Tule Lake and its aftermath, and two Nisei soldiers wounded in Italy

Vol. 17, No. 19, November 13, 1943. 8 pages. View this issue

The disturbances at the Tule Lake segregation center filled this 8-page issue. The front page reported a sitdown strike by segregants, the departure of the last 370 loyal evacuees, and WRA Director Dillon Myer’s denial that he had been held prisoner. Attorney General Biddle asked the FBI to study the camp, the Dies Committee ordered an inquiry, and Governor Warren urged permanent Army control. Saburo Kido wrote two columns on the affair, and the editorials weighed in on the incident and defended the War Relocation Authority.

The front page also carried the War Department’s first report of Japanese American soldiers wounded in the Mediterranean, PFC Hisami Fujita and PVT Kazuo Sakai. Elsewhere are columns by Tom Shibutani and Bill Hosokawa, a Los Angeles hearing on fair treatment, a study of living conditions in Little Tokyo, and reports of resettlement in Dayton, Milwaukee and New England.

What’s in this issue

Military & Veterans

• War Department Reports Two Japanese American Soldiers Wounded in Mediterranean, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The War Department announced that two Japanese American soldiers, PFC Hisami Fujita and PVT Kazuo Sakai, were wounded in action in the Mediterranean theater. Their names were included in a list of 212 U.S. soldiers injured on all fronts.
• A Nisei Soldier Returns From Pacific Battlefronts, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Staff Sgt. Kazuo Komoto returned to Gila River after being wounded in jungle fighting in the South Pacific and receiving the Purple Heart. He told the Gila News-Courier that Nisei will be co-owners of the flag because their blood helped put the red in the red, white and blue.

Incarceration & Redress

• Myer Denies News Reports He Was Prisoner of Tule Mob, by P.C. Staff, page 1. WRA National Director Dillon Myer denied reports that he was held prisoner by segregants at Tule Lake, describing the Nov. 1 meeting with a 3,000-person crowd as an incident rather than an outbreak. He said many rumors circulated that had no basis in fact.
• Final Group of Loyal Evacuees Leave Tule Lake, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The last group of 370 loyal evacuees departed the Tule Lake segregation center on a train under military escort following last week’s disturbances. Loyal volunteers remained behind to harvest the project farm crops that disloyal segregants refused to work.
• Navy Department Lists Three Japanese American Merchant Seamen as War Prisoners, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The Navy listed three Hawaiian Japanese American merchant seamen, George Aki, Kenichi Mayeda, and Ben Ota, as prisoners held by Germany. More than two hundred Nisei seamen have left relocation centers to return to merchant ship duty.
• Strike Called By Segregants At Tule Lake, by P.C. Staff, page 1. A sitdown strike by segregants at the army-controlled Tule Lake center spread from the warehouses to clerical and administrative offices, halting operations. Reports said there was no violence, only organized passive resistance.
• Rev. Heist Appears Before Assembly Committee, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Rev. A. A. Heist of the Santa Maria Methodist church told a State Assembly Committee that he approves the return of persons of Japanese ancestry to the valley after the war, calling it an economic necessity. He attacked a 1,200-name petition seeking to bar their return.
• California Legislative Body Sends Resolution To President Roosevelt, by P.C. Staff, page 2. A California State Senate committee unanimously urged that the army retain control of the Tule Lake segregation center, with several witnesses saying they feared for their lives if the army withdrew. Rep. Clair Engle also called for permanent army control and disenfranchisement of Japanese Americans who professed loyalty to the emperor.
• Report Linking Evacuee Girls, Nazis Irks Nisei, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Japanese Americans reacted with anger to reports that American girls of Japanese ancestry were socializing with German prisoners of war at the Trinidad, Colo. camp. A letter published in the Granada Pioneer expressed disgust while American soldiers were fighting Germans in Italy.
• Biddle Asks FBI Investigation of Tule Lake, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Attorney General Biddle asked the FBI to study the Tule Lake situation with a view to prosecuting violators of federal law. Separate congressional investigations were also beginning into the camp disturbances.
• Dies Committee Orders Inquiry On Tule Lake, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The Dies Committee ordered a special investigation of the Tule Lake segregation camp following an appeal from Rep. Clair Engle. Engle also urged that the War Department be placed in charge of all Japanese and Japanese Americans considered disloyal.
• Gov. Warren Urges Military Control of Camp, by P.C. Staff, page 3. California Governor Warren told a press conference that the presence of many thousand Japanese in California is a positive danger and called for the Army to take permanent control of the Tule Lake center and the relocation of evacuees. He said he took no steps with the WRA after being assured the Army would intervene if needed.
• Pleas for Fair Treatment Made At L.A. State Senate Hearing, by P.C. Staff, page 7. Although testimony before the State Senate interim committee was largely hostile to Japanese Americans, several witnesses including Pearl Buck and A. L. Wirin urged fair treatment, according to the ACLU’s Open Forum. The article criticizes the committee for giving hostile witnesses excessive time and attention.
• Study Living Conditions in Little Tokyos, by P.C. Staff, page 7. The Los Angeles County War Council is studying living conditions in areas from which Japanese Americans were evacuated in 1942, as thousands of people move back into vacant buildings. The special committee is investigating conditions in Little Tokyo and other evacuated areas.
• Evacuation, Detention Present Problem in U.S. Citizenship, by Anne Clo Watson, page 7. Anne Clo Watson writes in the Journal of Educational Sociology that the evacuation and detention of Japanese Americans raise fundamental questions about whether citizenship will be equal for all groups. She argues that race minorities have a special stake in these questions.

Community

• Gila Community Will Set Up Own Judicial Commission, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Gila River community councils will establish a judicial commission to try court cases previously handled by the project administration. Project director Ben Kurihara said the councils should assume responsibility as quickly as possible.
• Get-Together Party Held by Evacuees Resettled in Dayton, by P.C. Staff, page 7. Thirty-five Japanese American evacuees recently resettled in Dayton, Ohio attended a get-together party sponsored by the Church Federation of Dayton and Montgomery County. The Dayton Daily News featured the event on its front page, noting that most of the group are employed at Red-Bar Battery Company.
• 150 Evacuees Successfully Relocated in Milwaukee Area, by P.C. Staff, page 8. About 150 evacuees have relocated to the Milwaukee area and found work in local businesses, according to the Milwaukee Journal. Employers praised their work, and one manufacturer said he was thinking of hiring another evacuee.
• Evacuee Child Wins Fight to Enter School, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Seven-year-old Toshio Sano was admitted to Mark Twain school in Kansas City, Kansas after school superintendent F. B. Schlagle reversed his earlier decision to deny enrollment. The WRA called the reversal a truly democratic gesture.
• Employers in New England Satisfied With Evacuee Help, by P.C. Staff, page 8. According to WRA area supervisor Roger F. Clapp, New England employers are satisfied with loyal Japanese American employees and students placed through the Boston office. Evacuees have found work as farm hands, technicians, mechanics, and in other fields.

Commentary

• Editorial: Nisei Girls and WACs, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial urges nisei women to enlist in the Women’s Army Corps, noting that enlistment numbers were low despite early enthusiasm and that rumors against the WAC have been refuted. It lists advantages of service including training, preference in employment, and equal treatment.
• Yashima’s New Sun, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial reviews Taro Yashima’s book The New Sun, an account of an anti-fascist artist’s life in Japan. It recommends the book to both issei and nisei readers.
• The Tule Lake Incident, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial argues that ringleaders at Tule Lake deliberately provoked authorities to a display of force that Radio Tokyo then exploited in propaganda. It warns that both inside agitators and west coast opponents of return have made the situation a larger issue than the facts warranted.
• The War Relocation Authority, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial defends the War Relocation Authority against political attacks following the Tule Lake incidents. It argues that the WRA has humanely carried out a difficult mandate and strengthened evacuees’ belief in democracy.
• Tilting With Windbags, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial charges that economic interests, professional patriots, and reactionary politicians like Governor Warren are stirring racism against Japanese Americans in California. It calls on Japanese Americans and allies to resist attacks on all minorities.
• Vagaries, by P.C. Staff, page 5. This column offers brief notes on Japanese Americans in the United Mine Workers, media coverage, and Hawaii statehood arguments. Items include a former evacuee elected treasurer of a UMW local.
• The Nisei, by Tom Shibutani, page 5. Tom Shibutani argues that Nisei must join the broader struggle against fascism and racial prejudice rather than focus narrowly on their own problems. He urges Nisei to examine their own prejudices against other racial groups.
• From the Frying Pan, by Bill Hosokawa, page 5. Bill Hosokawa argues that Tule Lake’s self-confessed enemies should not cause suffering for loyal Nisei released from camps. He calls for firm discipline at Tule Lake without brutality.
• Fascists Desecrate Nation’s War Aims, by P.C. Staff, page 5. The article contrasts a British Trade Unions congress resolution calling for firm postwar measures against Germany with American fascist-style racism directed at Japanese Americans. It criticizes California politicians who exploit racial fears.
• Balance Sheet on Evacuation: Galen Fisher Refutes Untruths, by P.C. Staff, page 5. A review of Galen Fisher’s booklet A Balance Sheet on Japanese Evacuation, which refutes falsehoods about Japanese Americans such as claims of Pearl Harbor sabotage and coddling of evacuees. Fisher argues the evacuation was driven by prejudice rather than military necessity.
• Two Policies on Japanese Americans, by P.C. Staff, page 5. The article discusses the compromise policy adopted toward the West Coast Japanese population, arguing it fell short of sound Americanism. It notes that the Japanese in Hawaii were treated far more fairly than those on the mainland.
• Wake Up, Amache!, by Dr. John Rademaker, page 5. Dr. John Rademaker argues that Americans must not judge whole groups by the disloyalty of a few, and that racial and religious prejudice weakens the nation’s fight for democracy. He points to Sgt. Alton Levy’s court-martial as an example of injustice.
• Colorado Calling! Two Kinds of People in World, by Joe Masaoka, page 6. Joe Masaoka uses the contrast between Utah Lake, which gives and lives, and Great Salt Lake, which hoards and dies, to illustrate two kinds of people in the world. The column is a metaphor for generous versus selfish attitudes.
• Self-Sufficient Unto Themselves, by P.C. Staff, page 6. The column warns Nisei workers who think they can succeed independently that their Japanese features make all Japanese Americans targets. It argues that all Japanese Americans share the same fate and must support one another.
• Tule Lake Affair Aids Race-Baiters, by Saburo Kido, page 6. Saburo Kido argues that the Tule Lake incident gave anti-evacuee forces the ammunition they sought against the War Relocation Authority. He calls for a balanced, unbiased investigation rather than hearings by the Dies Committee or the California Senate committee.
• Final Showdown, by Saburo Kido, page 6. Kido describes the buildup of tensions at Tule Lake, including the trucking accident, the death of a child, and the mass gathering that led to military intervention. He argues that most Tule Lake residents were not violent and calls for investigation of all camp conditions.
• The FEPC, by P.C. Staff, page 6. The editorial argues that minority group position cannot be secured until negrophobia is eliminated from America, and calls for strengthening the FEPC. It says the nisei can contribute greatly to education against racial prejudice.
• President Backs FEPC Against Discrimination, by P.C. Staff, page 8. President Roosevelt overruled Comptroller General Lindsay Warren’s ruling that the FEPC’s anti-discrimination provisions were directive only, preserving the FEPC’s effectiveness. The FEPC also directed regional offices to act on discrimination cases against Japanese Americans.

In-Depth

• Center Life Spoils Children, by Hito Okada, page 6. A young mother describes how mess hall life in relocation centers taught her daughter bad table manners, such as reaching across tables and eating hurriedly. The piece reflects on the lasting effects of communal dining on family life.

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