A dark night in a society that lost its mind

As a child I used to wet the bed at night - especially on those days I used to watch scary movies. I distinctly remember a black and white English movie that I was extremely disturbed. This was a movie in which normal people are shown to lose their mind suddenly and are driven to murder someone without realising what they are doing. After the incident, they seemed to have no recollection of it at all. It is later revealed that a villain is responsible for their behaviour. He would hypnotise the victims and drill the murder instruction into their subconscious mind. He would then give them a signal to trigger the action at a particular time of his choosing. There were different signals for different victims.

Although there are always such mystery stories that captivate the mind, often real life events seem much more dramatic and impactful. In reality, those subconscious directives are already etched deep into our minds wired in as deep-rooted hatred based on race, religion, religion, language, etc. When at a particular instance, with a click of a signal, the majority of the society seems to lose its balance. When such phobia is triggered in the minds of the majority, the opportunity to look at each other and correct is denied. Instead it becomes a mass hysteria that grows stronger with time.

There are many such incidents recorded in world history. No matter how much light is shed on such dark pages of history, it is never enough. It is necessary that more and more people are told about it and its evil, so that the evil does not spread further.

Sometimes specific incidents are not spoken enough and their pain and lessons are missed out. One such less documented incident is the violence perpetrated against American citizens of Japanese descent in the US at the end of World War II. Although it has been overshadowed by the spectre of the holocaust, the fact that this also went far along the trajectory of Jewish genocide and that it was committed by the "better" side that fought against the Nazis would all be important reason to talk about it.

In the wake of the Japanese Empire's sudden attacks on the United States, at the end of World War II, hatred and fear of American citizens of Japanese descent was instilled in the minds of most Americans. It is a shame that the actions of American society, which had lost its mind due to that poisonous effect, were no less than those of the Nazis themselves.


Suddenly, a nationwide hate campaign erupted. As an effect a giant throttle hold on their livelihood was felt by citizens of Japanese and Asian descent in the US. It eventually came to a stop at the doorstep of extreme brutality where the Japanese-Americans were being sent to American internment camps, similar to that of the Nazi concentration camps in all but name.

Thus, 1,20,000 American citizens were suddenly rounded up and imprisoned in those internment camps from 1942 to 1945, losing their homes, possessions, and livelihood. It became an indelible scar on that community.

Recently, I happened to read a book in the form of a graphic novel called, "They Called Us Enemy" as a collection of his personal life experiences from such camps, by a famous American actor named George Takei who was of Japanese descent and grew up as a child inside those camps.

It is a moving portrayal of how in a democracy, when a majority society loses its mind, its government also goes off wheels and as a result, a particular community is belittled and made to suffer. This is a book that showed that everything that happened in the country of the Nazis, such as barbed wire, isolation, hate propaganda, could also happen in a modern democracy like the US. I felt the impact of this is not just because it is the voice of a victim directly affected by the internment camp, but also because of the documented proofs that it is based on.

The struggle of those American citizens who were victims of majority hatred and who had fought democratically from within that barbed-wire fence ended in 1945. However, its pain and unhealed scar that it left in their minds stayed forever. This was evident when Tokei’s father, who firmly believed and committed to American democracy all along, had avoided the opportunity to meet and shake hands with Eleanor Roosevelt much later after his release.


Among the facts it presents, the most compelling one is how, in an advanced democratic system, over- ambitious and selfish individuals could derail the society. This is a lesson for all of us. Also, very importantly, its sequence of events show us that no issue can be seen in black and white in very simple terms without any nuance.

For example, Democratic party Senator Tom Stewart, who could be identified as liberal, and General John L DeWitt from the US Army, who could be considered neutral were the ones who expressed the most intense hatred towards the Japanese citizens. On the contrary, after their release, it was the Republican government led by President Ronald, which today is identified as the extreme right wing, that provided compensation for them, empathized with the victims and showed remorse and grief at the sequence of events.

For all those who routinely call out the US as an imperialist state also need to remember that in a democracy like India how people are branded anti-Indian, andolan jeevi etc., and are dealt with violently by the government. More than that, it is important to understand that American society continues to openly present & scrutinize the dark pages of its history and transparently record its lessons.

At the same time, this just does not justify the US actions in world politics. It is important to understand that there is a great difference between its domestic social structure Vs its selfish position & lengths with which it goes to secure its global objectives. I think we should understand that it has different facets externally and domestically. In fact this could apply to any country.

For example, a few years ago I had an opportunity to converse with a well-known left-wing union activist here. At that time I was in a job that needed me to travel frequently to China for business. Knowing about that, he spoke about China's glory and its prosperous state at the present, peppering it with my own observations. I agreed and at the same time, when I asked about the anti-people and the improper activities that I noticed about what it was doing with developing countries internationally, he simply brushed it away with a smile saying, "They are doing what is good for their country"

Finally, we need to always remember the words of President Obama quoted in the book.
“Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other. That my liberty depends on you being free, too. That history can’t be a sword to justify injustice, or a shield against progress, but must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past -- how to break the cycle.”