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Death Valley National Park Joins Resistance And Starts Tweeting About Japanese-American Internment Camps
The revolution will definitely be tweeted. On Wednesday morning—a day after the official Twitter account for Badlands National Park went rogue and started dropping actual scientific facts—it seems that Death Valley National Park has joined the resistance.
At 7:09 a.m. this morning, the national park's account started talking about World War II-era internment camps:
They followed that tweet up with a Dorothea Lange photo of influential former Rafu Shimpo newspaper editor Togo Tanaka, who helped chronicle Japanese-American internment. The photo was paired with a quote from Tanaka that ran in a March 13, 1942 Rafu Shimpo editorial.
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We presume the tweets won't last long, so we've included them all as screenshots, as opposed to embedded tweets.
A quick refresher for anyone who hasn't been paying attention: back in November a high-profile surrogate for President Donald Trump actually said that World War II-era Japanese-American internment camps could be seen as a “precedent” for the potential creation of a Muslim immigrant registry. This is despite the, um, slightly awkward fact that the U.S.'s Japanese-American internment camps are pretty much universally considered a black mark on our country's history. In fact, it was no less a conservative icon than Ronald Reagan who signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which issued a formal apology to the more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated, and paid out $20,000 in compensation to all surviving victims.
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But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
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