The principles found in the Declaration of Independence have been what has united the disparate cultures and ethnicities that make up the United States of America. Racial prejudice, war hysteria, and political opportunism have attempted at times to smother these principles. Such a time occurred during World War II when the Japanese Americans were interned. But, those in the academic community, the church communities, and the Nisei themselves ensured that the democratic principles of the Declaration would ultimately triumph
