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American Japanese were interned during WW2 because they were considered, mostly wrongly as it turned out, a security risk. Japanese had a reputation for being loyal to their native country and it was known that they Kempeitai operated among Japanese abroad. In reality, the great majority of Japanese Americans remained loyal to their host country. Probably racial prejudice played a role, but it was war and the Japanese Empire had launched a surprise attack against the US. Had Italy or Germany done the same, it's likely that their communities would have been treated more harshly. During WWI for instance there was a lot of anti-Germanism towards the German-American community. Many German-Americans even anglicized their surnames to escape persecution, despite the fact that even today they remain the biggest ethnic group in the US: https://www.johnheinl.net/LHserver/JP-german61001.htm
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