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Repealing the Chinese Exclusion Act
Digital History ID 47


Date:1944

Annotation: In 1944, an American of Indian ancestry argued that if World War II was to truly be seen as a war against the racist doctrines of the Nazis, it was essential that the United States treat its own minorities more fairly.


Document: Today, more than ever, the United States is vitally interested in attitudes of Asiatic peoples toward this country. Hitler’s justification of Nazi oppression in Europe is supposedly based on the right of the mythically superior Nordic to superimpose his Kultur on the other so-called inferior peoples of Europe. If the United States is successfully to combat such dangerous ideas, it can ill afford to practice racial discrimination in its relations with Asiatic countries. The immigration policy of this country now excludes nearly a quarter of the human race. America cannot afford to say that she wants the people of India to fight on her side and at the same time maintain that she will not have them among her immigrant groups.

Source: S. Chandrasekhar, “Indian Immigration in America,” Far Eastern Survey, July 26, 1944, 142-43.

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