Review of Rachel Maddow’s Podcast Burn Order Rating *****
You know you are in good hands when you listen to a Rachel Maddow podcast. There is always a perfect balance of archival material, interviews, and commentary from Rachel to help bring a story to life. Burn Order is no exception. This six-episode podcast series walks the listener through the tragic decision of the US Government to round up Japanese citizens living in the U.S. and interning them until the end of the war.
The story has elements of racism, conspiracy theories, a government coverup, and ultimately denial by some of those involved. What happened in early 1942, after Pearl Harbor, is not dissimilar to what we see today with stories involving racism. There is an inciting incident involving an immigrant or someone with ties to a foreign country and the result is to paint an entire population with the same brush of discrimination.
I knew parts of this story going in, but I also learned a few things. I did not know that the majority of the Japanese citizens rounded up were mostly on the west coast. I thought it was nationwide. I was also disheartened but not totally surprised to learn of the many white Americans who were more than willing to take advantage of the land and businesses left vacant by those serving time in internment camps.
Defenders of the policy will cite that, unlike the concentration camps in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere, no one was killed during the internment. Still, people’s liberty was taken, families were separated, and an entire population was discriminated against based solely on race.
One of the more interesting aspects of the story told here is the serendipity of how the whole thing unraveled. It may have been decades after the fact, but the truth ultimately prevailed. In a rare government apology, President Ronald Regan formerly apologized for what had occurred and offered compensation for those who had been harmed.