Iraq war changes how students view internment, professor says

YOUNGSTOWN -- English professor Sherry Linkon told Youngstown State University colleagues of a change she has seen in her students.
When Linkon taught about World War II in the late 1990s, her students were "shocked and horrified" about the U.S. internment of Japanese immigrants, she said last week.
Since America's war with Iraq, their views have changed.
"When I taught it this last year, students were arguing why it was a good thing and an appropriate thing to do," said Linkon, who also coordinates American Studies at YSU and is a co-director of the Center for Working Class Studies.
"That's what war does," said Dr. Keith Lepak, an associate professor of political science.
Presentation
YSU faculty member Dr. Gail Y. Okawa presented her research on Japanese internment camps last week during a YSU Faculty Research Colloquium. During the discussion, she pointed to parallels between the World War II practice and the events surrounding the recent war in Iraq.
In the 1940s, Americans were unaware of the arrest and incarceration of Japanese immigrants.
Lepak said Okawa's research shows that the intelligence system during World War II was underdeveloped and overreaching, perhaps as it is today, he added.
There's still a set of prejudices in American culture that despite the country's diversity leaves some groups as targets for prejudice, added Paul Kobulnicky, executive director of YSU's Maag Library.
"We still have an incredibly Eurocentric culture," he said.