Czech President Petr Pavel has said that Russians living in Western countries should be “monitored” similar to the way people of Japanese descent were in the US during World War II.
“All Russians living in Western countries should be monitored much more than in the past because they are citizens of a nation that leads an aggressive war,” Pavel told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview published on Thursday.
“I can be sorry for these people, but at the same time when we look back, when the Second World War started, all the Japanese population living in the United States were under a strict monitoring regime as well,” he said. “That’s simply a cost of war.”
When asked what he meant by “monitoring,” Pavel said Russians should be “under the scrutiny of the security services.”
During World War II, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s orders, the US rounded up about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry and forcibly placed them in internment camps. The majority of the people were American citizens, and about half were children.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously called for the collective punishment of Russians for President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Last year, when asking Western nations to ban Russian travelers, Zelensky said the “whole population” of Russia was responsible for the war.
FDR’s internment camps were reprisals of Woodrow Wilson WW1 internment camps that locked up the Bosch and those evil isolationists.
Someone should tell Czech President Petr Pavel that we are ashamed of what we did to Japanese citizens in WW2.
At least some of us are.
Interest based liogic quickly overcones such sentimentality.
And paid reparations. Czechs better have deep pockets.
Of course he knows what is being implied here. Treating Russians as Jews in WWI, taking their property, incarcerating and monitoring.
Nothing new to European “values”!
The reparations were largely laughable and came too late for many of the internment camp victims. Eg. we took millions of dollars worth of California farmland, or homes in San Francisco, their cars, lives, careers, jailed them for years. And we paid them a measly ~$40,000 years after the fact. Still, it was a symbolic victory after being ignored for years by Congress and the courts. We should be deeply ashamed of this part of our history, but probably less than half of kids go through high school even learned about it.
I’m still waiting for reparations for Native Americans and descendants of the slaves on whose backs this country was built as well.
George Takei ( who played Sulu on “Star Trek”) had a story to tell about his time in an internment camp as a child.
Yes, symbolic — but admission of wrongdoing. And hopefully such abuses could not occur again. But one never knows. Woke society is amazingly capable of redefining right and wrong, and passionatelly defending Nazi-controlled Ukraine. We can cry over the sad fate of our selected pets, and remain stone cold over the sad fate of others. A perfect atmosphere for an emotional appeal to punish undesirable untermenchen.
Not even remotely close to what Petr Pavel actually said or implied:
https://www.politico.eu/article/petr-pavel-russia-czech-republic-surveillance/
Thus he actually made it quite clear that although he used the Japanese in the US during WWII – he was not suggesting internment. And where did Jews in WWI, have their property taken and were incarcerated?
After WW2, the Czechs did run the ethnic German out of the country, people who had lived among them for many generations. So, this thinking is not new, and we helped them do it last time.
No doubt, some Germans are also ashamed what Nazis have done to Jews though, it looks, they don’t represent the majority. Maybe, in US it is about the same.
Wasn’t our proudest moment, the key point is that those were Americans that were getting locked up. I think we should be booting out Russian students, Russian business people, Russian tourists. Non-immigrants.
“I think we should be booting out Russian students, Russian business people, Russian tourists. Non-immigrants.”
And this would be something we could be proud of?
Maybe not proud, but at least it would show some consistency – as this would penalize the kids of the Rich Russians who might otherwise feel that sanctions though a drag on their income is not a life changing thing.
So, it only applies to rich Russians then?
I’m fairly sure that the average Russian has a very hard time financing his kids to take an education in the US/UK or most other western countries.
So, just conjecture … very nice.
How is it that you call this conjecture – show me how a not rich Russian can afford sending his kids to study in the west – ffs!
I can do without that kind of “consistency”. Those kids don’t deserve punishment just because other kids were penalized by sanctions. It’s just more proof sanctions don’t work.
Actually I think I agree – and you’d be pleased tp hear it is not policy currently – by not punishing the kids of the very rich we entice them to integrate further with the west and to get to know our values better so that is a positive – they are you point out do not deserve punishment – they are so to say not guilty of the sins of their parents.
Finally it serves to drive the split in Russia even further when the poor can see that they suffer while the Rich can keep a lot of their privileges – so for I agree with you this consistency is likely to achieve the opposite of what the west would like.
And the Chinese next?
Both major universities in my state have very large numbers of Chinese students. I fear for their safety.
Zelensky has previously called for the collective punishment of Russians for President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
right then. one of Russia’s reasons for the invasion was because of Kiev’s uncalled for punishment of the Russian speaking peoples. you should have just left Crimea alone Zel.
The psychosis deepens, … down, down, down, … the stairway to hell.
Merely auditioning for his Anerican exceptional masters that have planted deep roots in Czechia.
Of course, we by now should know that shared “values” means shared INTERESTS. Universal values, such as justice and respect for human beings simply do not factor into shared interests.
Merely suggesting such actions that are unlawful under international law and every single EU country laws should land him in jail.
But of course not. Interests of exceptional come above everything!
According to what international law is it unlawful to keep foreign citizens under surveillance?
Just asking because I do not know of any EU law that makes such surveillance illegal – but then I’m not a lawyer so perhaps I have not been paying attention to when such laws were passed.
“”According to what international law is it unlawful to keep foreign citizens under surveillance?””
surveillance? the headline suggests that Russians should be interred like the Japanese in US were. that is a far cry from mere “surveillance”.
article’s headline = Russians in the West Should Be ‘Monitored’ Like Japanese Were in the US During WWII
Never trust a headline always check the source for what actually was said or happened.
He used the word monitored, he did specifically not use the put in internment wording so the start was:
https://www.politico.eu/article/petr-pavel-russia-czech-republic-surveillance/
Thus he actually made t quite clear that although he used the Japanese in the US during WWII – he was not suggesting internment.
yes it seems as if the Chek president did use the word “monitored” but he also said “like the Jap Americans were in WW2” – and we all know that “monitoring” was actual interment
The point being that when asked to be specific he said:
So nothing like the Japanese in the US during WWII, btw I am far form sure that the point that ‘we all know that “monitoring” was actual interment‘ extends to most Europeans – though I would like to think that the Czech president knows (I’m sure he does now).
“citizens of a nation that leads an aggressive war” …?! So Americans and Brits were/are being monitored for Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. etc. …?
I’m fairly sure that Americans and Brits were being monitored by Iraq and Syria when they were under attack – do you think they were not?
Is Czeckia under attack from Russia?
Yes in the sense that Czechia is being threatened just about every week on Russian State TV – and in that Czechia is supporting Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion – and remember a threat against one NATO member is seen as a threat against them all.
Disturbing conversation, but what else should we expect when we hear equally disturbing suggestions from members of the western mainstream media, such as Michael Rubin’s recent idea of supplying Ukraine with tactical nukes. What goes around comes around.
I was not arguing that this was in any way not to be expected – just pointing out that though we may not be at war we certainly are adversaries. I do not actually even have a problem with the Russians using this line since last March – it was as I would expect them to react on our decision to support the Ukrainians.
I am on the other hand disappointed by people like Michael Rubin – but then that is the price of not having state controlled media like in Russia.
I would also expect that westerners in Russia are likely to be under surveillance – would you not?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised by that. It seems like anymore almost all of us are under some level of surveillance. What surprises me, although maybe it shouldn’t, is that some political leader comes out and openly advocates for the surveillance of anyone of a certain nationality. Seems more like a provocation than a strategy.
I agree that is the part that surprises me too! Though if it is a provocation then it is a bit strange as the Russians probably already knows to what extent this is actually already policy.
It could also be that they are already doing it in Czechia and he knows that they are not doing it in e.g. Germany and he wants to apply pressure on the Germans to do so – but otherwise it looks a bit weird – he has just been elected so he probably does not need to send a signal to his own electorate, though they elected him as a be tough on the Russians so…
Japs in US were not only surveilled, they were imprisoned.
“Czech President Says Russians in the West Should Be ‘Monitored’ Like Japanese Were in the US During WWII – The US put about 120,000 people of Japanese descent in internment camps”
Perhaps America and England can setup concentrations camps with gas chambers to take their evil plans to a final solution. I am sure Joey Biden the senile angry old man would go along with that.
After eliminating Russians America can eliminate everyone from the Czech Republic and Poland. After that Germans and then the French.
Then the Anglo-Saxon world would be purified.
After all on this Animal Farm some animals are more equal.