“I just want it to go in the history books.”
Mary Boudukofsky, Aleut American internee.
Am watching this documentary on PBS right now (narrated by President Bartlet). I didn't know anything about this...
Aleut Story
In 1942, as World War II invaded Alaska, Aleut Americans were taken from their homes and removed to abysmal government camps 1,500 miles away... An estimated 10 percent of the men, women and children sent to the camps would die there—a death rate comparable to that suffered by Americans in foreign prisoner of war camps. As the Aleuts prayed for deliverance, "friendly forces" looted their homes and churches in the Aleutian and Pribilof islands.
Those who survived would fight for their rights... In a historic action, Aleuts joined Japanese Americans in seeking wartime reparations from the federal government.
Really, am quite sad I didn't know about this. Did you? I know about the Japanese-American internment and reparations, of course. I heard Barney Frank speak about that a few years ago, and I saw the exhibit that was at Ellis Island (which included info on other ethnic groups that were interned along with the JAs), but I don't remember any mention of the Aleuts...
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