A Touchstone of democracy : The Japanese in America

A TOUCHSTONE OF DEMOCRACY

The Japanese In America

A TOUCHSTONE OF DEMOCRACY
The Japanese in America

CONTENTS

The End at Santa Maria, by Clarence Gillett . . 4
A Touchstone of Democracy, by John C. Bennett 1

The Drama of Japanese Evacuation, by Galen

The Japanese-American Situation in Our East-

Japanese-American Students, by Joseph Conard . 34

John C. Bennett, Professor at Pacific School of Religion, is a
member of the Executive Committee for Work with Japanese
Evacuees of the Congregational Christian Churches. Joseph Conard
is Western Secretary of the National Student Relocation Council.
Galen Fisher is Vice-Chairman of the Western Area Protestant
Church Commission for Wartime Japanese Service. Charles Igle-
liart IS Consultant on Far Eastern affairs for the International
Missionary Council, New York.

Third printing, June, 1943- Prices: 1-9 copies, 10c. each; 10-99
copies, 7c. each ; 100 or more copies, 6c. each.

Fisher

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WHO'S WHO

In the winter and spring of 1942, the American Dream became the
American Nightmare to more than 100,000 people on the Pacific Coast —
people of Japanese ancestry of whom 70 per cent are citizens. They
were torn up by the roots from their homes and occupations and set
down in barren Relocation Centers, to be held behind barbed wire
until some permanent disposition could be made of them.

The evacuation was carried through by the Army with a minimum
of harshness. Its victims accepted the situation with remarkable sang-
froid. But what of the American Dream? The dream of a free nation
""with liberty and justice for all?" How can these Japanese Americans
be made to feel again that America is really a promise, not a betrayal ?

In the midst of a global war against fascism, our country is con-
fronted with a problem involving the threat of fascism in our own
midst. How may it be solved? What has Christian democracy to say?

— DwiGHT J. Bradley

October, 1942

Ji HIS is the problem. As a prominent Pacific Coast Editor says,
"'This is doing incalculable harm for winning the colored races to our
side." Here in America certainly it is having severe repercussions among
our own minorities and racial groups.

This pamphlet seeks to indicate facts behind this problem. No easy
solution can save us from a shortsighted policy. Any constructive policy
must have not only intelligent but active support. The fact is that we
have "Seventy thousand American Refugees — Made in U.S.A." Some
twelve thousand of these, after careful investigation, have been released.
They are scattered here and there, mostly in the Middle West, and are
striving to readjust themselves. They want to be considered and treated
as good Americans. The rest, including thousands of loyal immigrant
parents, are held in ten Relocation or Concentration Centers. It is our
responsibility as citizens to help them keep faith in democracy. It is the
responsibility of the Church to help them keep their faith in God.

— Clarence Gillett

June, 1943

THE END AT SANTA MARIA*

BY CLARENCE S. GILLETT

April 30th was the end. For weeks, even months it had been
known that the blow would fall. On that date all the fourteen
hundred Japanese-Americans and their parents had to be out
of the Santa Maria valley. Fertile farms and, for some, the
homes of forty years must be given up. Tears and regrets might
be held back in public and nonchalantly the whole exodus
passed off up to the very end.

But once loaded on the huge Greyhound buses that would
sweep them away from their homes, from the work of years,
and from "the tie that binds," there came to brave Japanese the
welcome relief of tears.

On Thursday evening before Easter — early so as to comply
with the military 8 o'clock curfew regulations — nearly sixty
members of the Japanese Union Church joined in the Fellow-
ship Supper and Communion, remembering Jesus in the upper
room before he and his disciples went out to the Mount of
Olives.

Other Sundays and more waiting followed. Household goods
were sorted and packed; a bare minimum of bedding and
clothes could be taken. Sunday and dress-up things were not
needed; in assembly and reception centers the dust and heat
would he too severe. The final Sunday, April 26th, came.

Should any Sunday service be held — would any have the
time and the heart to come? Yes, they would try. Thus, after
their separate group meetings, came the final twenty-minute
joint service in the simple but beautiful Japanese Union Church
sanctuary. It was their chapel — with the sacrifice and savings
of thirteen years they had created it — and now they were saying
farewell. Above the lighted cross on the altar in the chancel,

*Santa Maria is 75 miles north of Santa Barbara.

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Second and third generation Americans.

was the small round stained glass window of Jesus with a lamb
in his arms, still radiant in the spring twilight.

Their pastor, who thirteen years before had helped to start
the church, was away awaiting his own hearing. But he had not
forgotten. "I send my sincere greetings at your last service in
our own church. God bless you and protect you wherever you
go," his telegram said.

The leader of the service did not stand in the chancel; the
pastor was there in spirit and it was not fitting that anyone
should take his place. The eighty or more young people and
mothers sang a hymn, "How Firm a Foundation," and prayed,
"Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our feverish ways."
A few words by the leader — half looking up at that radiant
window — about seeing Jesus only, as the disciples had on the
Mount of Transfiguration, reminded them, as they left their

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church, that it was most fitting they should lift their eyes and
see Jesus only. Then a few words entrusting their church and
records to the pastor of the Nazarene congregation which is
to use their beloved church while they are away and his simple
heartfelt response. One stanza of the hymn, "Blest be the tie
that binds our hearts in Christian love," and then, "Lead on
O King Eternal, the day of march has come," and the benedic-
tion: "Now may the Love and Peace of God which passeth all
understanding and which the world cannot give and which the
world cannot take away, possess your hearts and minds now
and always."

But that was not the end. With damp eyes and choked throats
they silently slipped out. Then one old mother asked that the
lights be dimmed and that she be allowed to return alone to
kneel in farewell — beneath that window and before the lighted
cross. Probably she would never see it again.

Eight o'clock — curfew — and on Thursday four days later all
were gone!

Clarence S. Gillett has served for 20 years as an American
Board missionary in Japan. He is a graduate of Union Seminary
and received his doctorate in education from Columbia Uni-
versity. Mr. Gillett has been loaned by the American Board to
serve as Executive Secretary of the Congregational Christian
Committee for work with Japanese evacuees. This Committee
will be financed by the Committee for War Victims and Services
and will be administered by the Council for Social Action.

A TOUCHSTONE OF DEMOCRACY

BY JOHN c. BENNErrr

The fate of the Japanese who have been evacuated from the
West Coast will be a major test of the integrity of the Christian
churches and of the reality of American democracy. In these
days we are in the habit of thinking of scores of millions of
victims of the war who have experienced the worst in cruelty
and deprivation that our minds can imagine, and so it may seem
that we should not become too much concerned about a hundred
thousand people whose physical safety and economic security
are guaranteed by the United States government. But these
people, unlike the Poles and Chinese and others who have
suffered most acutely, are in a direct way our war victims. They
suffer from what we have done to them. Most of them are
American citizens who believed until a few months ago that
they had all of the civil rights that any American citizen takes
for granted. The discrimination against them is based upon a
different motive from that underlying the persecution of the
Jews by the Nazis and it is certainly not attended by acts of de-
liberate cruelty. But externally there are some painful re-
semblances between this American way of dealing with a racial
minority and the hated policies against which we believe that
we are fighting. Whether or not America is really guilty of
adding to its long-standing sin against the Negro because of
race, another equally flagrant sin against the Japanese because
of race depends upon what happens to the Japanese Americans
during the next twelve months. The Congregational Christian
Churches which have so fine a record in dealing with the Negro
problem once again have a chance to aid and protect a racial
minority.

It is easy to start an argument concerning the necessity of the
evacuation of all Japanese, aliens and citizens alike. The bene-
fit of the doubt should certainly be given to the motives of the
army in ordering the evacuation. Because of the long record

At the Santa Maria Japanese Union Church — On guard.

o£ doing everything too late that has had such tragic results
for the democracies, the civilian has little right to criticize the
army for acting on the basis of the worst possible contingencies.
Moreover, there is a case in favor of evacuation as the only sure
means of protecting the Japanese themselves from mob violence
if there should be raids upon our coast. We must distinguish
between the issue raised by the evacuation from coastal areas
and the question of future policy. Even if this evacuation was
necessary, it is still a very evil thing to deprive American citizens
of all of their liberties by administrative fiat, without due pro-
cess of law. Whatever is to be said about the government which
has adopted this policy with obvious reluctance, there is no
doubt that a large part of the public deserves condemnation
for accepting it with complacency and sometimes for advocating
it for selfish motives. Those who have emphasized the military
necessity of evacuation as a means of disposing of a minority
whose property they coveted or whose competition they sought
to remove are themselves the real enemies of America, not the

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Japanese against whom not one proved case of sabotage has
been reported here or in Hawaii. Those who say that the Jap-
anese Americans are not American citizens because Japan still
claims them as citizens threaten the citizenship of millions of
Americans of European ancestry as well. Those who say that
there is no reason to be disturbed about what is happening to
the Japanese because our own soldiers have no better conditions
in the camps than the Japanese have in the Assembly Centers
seem to forget that our soldiers do not have to watch their
families, perhaps their sick children, undergo unaccustomed
hardships.

A few days ago I visited one of the Assembly Centers where
there are several Japanese students from the Pacific School of
Religion. In that Center there are over eight thousand people.
They are kept as prisoners, however much that fact may be
disguised — prisoners who have committed no offence. The ex-
ternal conditions could be much worse than they are. Food and
sanitary arrangements — the worst features of some other Cen-
ters — are fairly good. There is no heat for the cool mornings
and evenings. What is really bad is the psychological situation.
This evacuation policy has falsely suggested to the public that
its hysterical suspicion of the Japanese Americans is true. This
has been a blow to their morale as Americans. The government
owes it to them to clear them of suspicion by setting up boards
that will pass on any doubtful cases. There is nothing for most
of the people in the Center, especially the older people, to do.
Everything is drab except the distant view. And there is no
hope. These people have left their homes with no prospect that
they can see now of having homes again in a normal com-
munity. Their next destination — a government settlement, per-
haps in Idaho — four or six months from now may prove to be
better but it too will be artificial and it will offer little to satisfy
the legitimate aspirations of the younger generation. It is not
the least humiliation that this Center is a race track where many
of the Japanese are lodged in horse stalls. Accommodations
have been hastily improvised but there is general testimony to

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the effect that in the various Centers they have been improved.
Even those who are most critical of all things military are im-
pressed by the fine spirit shown by the army in its relations with
the Japanese. The Federal government has been far ahead of
the public in its sensitivity to this human problem involved in
the evacuation.

Galen Fisher in his article will explain the plans of the gov-
ernment and the next steps which the public should make pos-
sible by its cooperation. The government has no desire to keep
the Japanese prisoners for the duration of the war. The fact
that they allow students, even alien students, to go East as free
men, even paying their Pullman fares, indicates that wherever
any responsible group or institution can guarantee the safety of
the Japanese the government is glad to have them go. The
only alternative to what I have called imprisonment or to what
at best would be a kind of protective segregation is the accept-
ance of Japanese Americans by normal American communities.
This pamphlet will make many suggestions on that point. If
the government fears that the Japanese will be made the victims
of war hysteria or race prejudice in communities in the Middle
West, there will be no choice but to keep them together where
they can be guarded by the army. If the evacuation of the Jap-
anese from the coastal areas was a military necessity it would
seem to be the duty of patriotic citizens to cooperate with the
government by receiving Japanese in their midst, particularly
the younger generation which can be easily assimilated. If the
evacuation was not a military necessity, it is even more the duty
of Americans to atone in whatever way they can for what must
be regarded as an outrageous act of injustice. Those of us who
know many of the younger generation of Japanese Americans
can assure all who have not had that privilege that if these
young people are given half a chance they will soon win the
confidence and friendship of those with whom they live and
work. The Colleges and Universities on the West Coast which
know Japanese students because tliey have had thousands of
them have shown by their efforts on their behalf that they be-

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lieve in them. This speaks well both for the institutions and for
the students.

This problem of the evacuation of the Japanese was primar-
ily the concern of the states on the West Coast. But it is now
primarily the concern of the states east of the Sierras. It is a
national problem with which our churches must deal on a
national scale. We still have a chance to prevent this evacua-
tion from inflicting lasting wounds upon many thousands of
young Americans. We still have a chance to prove that Amer-
ican citizenship means the possession of civil rights by all minor-
ities. We still have a chance to show by our actions that we do
not intend as a nation to increase the burden that the sin of
racial prejudice has imposed upon men.

THE DRAMA OF JAPANESE
EVACUATION

BY ,GALEN FISHER

PROLOGUE

Calling the Evacuation a "drama" is by no means a figure of
speech. It even falls naturally into five acts. The stage is vast —
a score of states. The cast of actors is immense: the hundred
thousand evacuees, the Army, the Relocation Authority, the
anti-Japanese agitators, the champions of constitutional rights,
the democrats and Christians who, with Bobby Burns and
Jesus, hold that, regardless of race of color, a "man's a man
for a' that," and the millions of citizens who seem to be mere
spectators, but whose attitudes may determine whether the
drama shall be tragedy or melodrama.

Some day a Victor Hugo, a Tolstoi, or a Steinbeck may weave
a notable historical novel out of it all. Longfellow's "Evange-
line" depicted the removal of 6,000 French Acadians; per-
chance another poet will make the removal of 100,000 Jap-
anese into an equally moving tale.

ACT 1. DRIVING FORCES

The impersonal fact is that during the winter and spring of
1942 some powerful social forces playing upon the Pacific
States of America resulted in the summary eviction of some
100,000 residents of Japanese lineage from the broad coastal
region known as Military Area No. 1. The military historian
might say that this unprecedented event in American history
was caused primarily by the fact of a two-ocean war, the West
Coast being thereby left in danger of a Japanese invasion,
in which fifth columnists might play a disastrous part.

The social historian might say that the evacuation was the
resultant of a complex of forces, — the vigilantism of the West,
the treachery of the Japanese Government, the unpreparedness

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of the American forces at Pearl Harbor and anti-Oriental
race prejudice, the present outburst being only the latest of the
eruptions that began seventy years ago.

A more systematic analysis might conclude that there were
five chief contributing factors:

1. The Pearl Harbor attack. Caught off guard by a com-
bination of the trickery of Japanese militarists and the unpre-
paredness of our complacent military forces, the whole Ameri-
can public, and especially those living on the exposed West
Coast, was seized with anger, chagrin and humiliation, which
it tended to vent against the resident Japanese, as scapegoats.

2. False charges of sabotage in Hawaii. Circumstantial
charges were made that Japanese-American citizens, some of
them in the armed forces, drove trucks into parked airplanes
and blocked the highways so that American officers could not
reach their posts after the attack. The Roberts Report mentions
espionage by Japanese agents, and there is no reason to doubt'
that it had been carried on extensively for years by them, as
by other nations, but it does not mention sabotage, the de-
tailed rumors of which did much to inflame public indigna-
tion. Even the chairman of the Congressional Committee In-
vestigating Defense Migration, Mr. Tolan, said during the
Hearing at San Francisco, on February 23, 1942: ". . . they
had probably the greatest, the most perfect system of espionage
and sabotage ever in the history of war, native-born Japanese.
On the only roadway to the shipping harbor there were hun-
dreds and hundreds of automobiles clogging the street. ..."
It was not until March that these wild rumors were officially
spiked. Then letters and sworn statements denying any sabo-
tage whatever in Hawaii were addressed to the Tolan Com-
mittee, by police and justice officials in Hawaii, and by Secre-
taries Knox and Stimson and an assistant to Attorney General
Biddle. It was these rumors circulating and expanding for
three months that fanned the flames of suspicion and hatred
of Japanese on the Coast.

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3. The fear of fifth column activity. Since the Japanese
fleet and air force had obviously long planned the attack on
Pearl Harbor, might they not have organized a formidable
fifth column corps along the West Coast in order to make
possible a similarly successful attack on its vulnerable mdus-
tries and utilities? (In fact, no sabotage or evidence of organ-
ized fifth column activity has been discovered on the Coast.)

4. The danger of mob violence against Japanese resi-
dents. This danger was real. Lawlessness is a national habit.
Lynch law has not been confined to the South. Many West-
erners are proud of the vigilantism which some story-tellers
have tended to glorify. If Pearl Harbor had been followed up
by a Japanese attack in force on the Coast, the Army had good
cause to fear that mobs of excited pseudo-patriots would do
violence to the first Japanese they ran upon. It still believes
that if the Japanese continue to capture American prisoners
and if they should make an assault on the Coast during the
foggy summer season, any Japanese at large would be in peril.
Although the reasonableness of the Army position is evident,
there is room, at the same time, to reproach the military au-
thorities and, even more, the civil authorities, both federal and
state, for yielding to popular clamor, without making a vig-
orous effort to calm public hysteria and to expose the sinister
character of some of the loudest shouters for total evacuation
of the Japanese.

5. The Anti-Japanese cabal. It would be quite false to
charge that all advocates of evacuation were self-seeking or
race-biased, but it is true that among them were the profes-
sional anti-Orientalists, such as the Hearst press, and certain
politicians, merchants, farmers and realtors who itched for a
chance to turn the anti- Japanese agitation to their own profit.

Such were some of the major forces that drove the nation,
as by fateful necessity, to adopt the drastic policy of indis-
criminate evacuation of citizens and non-citizens alike, of
Japanese ancestry.

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Santa Maria, April 30, 1942 — Heading for Tulare Assembly Center.

ACT 11. THE EVACUATION

The President, on February 19, 1942, issued an Executive
Order authorizing the Secretary of War and such military com-
manders as he may designate, to prescribe areas "from which
any or all persons may be excluded." "The Secretary of War is
hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area
who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter,
and other accommodations as may be necessary."

This Order closely paralleled the recommendations made to
the President on February 13 by the Pacific Coast delegation
in Congress, and ended a long period of debate and uncer-
tainty. Secretary Stimson designated Lieut. General John L.
DeWitt to execute the Order and he, by successive proclama-
tions, on March 12, 16 and 24, set the stage for the evacuation
from Military Area No. 1 of every person of Japanese ancestry,
including the progeny of mixed Japanese and Caucasian mar-

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riages. It was a huge and difficult undertaking, but as some-
one has said, ""When there's a tough job to be done that every-
one balks at, call on the Army." No Government agency had
blazed the trail into this unknown territory. Besides, the Army
trains its officers to handle machint-s and men like machines,
not a conglomeration o£ men, women and children compli-
cated by the thousand details of property, businesses, physical
handicaps and hindering emotional ties. That the Army fin-
ished its assignment within some sixty-eight days of the first
actual removal, and did so without any serious breakdown, en-
titles it to our admiration. That it made some blunders is not
to be wondered at. From the outset, the Army had the ad-
vantage of a surprisingly docile and cooperative spirit on the
part of the Japanese affected. It also wisely enlisted the aid of
federal civil agencies experienced in handling the human prob-
lems involved in the evacuation, among which were the Farm
Security Administration, the Social Security Board, the Federal
Reserve Bank, the U.S. Employment Service and the Works
Progress Administration.

On the credit side one should mention these points: the un-
failing courtesy of both Army and civil officials; their patience
in hearing requests and complaints from both the Japanese
and numberless citizen groups; the ingenuity in utilizing race
tracks and fair grounds for Assembly Centers; the attempt to
conserve and utilize the natural groups and organizations of
the Japanese communities, such as the churches, family groups
and the Japanese American Citizens League, whose members
are American-born.

On the debit side must be mentioned: the confusion and
distress and financial loss caused in part by the announcement
of evacuation before preparations or even plans had been
formulated; the overlappings and indefiniteness of function
among the agencies of evacuation; the refusal to set up Hear-
ing Boards or any other method of establishing loyalty and thus
making possible selective evacuation; the limitation of evacua-

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tion to Japanese, but including citizens, thus giving it the ap-
pearance, at once, of race discrimination and violation of con-
stitutional rights; the iron-clad application of rules with ap-
parent disregard of human factors and of such unfortunate re-
sults as the creation of disaffection among citizen Japanese and
aggravation of the difficulty of reincorporating the evacuees
into our body politic after the War.

Space permits the discussion of only one of these debit
points, the Hearing Boards. Eminent groups of citizens, such
as the Committee on National Security and Fair Play, headed
by General David Barrows, Henry F. Grady, Presidents Sproul
and Wilbur and Dr. Robert A. MiUikan, urged General
DeWitt to set up such Boards. They and many others familiar
with the Japanese residents held that it would be but little
harder to distinguish the dangerous from the loyal Japanese
than in the case of persons of most other races, and that, by
utilizing the Appeal Boards of the Draft, the hearings could
be completed within five weeks. Even though a large number
should be found disloyal or doubtful, and therefore refused
exemption from evacuation, the mere fact of having been given
a hearing would have a deep influence on morale, and would
vindicate for all citizens the cherished guarantee of the Con-
stitution, of "due process of law."

General DeWitt finally declined to allow hearings. His rep-
resentatives argued that they would cause delay when speed
was urgent, and that it would be practically impossible to es-
tablish the loyalty of anyone of Japanese race. One must honor
the singlemindedness of the Army: it could take no chances.

The drama moved forward. The anti-Japanese agitators went
offstage, leaving it to the overburdened officials, the religious
and social service agencies and the dismayed Japanese. It was
not strange that the Japanese were dismayed and bewildered:
suddenly to be evicted from home and all the privileges of
normal life, made wards of the government, looked upon as
criminals by a large section of the public, and to be denied op-

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portunity, even though citizens, to prove their loyalty. They
could not learn when they would be evacuated, where they were
to be sent, nor what to do with their homes and businesses.

Notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the Army to bring
order out of the welter, and the friendly mediation of many re-
ligious and social service leaders, the situation remained con-
fused until March 2. On that day General DeWitt proclaimed
that complete evacuation of all persons of Japanese stock,
whether aliens or citizens, would be begun shortly and com-
pleted within sixty days.

Church people were to the fore in multifarious forms of ser-
vice to the evacuees. Local committees arranged to store be-
longings for the duration; they formed in Los Angeles a cor-
poration to administer properties; in Berkeley, they ran a sale
of art works by a Japanese professor, the proceeds to be given
to establish a scholarship in the University of California for
worthy students who had suffered from tlie war; they set up a
clinic staffed by Japanese doctors and nurses to give anti-typhoid
inoculations lest mothers with children be prostrated if they had
to undergo two other injections upon arrival at a Center. These
friendly efforts came to a climax during the last days of reg-
istration and departure. Beginning with the First Congregation-
al Church of Berkeley, church plants were offered to the Army
as evacuation stations. Groups of church women were on hand
to provide a creche for the children of mothers while they reg-
istered, to taxi registrants from home to station, to talk with
those who were waiting, and to serve tea and sandwiches, or
even a tasty breakfast the day they left.

When the big buses or the long trains filled with outwardly
smiling faces rolled off for the Assembly Centers, they were
bidden au revoir by loyal friends from the churches and schools,
or by fellow students, as at Pomona College. It was such cups
of cold water that helped more than all else to heal the sting
of parting and to lessen the resentment felt by some at what
seemed to them an injustice and a disgrace. Fortunately, not a

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Santa Maria, April 30th evacuation of Japanese-Americans
and their parents.

few of them, particularly the citizens, managed to construe the
eviction as "Part of our sacrifice in the interest of national secur-
ity and winning the war." Wrenched loose from all their moor-
ings, they are resolved to show that they, too, like earlier Amer-
ican pioneers, can defy the slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune. For the older generation, the evacuation is pathetic to
the point of tragedy.

Nearly all of them have been in America for at least eighteen
years — for they came in before the exclusion bar of 1924 was
erected — and many of them came thirty or forty years ago. The
Japan in which they were reared was far different from the
Japan of today, and it is safe to say that many of them — prac-
tically all of those who are Christians — have no sympathy with
her present policies.

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ACT III. THE ASSEMBLY CENTERS

It was a tremendous job for the Army to prepare even tem-
porary living quarters for 100,000 people within less than three
months. The labor shortage and the priorities on supplies would
have made it impossible for private contractors.

Eighteen Assembly Centers have been set up, practically all
of them in race tracks or fair grounds, and all but three of them
in California. The accommodations are simple to the point of
crudity. If the Army had realized from the first that the
evacuees, children and delicate mothers would have to be de-
tained in these rude Centers for several months, it would doubt-
less have provided more adequate facilities. Observers who have
visited several of the Centers say that the managerial Caucasian
staff on the whole is kindly and well-intentioned. But good in-
tentions are not always matched by competence, and in some
cases they have lamentably failed to butter the parsnips. Gov-
ernmental red tape and the priorities bottleneck can be blamed
for some of the failures, but not for all. To be specific, in one
of the better Centers there were practically no medicines or medi-
cal and dental equipment, even after a month of pleading by
evacuee doctors and excuses by the management. In justification
of these deficiencies, it should be said that all serious medical
cases are supposed to be treated at the regular county hospitals,
which have been most cooperative. Scarcity of plumbing
supplies has led to the building of old style latrines with
no partitions, and to absence of handwashing water in the
"lavatories," and of sinks for washing the table ware which the
evacuees carry to the messhalls. Such deficiencies inevitably un-
dermine morale and they can not be counterbalanced by the
appointment of Advisory Councils of evacuees, who too often
find their recommendations are pigeonholed.

One of the best features of the Centers is the policy of using
as many as possible of the evacuees in the various service de-
partments. Those who get such a job count themselves lucky, for

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the rest suffer acutely from nothing to occupy hand or mind
during tlieir unwanted leisure.

The compensation paid to evacuees working in the Assembly
Centers, in addition to food and shelter, is $12.00 a month for
unskilled workers, $16.00 for skilled, and $19-00 for technical
workers. The original proposal to pay evacuees approximately
what privates and non-coms receive in the Army appears to
have been dropped. That might have made the evacuees feel
they were a sort of civilian army, and thereby have nurtured
their self-respect.

Extracts from two of the many letters written to me or my
friends by evacuees will give a clearer picture of the good and
bad points of the Centers than pages of description. The first
letter is from a cultivated woman, born and bred in California,
who feels keenly the deprivations and the humiliation of her
exile. She is in one of the better Centers. The English is her own.
The stables she speaks of are the race horse stalls, whitewashed
and enlarged by the addition of a small sittingroom in front.

"Our camp is getting better in every way. At first it was hard,
harder than we ever imagined, but when I think of those ill-
smelling, windowless stables, I think I could stand most anything.
I'd die if I had to live there. So many of our friends are housed in
those awful stables, and I can't help crying every time I pass there.
You have no idea how awful.

"I spent three days nailing papers on floor cracks to keep the
cold out. Some cracks were so wide I could put my finger through.
We froze from cold drafts the first few days. It's a little warmer
now.

"We Japanese love privacy, so our greatest ordeal is taking
showers and going to the rest rooms. The lavatories are just wide
enough to pass; two seats to a section, and no doors. Showers are
single, but also doorless. Volunteer women clean the place every
day, so it's kept Very clean, — but one feels awful. So I take my
shower at 5:30 a.m., but others get the same idea, so it is em-
barrassing.

"I find so many things I brought are useless, and what I need
most, I haven't. So will you ask your friends to send me old clothes
. . . especially sportswear, — sunhats, for standing in line in scorch-
ing sun for a long time at mealtime is an ordeal. ... I never

22

dreamt a time would come when I'd have to ask for old clothes.
I've got no pride left, for these are necessities. Please send some
old shower curtains. I could put nails up and hook them across
when I take a shower. Also old garment bags. Dust here is terrific.
The walls are so thin that when I put a screw in, it went through.
So when it gets hot, it's like an oven, and during the nights, it's
like an ice-box.

"We've all lost weight noticeably. But food is better. . . . Preg-
nant women and mothers with small children, old people and in-
valids are pitiful. Mothers and old people walking, groping in the
dark to the rest rooms are a sight. Gosh ! War is hell, even behind
the lines. I think it's worse.

"Did you ever feel an indescribable longing for something

you've loved? That is the way I felt when I left dear old , the

only city I knew and loved. Part of my life went out when I left it.
My childhood, girlhood and womanhood, with all its accompanying
sorrows and joys, all were left behind. I can't express the yearning
for the place I called my home, and all my dear friends. My only
wish is that God will let us return once more to all I hold dear.

"Our Sunday services are very simple and impressive. We feel
nearer to God here. The very simplicity and earnestness of our
hearts make the whole service more touching. In contrast, the
young people are a great problem."

As the last sentence implies, the demoralizing effects of the
unregulated, promiscuous life in the Centers upon the thousands
of idle young people are an acute anxiety to the fathers and
mothers. Makeshift schools, little work or sports equipment, no
privacy, family life and parental control broken down by mass
living — there is cause for worry. Gradually, equipment for play,
study, and other recreative activity is being supplied by private
contributions. It seems as though the Army had planned the
Centers with only husky men in mind. They can take it with a
grin, but for infants, elders and refined women, it is hard on
both body and spirit.

The other letter was written by a pastor, trained at Pacific
School of Religion, in Berkeley. He writes thus of himself and
his "church-in-exile":

"The trip to the Center on the train was to many of the children,
their first railway ride. The country in early summer is beautiful.
Our hearts cried. This is America we live in. This is our country,

23

and we must defend it. God bless America.' The train was guarded
by military boys who are courteous to us internees. Yes, they are
American youth, intelligent and companionable. We, too, have our
sons in the American Army. They are pals to each other.

"The first sight of our new quarters was a dismay to our women
folks — the look of the inside of a stable, whitewashed a long
time ago. But with characteristic fortitude arid quietness, they took
it. "It could be worse. Thankful this much is provided,' they all say.

"I suddenly found myself a shepherd of 5,000 souls. There are
church groups from other cities, but their pastors are not with
them. So it looks as though I'm to be a busy pastor. Here I have the
freedom of living an utterly self -forgetting, self-giving life. Satur-
day evening last, our church Board met, and we are planning to
carry on all regular activities."

Among the 100,000 evacuees in the Centers are some 16,000
Protestant Church members, and about 1500 Roman Catholics.
Of the younger generation, it is estimated that more than one-
third are Christians or pro-Christian. Hence it is not surprising
that the religious services in the Centers are being attended by a
large proportion of the evacuees.

Responsibility for organizing the services of worship and the
Bible study has been assumed jointly by the pastors and lay
church officers inside, and by Christian leaders outside who
have long been associated in work with the Japanese. The cen-
tral agency created to supervise and coordinate this outside
cooperation is titled: "Western Area Protestant Church Com-
mission for Wartime Japanese Service." This Commission is the
accredited agent of the Federal and Home Missions Councils and
of the Foreign Missions Boards. Representatives of twelve bodies
compose it. The Government authorities recognize this Com-
mission as the sole outside Protestant agency for supplying the
preachers and other workers whom the Japanese within may
desire.*

Between the lines, in the letters reproduced above, one can

*This Commission will be glad to answer inquiries concerning matters tra-
versed in this article. Address communications to the Secretary, Rev. Gordon K.
Chapman, 228 McAllister St., San Francisco, California.

24

infer what a blow the evacuation has inflicted on the self-respect
of the more sensitive spirits. When bystanders cynically say:
"Why should they complain? They are safe and well-fed, and
that's more than our boys at the front are enjoying," I wonder
if they reflect that the boys at the front know they are heroes
to a hundred and thirty millions of their countrymen. No mat-
ter what they sufl^er, they are buoyed up by a consciousness of
nationwide admiration, and a knowledge that they are render-
ing a priceless service to their country.

The evacuees, on the contrary, are the objects of suspicion,
if not of contempt, to many of the hundred and thirty millions.
Considering that two-thirds of the evacuees are full-fledged
American citi2ens, and that the rest of them have been charged
with no crime, is it not plain justice and sound social policy to
go out of our way to enable them all to maintain their self-
respect ? From that viewpoint, it would have been a wise invest-
ment to spend twice as much money on the Assembly Centers,
and to send off the evacuees with the band playing and the flag
flying.

Fortunately, the Relocation Authority seems to have adopted
this viewpoint, and it is a pleasure to turn now to describe the
Relocation program. The change from the Assembly Centers
to the Relocation Projects may make many an evacuee feel like
the ancient Israelites when they advanced from the wilderness
to the Promised Land.

ACT IV. THE RELOCATION AREAS

Great credit is due both the Army and the various civil fed-
eral departments for the resourcefulness they have shown in
devising solutions for the baffling problems set them by the
whole evacuation business. And among all the schemes adopted,
that of the Relocation Areas is perhaps the most satisfactory;
at least, it will be if the paper plans are carried out.

It was on March 18 that the President created the War Re-

25

location Authority, to take over full responsibility for the
evacuees after they had been evacuated by the Army. Among the
essential features of the plans adopted by the Authority are
these:

1. Five large tracts of government land east of Military Area
No. 1 have already been selected, and as many more are in process
of being found, capable of providing homes for the duration for
all of the 100,000 evacuees. Each Area will have a Relocation
Center, called a Project.

2. iifforts will be made to give productive work to every able-
bodied person above sixteen years of age: mainly agricultural, but
also manufacturing of things that require hand labor. Teaching, en-
gineering, and the other professional skills will also be utilized as
far as possible.

3. Evacuees will be allowed to leave the Areas only for specific
and properly guarded work projects. Like the Assembly Centers,
the Relocation Areas will be surrounded by barbed wire and under
guard, not only to keep the evacuees inside, but to prevent outsiders
from intruding and possibly making trouble. Inside, however, large-
ly self-sustaining, autonomous communities will be created, and
life will be made as normal and satisfying as practicable.

4. Elementary schools and high schools will be maintained, in
cooperation with the respective states and the U.S. OfEce of Educa-
tion. Arrangements for higher education also are likely to be made,
either by releasing students to attend outside institutions, or by in-
viting the establishment of extension courses by colleges.

5. As in the Assembly Centers, religious worship and related
activities will be freely permitted.

The quality of the staffs now being assembled is so excellent
that there is good ground to hope that this program will be
executed in accordance with the best American standards. If so,
it should go far toward restoring to the evacuees the self-respect
which has been so sorely wounded. One thing which might well
be done to that end is to arrange for the gradual multiplication
of opportunities for intercourse between residents of the Cen-
ters and the people of the neighborhood. Individuals and groups
might be invited in to give literary, musical and dramatic pro-
grams; athletic and debating teams might come in for competi-
tions. IFarmers and public officials might be asked to inspect the

26

methods used in the various public works and in the factories
and schools. The best preachers of the state should be enlisted
to speak to the people.

Yet when all these methods have been used, the stubborn fact
will remain that life within the Projects will not be normal. It
will be insulated from the free tides of America's coursing life.
Sad experience with isolated Indian reservations should suffice
to prove that only by merging any group into the general body
of society can it either absorb the best things America has to
give, or make its distinctive contribution to the common weal.
This brings us naturally into the next and last Act of the drama
— one in which all true lovers of democracy must play a role.

ACT V. REINCORPORATING THE EVACUEES
INTO AMERICAN LIFE

With the coming of victory and peace, not the least crucial
problem facing the American government and people will be
how to treat the evacuees. Our answer to that question then will
have been predetermined in good measure by what we do to
them during the War.

There are two main alternative policies:

(1) Treat them as though they were criminals and "second- -
class citizens," "yellow-belly tools of their fatherland;" ship
them all back to Japan; let them stay in the United States, but
away from the Coast, and strip the Japanese-Americans of the
franchise.

(2) During the War, recognize that two-thirds of them are
fellow-citizens, and that all of them are guiltless before the

" law, the victims of circumstances beyond their control, of Jap-
anese government policies which many, if not most, of them
abhor. Therefore, do our utmost to strengthen their faith in
American democracy and justice and to narrow the gap erected
by the war between them and the rest of us. During the war,
release a considerable number of them for productive work in
inland states. Then, after the war, restore to them all freedom

27

of travel, residence and occupation, so that they will resume
their place in normal life more fully Americanized than they
were before the war.

It may seem impossible for any sane supporter of a war for
"the four freedoms" even secretly to entertain the first alterna-
tive. But along the West Coast there are many voices chanting
such a chorus; and in the states beyond the Sierras many who
have never known a Japanese are urging that they all should
be kept in concentration camps and in no case be allowed to
settle, even temporarily, in their communities. Evidence of
this is at hand, not only in the press, but also in the signed
statements made by all but one of the fifteen Western Gov-
ernors to the Tolan Congressional Committee.

The only sound American basis for settling the issue is to ask:
Which policy will help most to win the war, and will accord
with the democratic principles for which we profess to be fight-
ing ? Or, in other words, which is better, segregation or distribu-
tion of the evacuees ? The Army and the War Relocation Au-
thority favor distribution, but have had to abandon it because
public opposition would expose the evacuees to danger of mob
violence.

Consider these facts: Until March 29, the Army was encour-
aging the Japanese to evacuate voluntarily, with the result that
many of them rushed Eastward, before any preparations had
been made either by themselves or by the government author-
ities. Some of them were insulted and warned to leave, and
others had to be put in jail to protect them from enraged citizens.

The situation we now face has been pithily summed up by the
Committee on National Security and Fair Play in these six
paragraphs:

"The bottleneck in resettlement, therefore, is opposition in cer-
tain localities to the coming of even a few Japanese to settle in
their midst. Until the mass of Americans is convinced that such
opposition is an impediment to winning the war and a violation of
American ideals, the policy of wide dispersal must remain in sus-
pense, being replaced by concentration in Settlements under mil-

28

itary guard. That this is economically wasteful and socially unsound
is evident from the following contrasts.

"Economically: In the Settlements, on wild land, they must be
fed for many months before crops can be sown, at a cost of $60,000
a day, and the devising of work for the more than half who are
not farmers will be difficult. If scattered in normal communities,
they would help meet the labor shortage, would at once be self-
supporting, would increase war production, and the non-farmers
could find city jobs.

"Socially: In the Settlements, they will be insulated from normal
life, their American character diluted by segregation, a danger es-
pecially dreaded by the younger generation, citizens born. The
stigma of suspicion will cling to all of them. In normal communi-
ties, they would enjoy free association with other Americans, their
faith in democratic fair play would be confirmed, and their self-
respect would be restored, so that after the war they could fit
smoothly into American life.

"It is thus evident that the economic and social losses imposed
on the nation by segregation are serious. Yet presumably patriotic
citizens, through thoughtlessness or prejudice, are causing these
losses by their unwillingness to allow Japanese, even though citi-
zens, to settle near them.

"As soon as such opposition abates, so that it is safe for Japanese
to be abroad, the War Relocation Authority can release them from
the guarded Settlements, and resume the policy of scattering them
in hundreds of inland communities. Precautions should, of course,
be taken by the Authority to release only persons against whom the
Authority and the F.B.I, have no grounds of suspicion, and prefer-
ence should be given to American-born citizens, educated in our
schools and colleges. The Authority should also require state and
local officials and private agencies to give satisfactory guarantees as
to protection, working conditions, and wages for the evacuees to
be sent to their area.

"The sweeping evacuation was ordered on the grounds of mil-
itary necessity, during the national emergency. It ill becomes any of
those who excused that order to protest when the same national
emergency dictates the settling of a few evacuees in their vicinity."

That local attitudes are not all hostile to dispersed settlement
and that hostility can be mellowed into tolerance and friendli-
ness is shown by three instances that have just come to my
knowledge.

29

The first is reported in a letter from a University man in Wis-
consin. It says that a band of eleven Japanese arrived from Cali-
fornia, of whom two are citizen youth set to enter the University,
and two are farmers. "I think they will be able to fit in, but
they have been finding it hard. The Presbyterians and Congre-
gationalists in particular are doing what they can to overcome
prejudice and help them get a start." If this group had consisted
entirely of citizens, its assimilation might have been much easier.

A professor in Denver University writes of a second instance:
"I have just returned from giving some commencement ad-
dresses in northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska, in the
beet sugar areas to which many of the Japanese have migrated
from California. It was a relief and delight to learn that, so far,
there is no evidence of friction, and indeed, the leading white
citizens evidence a determination to see that no trouble shall
arise. In most instances the new arrivals have been taken into
the homes or the farms of the Japanese families that have long
been Colorado or Nebraska residents."

The third instance reads like fiction. The two heroes of the
tale are an influential and broad-minded white American ranch-
er named George A. Fisher, and Fred I. "Wada, citizen, for
years a prosperous produce dealer in Oakland. In February,
while the Army was encouraging voluntary evacuation, Wada
went to Utah to search for a place to develop a settlement. He
found an ideal combination: 4000 acres of irrigable land at
Keetley, 39 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, on which stood
fifteen dwellings, a large apartment house, and a $25,000
schoolhouse, erected for the workers of a slowed-down mine.
All the buildings were in good condition. Wada paid Fisher
$500 on tlie spot to clinch a lease on the property.

On returning to Oakland, Wada got the blessing of the Farm
Security Administration, and then he spent a long evening with
the writer, discussing how to create a Christian cooperative
community, for he is an earnest Christian. "I am ready," he said,
"to spend some thousands of my capital to do my bit in this way

30

for my country. I don't care if I never make a cent of profit
from it. My great hope, as a patriot, is to make the enterprise
contribute 'food for freedom,' and give some hundreds of my
fellow-settlers a chance to be self-supporting, instead of being
dependent on the government."

Wada soon assembled 140 people, nearly all Christians, pos-
sessing a variety of skills, so as to form a balanced community.
Vowing to follow this modern Joseph Smith — minus the Book
of Mormon— and to pool their possessions and abilities, they
trekked to the ranch, taking along a large assortment of trucks
and farm implements, and enough food to last them a year. As
soon as the winter broke, they plowed and sowed their crops.
The neighbors at first eyed them suspiciously, but their cash
purchases soon dissolved distrust, and farmers from far and
near, seeing their industry and skill, began to beg Wada to let
them have some laborers. One landowner offered him a big
tract for a branch colony, and so he sent 39 of his party off to
settle there. Two trained housekeepers and a nurse were desired
by leading residents of Salt Lake and a nearby town, so Wada
filled the places with three competent women.

Fearing that the settlers might be attacked by lawless whites,
a State Patrolman was at first assigned to the settlement, but
he was soon withdrawn as being superfluous. Whatever peace
duties are to be done are looked after by the storekeeper, Mr.
O'Toole, who has been made a deputy sheriff.

The colony operates on a thoroughgoing cooperative basis:
all earnings and expenses are pooled. Wada is general manager
and chief, but he receives no more than any other member.
Regular church services and a Sunday School have been estab-
lished, the sermons being preached by a neighboring white min-
ister. The children go to a neighboring village school, so plans
are afoot to convert the Keetley schoolhouse into a factory
where the women can turn out camouflage nets or other things
for the government. At the entrance to the village they have
erected a large V, bearing the words, "Food for Freedom."

31

EPILOGUE

Not every inland state can match just the combination of
favoring factors that have made this Keetley experiment so
promising. But, given a sizable group of determined and patri-
otic citizens, and a careful selection of settlers by the War
Relocation Authority, there appears to be no good reason why
many other communities, both urban and rural, could not suc-
cessfully absorb from two to twenty families of Christian citi-
zen settlers of Japanese ancestry.

The villain of the piece, Public Hostility, is temporarily in
the ascendant and, at the moment, the drama seems destined
to end in black tragedy. But if the villain is converted, it can
be turned into a radiant melodrama. The villain being in reality
the myriad-headed populace of our nation and our churches, the
process of conversion calls for a nationwide crusade, persistent
and pervasive, by men and women who realize that to repeat
the slogan, "the four freedoms for all men, everywhere," is
hypocrisy unless they are ready to extend those freedoms also
to the Japanese evacuees.

THE JAPANESE AMERICAN SITUATION
IN OUR EASTERN STATES

BY CHARLES IGLEHART

The Japanese on the Eastern seaboard are much better off
than their brethren in the West. They are few in number — only
two or three thousand in all — mostly with inconspicuous work
in restaurants, homes and offices, and scattered widely. They are
more nearly assimilated to American ways of life and are more
nearly received by the Caucasian community. They are farther
from the dangerous Pacific; in the East they have to fear no or-
ganized movement of expulsion from community life. They

32

have not been evacuated nor have they suffered the "protective
custody" of their cousins on the West Coast.

Yet the difference is more apparent than real. They are under
the same disabilities as are all others of Japanese race in this
country. The fate of the Japanese in the West stares in the face
of every Japanese in the East. They know that the President's ex-
ecutive order put the whole country under the emergency con-
trol of the Army. The East has been zoned for defense exactly
as has the West. There "total evacuation" was ordered on short
notice and without adequate preparation to receive the uprooted
people. And the evacuation was not total at all but highly selec-
tive, no Germans nor Italians being taken but instead Japanese
only and all Japanese. Furthermore, the precedent has been set
for a complete disregard of any difference between the alien
immigrant Japanese and their American-born sons and daugh-
ters who by our constitution are Americans.

Notwithstanding kindness on the part of most of the officials,
the grim fact remains that 100,000 of these Japanese and
Americans are now herded into temporary barrack shacks be-
hind barbed wire under armed guards. They are over-crowded,
'vithout privacy and for the most part are being demoralized
by idleness and shame. Nothing like this has ever happened
before in American history. And it may happen in the East on a
moment's notice. Certain army leaders in recent interviews have
promised that for the present this is not contemplated. But the
sword of Damocles hangs by a slender thread, and it paralyzes
all normal processes of living. It doesn't help morale for the
Japanese to know that the bottleneck in relocation is caused by
the resistance of every American community to their settlemer.'..

Added to their fear for the future is the present problem
of getting a living. With many heads of families interned, with
Japanese firms liquidated, with considerable local prejudice and
with many government restrictions, subsistence is now for many
a major problem. About 5 per cent are on relief and another 20
per cent must soon be taken on. Many more see the end of their

33

financial resources in sight, as they are unable to get jobs. We
cannot speak in high enough praise of the concern the New
York City Welfare officials have shown for the needy Japanese,,
nor of the unselfish efforts of private agencies such as the Com-
munity Service Society of New York and the Church Committee
for Japanese Work. But this problem lies deeper than mere
alleviation of economic distress through relief.

Behind the unprecedented policy of evacuation and wholesale
internment we come upon a factor far deeper and more dis-
turbing than military necessity. It is the matter of the attitude
of us all toward racial minorities — in this case the Japanese.
This has taken concrete form in the discriminatory practices and
legislation of the Western States. But they have been uphe'd
by the Supreme Court and assented to by Americans at large.
We of the Eastern States cannot cast the first stone until we are
certain that if we had been presented with this problem we
would have solved it in any better way than has been done in
the West. Actually we have not tackled the Oriental problem at
all as yet. Along our Eastern seaboard in many cities one finds a
single Japanese person or one family accepted in the local
church, but that is about as far as our Christian powers of as-
similation seem to go. In this crisis we know of more than one
church which has made it known that it does not wish even one
Japanese to cross its threshold. Until we correct our own atti-
tudes we can scarcely have much of a contribution to make to
the solution of this larger issue of the assimilation of new ele-
ments into our American life.

Our next task is to press for a change in our laws so that the
un-American principle of exclusion and of civil disability on
account of race shall be forever erased from our statute books.
Our present laws offer no hope whatsoever for any constructive
adjustment of our nation to tlie developing Asia of the years
just ahead. And unless we can adjust we cannot live in the
modern world with these neighbor millions across the Pacific.

The next duty laid upon us by this crisis is that of obtaining

34

exemption for all the second-generation Americans from the
operation of this indiscriminate measure of detention. "We dare
not remain complacent while our fellow- Americans are suffer-
ing this injustice. We can render specific aid by welcoming in
our neighborhoods any students or other selected persons
whom the authorities may be willing to release upon the guar-
antee of reception and support in some Eastern campus or
community.

A constructive way to help the Japanese in the Eastern States
so that they may help themselves and their Japanese friends is
by providing employment. Self-respect gained by remunerative
work is worth more than any amount of relief aid in maintain-
ing character and morale.

And finally, since all plans for free re-settlement are bogged
down in the morass of a resisting public opinion throughout
America, our heaviest pull must be in the promotion of an im-
proved and an informed public sentiment toward our fellows
of Japanese ancestry.

JAPANESE-AMERICAN STUDENTS

BY JOSEPH CONARD

For hundreds of young Japanese students who have lived and
studied on the Pacific Coast, the evacuation from campus to
Assembly Centre has cut off their education in mid-stream and
threatened their potential contribution to democratic society.

What is the calibre of these students ?

This spring, when the University of California announced the
highest scholastic honor awarded to a graduating senior, the
winner could not receive the proffered medal. For Harvey Itano,
a straight A student and loved by all who know him, is an
American with Japanese ancestors.

After twenty-five years of experience with Japanese and

35

Japanese-American students, Dr. Aurelia Henry Reinhardt,
President of Mills College, writes, "Throughout these years
there has been no single case of personality problem or ethical
question arising among Japanese students. Perhaps three-
fourths of these Japanese women have been Christians, but in
sense of responsibility and in the high standard of personal con-
duct, our Japanese young women have been one in their stand-
ard of quiet, industrious and courteous behavior. They have won
the affection and respect of their fellow students of all racial
groups."

In Southern California, the Theodore Roosevelt High School
has announced that 26 per cent of its Japanese seniors were in
the upper 10 per cent of their class.

When the University of Washington selected five organiza-
tions out of forty-eight to receive awards for outstanding schol-
arship this year, one of these five was the Japanese Students
Club.

The Colleges of the Pacific Coast know well their Japanese-
American students and, from Canada to Mexico, these institu-
tions have united in vigorous efforts to provide an opportunity
of continued study for their evacuated youth. From hundreds
of Caucasians, the Student Relocation Committee has received
letters like this, each about a different student: "I cannot speak
about others, but this student I know, and he must be allowed
to go on with his college work. He has outstanding possibilities
as a student and he is completely dedicated to American tra-
ditions."

Importance of Relocation

For several reasons, the resettlement of Japanese-American
students in Eastern Colleges is a crucial problem. Fortunately,
new homes are more easily found for them than for other
evacuees. This is true partly because students do not compete
economically with Caucasians. Thus, the fears and hatreds
which have been largely responsible for race prejudice against

36

the Japanese in California are obviated. Furthermore, college
communities tend to be more liberal than others, and the college
campus itself is particularly likely to offer an understanding
new home. This last fact is verified by reports from across the
country. In many resettlement questionnaires, "community re-
sponse" has been forecast as being ""uncertain," and in some
<:ases even negative, whereas most reports from college cam-
puses have been "favorable." Another factor which makes col-
lege relocation relatively easy is the existence of suitable housing
facilities.

Aside from the fact that negative arguments and fears of
■community response are eased by the consideration just given,
there are many positive arguments for continued college study.
To force these students to abandon their work would be a tre-
mendous waste of the time and energy already invested in the
student's education. Dr. Monroe Deutsch, Vice-President of the
University of California, states that it would be equivalent to
the ""destruction of an important part of our national resources."
Added to this fact is the recognition that the attitudes of the
entire Japanese-American group of tomorrow will be shaped
largely by their future leaders, the men and women now going
to or preparing for college.

The serious danger that present evacuation may introduce a
new case of racial peonage will be increased if Japanese- Ameri-
can leaders are not given an opportunity for higher education.
The entire group may, in such an event, be forced to a position
of economic and cultural inferiority, and no policy could more
seriously threaten the long-term future of the Japanese group
in this country.

Finally, if the college students are given an opportunity to
complete their studies, the morale of the entire Japanese- Amer-
ican group will be enhanced. An older evacuee, in a letter just
received, describes some of the hardships of his present life and
concludes that the really pressing problem is the education of
the young people.

37

Number of Students Involved

In the college year 1941-42 there were 673 Japanese-Amer-
ican students in colleges of the evacuated zones in the state of
Washington and 131 in Oregon. In California last year, there
were 1684, of whom all but 29 were attending colleges in zones
being evacuated. This means that about 2500 students should
be relocated. These students are largely concentrated in a fairly
small number of West Coast Colleges. The University of Wash-
ington included 458 before evacuation, the University of Cali-
fornia about 430, Sacramento Junior College 216. About one-
third of the students are women. Of the entire 2500 students
on the west coast, there are probably less than 100 who are not
citizens of the United States, and some of these came to this
country in infancy.

A very large number of Japanese-American students are
working in highly specialized fields. In a sample of 323 made
in Northern California, 56 were studying medicine and 17 more
were taking similar scientific courses; 61 were students of en-
gineering or allied studies. Thus 134, or 40 per cent of the
group, were studying in these two fields.

An extremely high percentage of students wish to continue
their college work despite the maladjustments brought to them
and their families by evacuation. A sample of about 750 stu-
dents showed over 80 per cent wishing permits to transfer.
Only 15 per cent of these, however, had sufficient funds to con-
tinue study without scholarship aid. Seventy per cent could pay
part of their costs and another 15 per cent could pay nothing
at all. There are two reasons for financial difficulty. 1. Families
have suffered the loss of business and income through evacua-
tion. 2. The overwhelming majority of students have attended
State Colleges or Junior Colleges in West Coast States, where
their fathers' taxes covered costs of tuition. Now there will be
the necessity of paying out-of-state fees.

38

Developments to Date {revised by Clarence Gillett, ]une, 1943)

On May 29, 1942, at the request of the War Relocation
Authority, the National Japanese American Student Relocation
Council was set up to help with the relocation of students in
colleges outside the prohibited areas. It represents college and
university administrations, denominations, and student organiza-
tions. The entire program is carried on in close cooperation with
government officials. After assurances covering financial needs,
college admission, and favorable community reception are
secured, and after adequate investigation of the applicants has
been made, permits allowing them to leave the Relocation
Centers are issued.

Four hundred fifty-nine schools have been approved by the
War and Navy departments and some 50 more will accept
Japanese American students when similar approval is granted.
About 850 students have already entered colleges — some 175
institutions in 37 different states. Nearly 200 more have their
travel permits and another 150 are in process of obtaining them.
About 1600 more are awaiting placement. New applications,
many of them from recent graduates of high schools in the Re-
location Projects, are flowing in at the rate of 100 a month.

Because of their uncertainty as to their future, many students
tend to become discouraged. They lose faith, hope and ambi-
tion. Some have volunteered for the armed forces in spite of
their strong feeling against segregation in an all-Japanese com-
bat unit. Many more would prefer being drafted under the reg-
ular provisions of the Selective Service Act.

The record made by the students receiving aid during the last
year has been outstanding. Lillian Ota, for example, has been
offered graduate fellowships by four different universities. In
March, Kenji Okuda was elected president of the student council
at Oberlin College. Many other examples of similar achieve-
ments could be cited. Contributions for student aid should be
sent through denominational channels, or to the Philadelphia
office, 1201 Chestnut Street.

Thh National Committee for

WORK WITH JAPANESE AMERICAN EVACUEES

of the

Congregational Christian Churches

Dr. Truman Douglass, Chairman
826 N. Union Blvd.,
St. Louis, Mo.

Rev. Robert Inglis, Vice-Chairman
3805 Piedmont Ave.,
Oakland, Calif.

Rev. Stephen Pronko, Chairman Exec. Committee
2443 Analee St.,
St. Louis, Mo.

Dr. Clarence GiJlett, Exec. Secretary
521 E.Cook St.
Santa Maria, Calif.

For further material or information, write the committee.

Room 401,

1528 Locust St., (3)

St. Louis, Mo.

GREAT ISSUES ARE AT STAKE

After the war, whether the Japanese Evacuees remain in
America or not, their friendliness and faith in the American
Way of hving will be invaluable. If they return to Japan and
are friendly, they will help trade, international understanding
and cooperation. If they remain here we cannot afford to have
created centers of ill will and infection.

"Great issues are at stake in the evacuation program: the
question, for example, of whether a democracy can light a total
war and preserve its freedom. The issue is fraught also with
great international significance in terms of our relations with
colored peoples generally. There is no reason why the reloca-
tion projects cannot be successful, cannot in fact reflect great
credit upon us as a nation — provided a majority of the Ameri-
can people will insist upon fair treatment of the Japanese and
not succumb to demagogues and race-baiters."

Carey McWilliams*

Chief of the Division of Immigration

and Housing for the State of California.