Today is the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, issued on February 19, 1942, which allowed the U.S. government to inter Japanese-Americans, German-Americans and Italian-Americans in camps for the duration of the war. Around 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were removed from their West Coast homes and taken to internment camps.
The above government newsreel was made in 1943. At the National Archives' Unwritten Record Blog, you can read about the internment project and see an 18-minute 1944 color documentary.
At The New Yorker, you can see Bill Manbo's rare color photographs of his internment camp.
At NPR's Code Switch, you can see photographs of the internment from three different photographers which very different agendas: Dorothea Lange, who wanted to convey the unfairness of the order; Ansel Adams, who depicted the internees as patriotic and cooperative volunteers; and Toyo Miyatake, who was himself an internee. -via Metafilter
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"Quite a few discarded their weapons and gestured to us to throw the fish. The women came out of the shade to watch our antics... A few men came and picked up the fish. They appeared to be gratified, but there did not seem to be much softening to their hostile attitude... They all began shouting some incomprehensible words. We shouted back and gestured to indicate that we wanted to be friends. The tension did not ease. At this moment, a strange thing happened — a woman paired off with a warrior and sat on the sand in a passionate embrace. This act was being repeated by other women, each claiming a warrior for herself, a sort of community mating, as it were. Thus did the militant group diminish. This continued for quite some time and when the tempo of this frenzied dance of desire abated, the couples retired into the shade of the jungle. However, some warriors were still on guard. We got close to the shore and threw some more fish which were immediately retrieved by a few youngsters. It was well past noon and we headed back to the ship..."
There is a lot to be said about some of the other tribes on near by islands that are colonized. They have a mix of isolationism, but want their kids to use hospitals and schools on the island. And the government has been cracking down on "human safaris" by tourist groups at near by resorts.
With it now accessible due to the 2004 tsunami, I think we can assume they've searched the ship and are now basing their entire culture on some 1981 Hong Kong videotape...
Here's a direct Google Maps link to the location of the Primrose, for anyone interested: http://goo.gl/maps/Jkznr
The Anthropological museum in Port Blair houses photographs of the tribal people. I was also fortunate enough to see 2 tribal teenagers closely on my visit to one of the islands.