Why Rationale Matters

Many of the worst atrocities committed in history were committed during World War II. Most of these were committed because of the racial aspects of war. If a group of people were seen as less than you, less than human, and not worth taking up space and air in the world we live in. The Nazi’s had no problem killing over six million Jews and Gypsy’s and other people seen unfit to live. Not only were they content with killing them, they were content with the torture that took place before hand. Many people were worked to death, starved to death, while others had diseases that were left untreated. Dr. Mengele and other scientists held experiments on people, simply because they could. Dying bodies were left in the open and not cared for while others had to go on with the stench and the thought that they could be next. Yet they were able to rationalize this to the German public because of the anti-Semitism and the need to clear space for the Aryan race. The Japanese also raped and killed over 250,000 people who had seemingly surrendered at Nanking. Through the rest of the war in the pacific, the Japanese had no problem killing prisoners because they were of a lesser race. If that wasn’t enough, they were known for the practice of cutting of male genitals and other body parts as trophies. The rationalized this because of their nationalism and racial ideologies. It is known that the Americans were less than perfect in their actions against the Japanese in the pacific, however that was after witnessing the things that had been done to their fellow soldiers, their friends, and their brothers. This was a war that brought the worst out of men, but the actions of people in the heat of battle can always be rationalized to some extent. The anger and pain of seeing your friends die brought out a side that the soldiers didn’t even know they had in them. On the home front they had to protect their people, and rationalize it the best way they could.

            America faced a dilemma. Not long after the attacks on Pearl Harbor there American government and civilians began to believe that Japanese people on the islands had played a part in planning the attacks. How else could the Japanese have known the precise locations of the ships and the airfields? They had to assume that people inside the country, especially those with strong ties to their homeland, might sabotage America anyway they can. The internment of Japanese Americans was a logical choice. As shown, while it was a larger portion of Japanese that were sent to camps, other groups such as Germans and Italians were sent to camps. As Franklin Roosevelt pointed out in the executive order, the purpose of the internment was means for protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense. The protection of the country comes first, even if it comes as an inconvenience to others, and when it comes time and the war has ended, the Japanese people will be able to live, hopefully, as they have before. The treatment and conditions displayed in most internment camps, and the allowing for arts, sports, paying jobs, and the attempt to create a routine lifestyle similar to their previous lives helped rationalize it to the American public, and perhaps, themselves. Had the treatment and the inhumane torture and punishment, the mass genocide, and the expulsion of an entire race from America taken place, many would like to believe that the American public would have never stood for it, and that the government would have never even allowed such and order to take place in the first part. However, because that wasn’t the case, the government had a much easier time rationalizing their choice as one of national security.