Both in the 1940s and today, the perception of the United States under the pervasive danger of enemies operating against the U.S. people, their institutions, institutions and way of life have thrown the population into an unfunded psicosis necessitating the people and the government to take positive action about it.
As war broke out between the United States and the Empire of Japan, the sense of being defenseless because of the great loss in human loves and material assets was used as a justification for many U.S. citizens to verbally and physically attack the <em>Nisei, </em>this, the U.S. born Japanese people and the Japan-born people even more. The ensuing paranoia portrayed these people as some kind of clever yet evil agents of a Japanese plan to take over the U.S. by sending people to settle in the country decades in advance. The fact that many U.S. citizens from all age groups had been living and even stretching ties with the Japanese-descent people nearly meant nothing overnight as words of the war spread. In time, the Nisei would prove as patriotic as or even more than any other U.S. citizen from other ethnic backgrounds. A proof of the Nisei's steadfastness, discipline, loyalty and courage defending and even dying for their country, the United States of America, was their distinguished service in the most decorated U.S. Army unit of World War II, the 442nd Nisei Regiment, fighting in Italy.
Nearly 60 years later, as a result of the 9/11 Terrorist Attack in New York, the psicosis and paranoia spread across the U.S. population, this time, against Muslims. Just like the Nisei, Muslim people had been coming to and settling in the United States, making important economic and cultural contributions to the country. Even though most U.S. people had no idea what Islam, their religion, was all about, peaceful co-existence and even friendship relationships thrived. But as the culprits of the infamous attack against the U.S. claimed to be driven by Islam, the despair, frustration, vengefulness and even hatred of the U.S. people for anything even remotely linked to Islam set in. Verbal and physical attacks against Muslims took place. Today, as key pieces of information have been disclosed, the animosity against Muslims has waned but not entirely disappear.
In both situations, a level-headed approach to each situation supported by unbiased and reliable information would have spared millions of people, making their best effort to fit in and make a contribution to U.S. society, the humiliation of being called traitors and so many other abuses, in many cases, violent, physical abuses.
