Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Don Keelan, a certified public accountant who lives in Arlington.
As Americans observe the 10th anniversary of 9/11, radio, TV, social and print media have been providing extensive coverage. The point of view of the coverage varies — interviews with first responders, President George W. Bush, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Gov. George Pataki, families of victims as well as many others.
As I witness the coverage, it is clear to me there continues to be the presence of Islamophobia. And if this is so, can we as Americans learn from the past — specifically, 1951, 10 years after another horrible first strike at America, at Pearl Harbor?
When one looks back 60 years, there are similarities to the events which took place then, throughout the world and in the United States, that are much in evidence in 2011.
Many Americans in 1951 did not understand why the United States was engaged in a war, the Korean War. In many quarters the war was believed to be the “Truman’s War” solely to redeem himself for the loss in 1949 of Mainland China to the Chinese communists. The war was also described by others, as a “Police Action.” One thing was certain. For a war-weary America, so soon after WWII, the Korean war was little talked about.
And not unlike his successor in office, 60 years later, in 1951 President Truman “fired” his field general, the legendary and much controversial World War II five-star general Douglas MacArthur.
President Truman had more than the war on the Korean peninsula to contend with; the Near East and Middle East were in crisis.
Tens of thousands of Iranians were jeering the corruption brought to their country by the U.S. and Great Britain. The British finally left the country and its Iranian oil refineries.
Massive strikes were occurring in Tunisia and in nearby Libya, where its people were seeking independence. Unrest in this part of the world only grew greater when a Middle East king was assassinated. And if all of this wasn’t unnerving enough for President Truman, his concern for the recently created State of Israel was shaken when he was told of the unrest that was beginning to unfold in Syria, Israel’s neighbor.
Difficult as it might have been in 1951 to re-establish geographic boundaries and install new heads of state, it was more difficult to overcome in America the continued resentment and distrust towards Japan and the Japanese people. This notwithstanding the fact that tens of thousands of Japanese and Japanese-Americans had been sent to “Relocation Camps” once FDR’s executive order was published, in February 1942. It would be years later before the American government accepted the wrong that had been done to Japanese-Americans.
The distrust and suspicion were still quite evident six years after the war’s end. In San Francisco, on Sept. 8, 1951, the peace treaty with Japan was signed by 50 countries. It was quite evident that before, during and after the signing, resentment among the signatory nations still lingered and not easily erased.
In 60 years since 1951, Americans have travelled a great distance in being a more inclusive society. It is manifested in so many areas — not present in 1951. Bias has been defeated in racial and sexual orientation, towards the physically and mentally challenged and among religious persuasions; there is no room for Islamophobia.
We can accomplish this despite the fact that we are constantly shocked by the likes of the Ft. Hood shooter, the Times Square bomber in New York and the two-dozen or so domestic terror plots on U.S. soil that have been foiled since 9/11.
The healing among Americans towards Japan and the Japanese people took many years if not several decades. The introduction of cultural exchanges, as well as trade between Japan and America, played a huge part in overcoming the deep intolerance — as did Japan’s adopting democracy as its form of government.
Ten years after another devastating attack on America, it is time to begin to discard any sense of Islamophobia, and, in attempting to do so, to take a page out of history. Hopefully, it will not take decades. If for no other reason, and what was not present in 1951, is the level of tolerance that we as Americans have embraced, as well as the ever-evolving Arab spring movement.
