Ben by Daniel Shelton for May 06, 2022

That last panel sent a chill through my body. Literally. So sad.

My heart….

This is a most wonderful, informative story … sad and gently told (to a three year old). I went looking for some info about Daniel Shelton and this strip. It is a reprint of a story he wrote in 2001 in response to the 9/11 bombings. In its last strip you’ll notice there are only two grandchildren of Ben’s 4 in an airport scene … giving a bit of info about the strip’s characters “aging” line. Thanks to Shelton for the story and the thought at the end. We need it right now. http://www.bencomicstrip.com/japanese-internment-camp/

My sister-in-law’s Japanese-American parents were interred in Washington state – home and business confiscated – and are now 99 years old in Chicago.

Peoples feelings and prejudices from the war years are mixed up and strange to me. My parents absolutely hated and never forgave the Japanese because of Pearl Harbor. Dad served as a naval officer in the Pacific during the war and flew missions over Japan. After the surrender and during the occupation he was billeted with a Japanese family headed by a IJN Officer. He often said how nice, polite, and respectful they were. Yet when I bought a Japanese car in 1991 he was more than upset. 20 years earlier he had purchased a German car with no outward regrets even though his brother in law (my uncle) had two brothers killed by the Germans during the war. Wounds take a long time to heal and sometimes a generation has to pass away before poison is diluted. But mankind being what they are seem to always be adding new reasons for hate.

A sad part of our history in so many ways.

Very sad. A part of Canadian life that the government tried to sweep under the rug, just as they did in many other countries, the USA included.

This arc brings tears to my eyes.

This was a well-written & illustrated comic strip arc that told a difficult story.

I’m crying now. Man’s inhumanity towards man is the most heinous act ever.

This arc is pretty heart wrenching :-(

May this arc rest in peace.

Pearl

Stories like those about the American and Canadian internment camps for their citizens of Japanese descent must be told—the same goes for the concentration camps’ stories. Younger generations need to know what happened, so it never happens again. When you forget history, you repeat it. Ergo: USA 2017-21!

Now I’ll have to do some research. Did very many Japanese in the US and Canada go to Japan after the war? Just older ones who were born there? I can’t imagine they would have been greeted with open arms in the war-devastated country.

A very sad time in the history of the world. Dictators were ruling in Germany, Italy and Japan. The anger toward the Japanese was stroger because of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I was born shortly before Pearl Harbor and grew up in the post-war 40’s and 50’s. I met a man who survived the Bataan death march. He had an unconsolable hatred of the Japanese and everything Japan produced. Unless we were old enough to remember the war, we have a totally different viewpoint. We learned in school about the events leading up to WWII and the interment camps. We were taught about the reason for the camps, but never the impact on the Japanese-American citizens. We also learned of the many Japanese-Americans who served and died along with others during the war. History has proven over and over again how one man or a group of men can throw the entire world into devastation.

I had no idea that Canada also had internment camps. Very Sad indeed.

I’m just reading about the eugenics movement in America (we had it in Canada too) Disgusting stuff, widely supported. Even worse than the treatment of the Japanese, and it was used to “justify” the Nazi death camps in WWII.

Emotional ending here. WWII was horrible and just a brutal as past wars and the wars that came after WWII. Many lives lost in battle as well as lives changed forever. These people should never be forgotten.

Quite a few high-ranking Japanese officials opposed bombing Pearl Harbor. Imperial Japanese Army General Shizuichi Tanaka was one of the most vocal. He had served as an attaché in Washington and was familiar enough with the US military to know Japan would lose the war. When Emperor Hirohito agreed to surrender, Tanaka was approached to take part on a coup to overthrow the government and continue the war. Wisely, he refused. On August 24th, 1945, after stopping the coup and allowing the war to end, Tanaka took his own life on behalf of the men who served beneath him.