US detention of Latin-American Japanese during WWII (#338, Topic J)

Yesterday, Lunar New Year's Day was indeed a joyful one (#337); today, the second day of the Year of the Pig, began better than I had reason to expect but ended rather miserably. One of the problems of living in our retirement community is that we have only one indoor parking space; thus, my car is left outdoors. Ten days ago, I neglected to turn off the lights on my car; as a result, the battery went dead. It was jumped; according to AAA, it would be ok if I drove or kept the car running for 30 minutes. I did what I was told. But, when I tried to drive the car a few days later, perhaps due to the single-digit temperature, the battery was dead again. So, I made arrangements to have my car serviced, which is today. Little did I know that it is a holiday today; so, the traffic was light, and the AAA towing service, which was to come "in 90 minutes," actually showed up in less that 20! Reading Washington Post at the shop, I came across an ed-op piece by two California congressmen, one Democrat and the other Republican, entitled "Justice for the Forgotten Internees." According to the piece, "[an] estimated 2,300 people of Japanese descent from 13 Latin American countries ... were taken from their homes and forcibly transported to the Crystal City camp during World War II. The U.S. government orchestrated and financed the deportation of Japanese Latin Americans for use in prisoner-of-war exchanges with Japan. Eight hundred people were sent across the Pacific, while the remaining Japanese Latin Americans were held in camps without due process until after the war ended." Reading it, I was miserable. I asked myself: Were there international laws? Were these Latin American countries mere US colonies? Is this another example of "Do what I say, don't do what I do"? Perhaps one is not supposed to remember events taking place more than half a century ago? While I deeply detest what the Japanese militarists did to people of Chinese ethnicity before and during WWII, as a fellow Asian-American, I empathize with these Japanese-Americans -- and now Latin-American Japanese. Indeed, I could only shake my head while reading this piece. Luckily, shortly thereafter, my car was serviced and ready to go. The shop being a favorite place for me to visit (we became friends rather than customers; indeed, for this visit, my wife made more than 2 dozen Chinese snacks, each in the shape of a gold nugget to celebrate the Lunar New Year, for the owner and his staff), I got off rather lightly. As to the battery, even though it was completely my fault, I was not charged (the battery is still under warranty). So, half wary and half happy, I drove home in time for lunch.