The United States is slow to realize a great deal of things. I believe it took 40 years to apologize for the internment of Japanese Americans for a few reasons. First, the United States government wanted to "act" like the internment wasn't as serious as it was and that it was done for the sake national security. People today forget how serious World War II was and how it impacted every aspect of life for practically the entire world. The Japanese and the Germans were seen by many as the greatest evil in modern times. Furthermore, after the attack on Pearl Harbor the US Government and the public were terrified and angry at the Japanese. The United States Government simply thought that the internment of Japanese Americans was the correct move to prevent further bloodshed on american soil. Second, there was a huge propaganda campaign in support of the Japanese Interment and thus caused a great deal of americans to believe it was justified. Since the public believed it was some what justified, the internment was pushed to the side and not recognize until the wave of patriotism that was brought out by WWII died down. With the Civil Rights Movement as well as the hatred of the Vietnam War, the time was right in the 1970s to push for an actual apology from the United State Government for the Internment.