Moral Preening Replaces Historical Fact

In 2015, reporters caught Trump off guard with a question about Japenese internment.  Why do I say he was caught off guard? His answer was the answer given by someone wants to remain neutral, and at the same time, score points and has no idea what you're talking about.  "I certainly hate the concept of it. But I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer.”, he said.

It's a terrible answer, honestly.  FDR and his cronies decided that the threat of Japanese invasion was too great to keep American citizens with Japenese ancestry free and ordered that any and all Japenese be placed in internment camps. They were given days, or even just hours, to gather the things they thought were most valuable, before being taken to temporary camps before finally being transported to the more permanent internment camps that were poorly and hastily built.

This was an unconstitutional order, like many others under the FDR administration.  They had their businesses stolen from them, their possessions given to others, and uprooted from their lives.  While at the camps, they tried to keep living life in the crappy conditions, getting married, having kids, continuing to contribute to society.  It took 40+ years for an official US Government apology, by a Republican, Ronald Reagan, along with a financial reparation.

Remember when I said they were American citizens?  The men were still required to register for the draft and serve in the military (in Europe, of course) even though they'd had their rights and lives violated by a President who didn't care about the Constitution.  Some of them refused, and were jailed.

Now, why am I bringing this up?

There's a young woman in Hawaii, Beth Fukumoto, who has used Trump's answer as part of her reason for joining the Democrats.  She was the House Minority Leader for the Republican Party in Hawaii, and when she got ousted, she switched parties.

"This election, I saw members of my party marginalizing and condemning minorities, ethnic or otherwise, and making demeaning comments towards women," Fukumoto wrote in her letter. "So, when I listened as our now top office holder refused to condemn the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, speaking out didn't seem like a choice."

Instead of trying to meet with him and fill him in on something he's clueless about, she is leaving the Republican party to join the party responsible for placing Japenese Americans into internment.  That is a serious case of cognitive dissonance, and a lack of historical knowledge.  I'm guessing her losing her position has more to do with it than what Trump clumsily said, or she'd have NOT joined the party responsible for placing them in the internment camps to begin with, that also started a war to keep slaves, voted against desegregation, voted against ending Jim Crow, broke treaties with Indians and forced them to travel the Trail of Tears, supported racist eugenics via abortion.

Not one of these things has the Democratic Party apologized for.  They just try to shift the blame to Republicans, and move on, so spare us the sanctimonious BS. 

If you want more information about Japenese internment, here are a few resources:
The Densho Encyclopedia
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center