How can we use the past to improve the future? When reading the book, “They Called Us Enemy”, the book highlights Japanese Americans’ inhumane and unjust treatment during WWII. The author experienced the horrible treatment that faced Japanese Americans inside interim camps. Despite U.S. legislation apologizing for the inhumane treatment of Japanese Americans, Asian hate still continues today.

We as a society should become educated and understand the history and past of the process of discrimination. Once it is understood, horrible events could be prevented from happening again. We can also fight for our rights and raise awareness of the injustices that have been committed in the past. By recognizing the injustices of the past, we can prevent them from happening again. We can also use the past to predict the future and find signs of future injustices before they can occur. The past also provides us with knowledge and information about how to treat people right. We can also use the past to educate children about the dangers of discrimination and how discrimination against someone due to their race can lead to unnecessary hate and violence.

A modern example of this is the 9/11 attack as the current hate toward Muslims and Arabs parallels similarly to how Japanese Americans were seen as traitors. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 have been used to justify the unjust treatment of Muslims and Arabs just as Pearl Harbor was used as an excuse to force Japanese citizens into incarceration camps. We must learn from our past mistakes to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Our current hate toward Muslims and Arabs is unjust and we must fight against it.To end this, I firmly believe that we must learn from the past in order to improve the future. The hard times and struggles of the past have given us the knowledge and courage to do what’s right in the face of adversity. It is only by recognizing the past that we can build a better future.