Washington State in WWII: Decoy towns on a Boeing building, internment camps, and the B-29

On September 2nd, 1945 the United States and Japan signed the official treaty in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II. It was a war that would have a lasting impact on the whole country - positively and negatively.
We learned much about patriotism, selfless sacrifice, and coming together for the common good. But we also learned about racism, fear, and constitutional rights as the government put Japanese Americans in internment camps.
Historian Feliks Banel gave us a glimpse of the major role Washington State played in the war, from rations to air raids, fake cities to internment camps and all the B- 29's in between.
"The war was really a huge economic boost after 10 years of the Great Depression. It was pretty much full employment. Shipyards were building ships, of course, Boeing was famously building the B 17 bomber, which helped win the war in Europe and a big factory along the Duwamish River that very famously, didn't just have a regular roof. They put a little fake town on the roof of the factory to disguise it. So it was sort of overhead camouflage." (Feliks Banel, historian)
Densho, a Seattle website houses and makes accessible the oral histories and digital archives that chronicle Japanese American incarceration during World War Two. The project is designed to share and promote equity and justice.
"I think the big takeaway for World War II is you don't violate people's constitutional rights just because we're at war. You never sort of never crossed the line me that it's almost it's most important to observe the constitution when it's hardest to do so. Because all that stuff was eventually found to be wrong, the government was found to be an error and to be unconstitutionally rounding up American citizens for no other reason other than their ethnic background, and you just can't do that and still call yourself the United States of America." (Feliks Banel, historian)
RELATED: Kay Sakai Nakao, Bainbridge survivor of Bainbridge internment camp, dies at 100
Segment Producer Suzie Wiley. Watch New Day Northwest 11 AM weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.
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KING 5's New Day Northwest is Western Washington's only local daytime talk show. Watch it weekdays at 11 AM PST on KING 5 TV and streaming live on www.king5.com.
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[@orangeboy97]

How are you going to talk about wwii in Washington and not bring up the role Hanford played?

[@MsRain49]

What can we learn? Among other things, Question everything we are told by the media (aka propaganda), and our leaders in every sphere of influence. It's called critical thinking.

[@jlcop]

"They didn't treat the Germans that way" Well not exactly true. German and Italian nationals were also interned in camps back east. They were not American citizens like the nissi so it wasn't a violation of their rights nor racially motivated but they weren't left alone either.

[@RioGrandedoSuleiro]

they were not interned no where near the same numbers as Japanese Americans. It was racially motivated considering how racist and normalized the American mindset was at that time. Trying to minimize that showcases your fragility bud.

[@evelk5233]

That is not true

[@ganon01ryanoutsen92]

This where my dad works at Boeing

[@katherines6322]

Don't tell people on the internet stuff like that lol

[@williamcooper1023]

Why not?

[@katherines6322]

@@williamcooper1023 nvm lol I just thought with their prof pic and their statement it looked like a kid that got ahold of their parents ipad or something.

[@aceykrew]

@@katherines6322 you clearly don't know how HUGE boeing is. Being able to I guess stalk down any 1 individual would be pretty hard. Especially with generations of families working there at this point.

[@katherines6322]

@@aceykrew his last name is in the username. It's just good to remind kids to not share info like that is all. It's not that I think anything bad would come from this one comment. It's just a general internet safety rule that kids should try to follow.

[@AvernusCavernus]

pp