Backlash cancels auction of Japanese internment camp items
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Protests by Japanese-American groups have led a US auction house to cancel a sale of 450 photos and artifacts from World War II internment camps.
The move comes after thousands of Japanese-Americans, advocacy groups and supporters posted their opposition to the sale on social media and the New Jersey auction house's Facebook page. "We know what the internment camps were," Rago Arts and Auction Center founding partner David Rago said Thursday. "We know that it was a disgraceful period in American history, but we did not understand the continued emotional impact embodied within the material. We just didn't get it." The collection includes artifacts and hundreds photos of people of Japanese descent who were imprisoned over fears they were spies. It also contains dozens of arts and crafts they made.
