statements is crucial. pope's life, and E )lood-thirstv nresident knowledge of Moj sign of a communist Also, a little p\ le president is commit- detailed links bet r of Central America. And if anyone s allusion to certain un- world, one need 01 m El Salvador. I can't ty was smashed in y I have read an article This evidence e he top military men in events in Central olved in a guerilla war problems there re< United States was king the sacred "lesson before acting. :rals invoke the lesson The past, howe military and econ ;oing to fight a war, get Central America I get out which HI Salvado say Vietnam taught us If the United S var. in Central Ameri< falls somewhere in the improving the qu atever that lesson is, it El Salvador d ^ii Im, T? 1 J rAnrocntA r tnKrtf V luauuii 111 ci omvauor. ivpivawma wnai 11 implication that, since region. The Unit ider capitalism, maybe when ihere is troi with, Central America, the time to fix th essed by other people's In El Salvador, i developing. late to stop it. ] eed caused many of the ciepencis on trie a it unrest. And if that like the commerc inrest wouldn't be that can pay me later America shows this. ig prehistoric, the stateevery single act by ter n.wmiz : shone J'fl Tnr /"I?n M IHtUJifc. aYOHt W f TheLimW^ \SOTW J nerica needed have been arrested and tried for accessory to jnurder. The biggest mistake we made aboui Vietnam was not that we had no business fighting there, rather that we fought under restraint and with rules. In war there are no rules. If we act passively and deny aid to a people who are fighting tor dignity and freedom, how can we call ourselves free? The government in El Salvador is far from perfect, and the changes will take years to formulate, but Marxist warriors should not be allowed to dictate the type of government the people should have a: the barrel of a Sovietmade rifle. TKn ii;nrrnnn 10 /^!anr A i lit wai iiiu^; to ciccu , niiivi iv-a. wv/ something now to stop Marxist murderers, or you may have to do something much more 10 years from now ? you and your children. David Healy Maintenance department other Vietnam ist organizations may not be coordinated by iet government still manages to cause its mple. Arming the rebels in El Salvador is There are other examples outside our contiria was implicated in the attempt on the Bulgaria could not have acted without the >COW. lblicized report by the Italian government ween world-wide terrorism and Moscow. till doubts the control Moscow asserts in the ily look at the swiftness with which Solidarii Poland. sxposes the last fallacy of the letter. The America do threaten our way of life. The quire more than military assistance, and the wrong to let the conditions fester so long ver, cannot be changed. El Salvador needs omic aid if it is to survive. Other parts of need econnmir aid tr? avoir! thr trouble in r finds itself. tates is to avoid direct military involvement :a, it must undertake a program designed at ality of life in Central America. loes not represent another Vietnam. It las been wrong with U.S. policy toward the ed States pays attention to Central America lble. The U.S. government should learn that ings is before a crisis happens. , it is too late to prevent the crisis but not too r? . a 1 a. _ r ^ i * . r i rur uie rest 01 central America, tne iuiure ttitude of the United States. The situation is ial that says, "You can pay me now, or you * ? Chris Handal English/Journalism senior