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Ruth Lee, a Chinese-American woman, flying the flag of China while at the beach to avoid being mistaken for Japanese, Miami, USA, WW2, December 15, 1941
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this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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For what it's worth, based on the research of Tetsuden Kashima, the total numbers of ethnic internments during WW2 breakdown to: Japanese: 17,477 German: 11,507 Italian: 2,730 Other: 185 Total: 31,899 (up from the Justice Department's official count of 31,275)
source
Additionally, while mass internment of citizens with German heritage was considered, at least in coastal and high security areas, it was determined not to be practical. While that could very well have been true, Reagan (of all people) codified the actual reason into law when he signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which explicitly lists the rationale for Japanese American internment as "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership".