Chuck Gould wrote:

Most of the world remains highly racist. I don't think the Japanese
had any unique claim in that category. Many of our official government
policies during the war (such as the internment) don't make any sense
in retrospect unless viewed through the lens of racism. While American
citizens of Japanese ancestry were in prison camps in the Rockies and
the midwest, the farms, homes, factories, fishing boats, and small
businesses they owned were confiscated by tax authorities. (Pretty
hard to pay taxes on the farm when you're not allowed to work it.) It
was considered shrewd business at the time to buy up property
"confiscated from the Japs", and most of the internees had to start
over again, completely from scratch, after they were released. Once
again, Americans whose ancestry was German or Italian were not subject
to the same treatment- at least they "looked like real Americans."

As racist as some Americans remain, I think that in general the
mixture of cultures and races in the US has done much to reduce
racism. As a society we are probably more inclusive than most, but we
still have a ways to go and some of the individual exceptions are
almost Neanderthalic.

There was even talk of internment camps in WW1 which would of course
been disasterous.

My great uncle Fritz Schnautz , was a second generation immigrant
from Germany and could speak German and English very fluentl. From
what I gather, his service was invaluable in many case's as an
interpreter.

Same with my Uncle Geo. Lichner in WWII, He was raised in Chicago and
only had a 6th grade education, but in service in Germany and Italy,
he was put in the I-Corps, and used as in interpreter, because being
raised in the melting pot of Chicago, he could speak and make his way
though centeral european languages including most
slavic dilects, because of his Bohemian background.