Defending repression: why are conservatives trying to rehabilitate McCarthyism and the Japanese internment? From: Reason | Date: November 1, 2004| Author: Young, Cathy | COPYRIGHT 2004 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

DURING WORLD WAR II, the U.S. government interned about 120,000 ethnic Japanese living in America, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. This is almost universally regarded as a shameful blot on America's history, a cautionary tale of racism, paranoia, and wartime hysteria. In 1988 President Reagan called it "a grave wrong" and signed legislation authorizing $20,000 in reparations to each surviving internee.

In 2000 another eminent conservative, Supreme Court Justice An...