Nisei veterans honored, and Salt Lake City readies for the JACL convention

Vol. 27, No. 9, August 28, 1948. 8 pages. View this issue

Nisei war veterans, most of them former members of the 442nd Combat Team, marched in the V-J Day parade in Los Angeles, and Mrs. Nawa Munemori received a scroll at City Hall for her son, Pfc. Sadao Munemori. Planning for the JACL national convention in Salt Lake City, Sept. 4 to 8, filled the front page: about 500 delegates were expected, with Col. Charles W. Pence as a speaker. Elsewhere, a federal judge ruled on Tule Lake renunciations, and a Los Angeles jury was still deliberating the Kawakita treason case.

Bill Hosokawa wrote two columns, one on twenty years of the JACL and one gathering untold stories of Issei and Nisei. Marion Tajiri reported on Monterey’s fishermen returning home, and Hideo Kuwahara described Radiopress, a Nisei group in Tokyo. Iva d’Aquino’s arrest on Tokyo Rose charges is also covered.

What’s in this issue

Military & Veterans

• Nisei Gls Honored in Parade, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Nisei war veterans, most of them former members of the 442nd Combat Team, took a prominent part in the V-J Day parade in Los Angeles on Aug. 14. The parade concluded with a City Hall ceremony where Brig. Gen. Leroy H. Watson presented a scroll to Mrs. Nawa Munemori, mother of Pfc. Sadao Munemori, the only Nisei awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
• Chaplain Higuchi Reenters Service, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Chaplain (Maj.) Hiro Higuchi, who served with the 442nd Combat Team in Italy and France, has returned to active Army service with graves registration at Fort Shafter. He felt obligated to help return and honor the Hawaiian dead, including eleven men from his own church.
• Utah Sergeant Only Nisei in Service With U.S. in Greece, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Sgt. Harold Yamamoto of Brigham City, Utah, is the only Nisei GI among American forces on the Grammos front in the Greek civil war. He has found the local villagers and their customs fascinating.

JACL

• Future Policies of JACL Will Be Charted at National Convention in Salt Lake City, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Approximately 500 delegates will gather in Salt Lake City Sept. 4 to 8 for the largest national JACL convention in history to survey the past two years of work and chart future policy. The program includes addresses by prominent speakers, a Governor Maw welcome, national officer elections, and panels on Nisei citizenship and evacuation claims.
• Col. Pence Slated To Attend JACL National Convention, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Col. Charles W. Pence, former commander of the 442nd Combat Team, will address the JACL national convention on Sept. 7 to pay tribute to Nisei soldiers of World War II. Convention chairman Shigeki Ushio announced his attendance.
• Masaoka Renamed Utah VFW Aide In Washington, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Mike M. Masaoka, legislative director of the JACL Anti-Discrimination Committee, was reappointed as Utah veterans legislative representative in Washington, D.C., by the Utah Veterans of Foreign Wars. The appointment was made by state VFW leadership.

National

• Federal Jury Deliberates Verdict in Kawakita Case, by P.C. Staff, page 1. A federal jury in Los Angeles deadlocked for a third day while deliberating the treason case of Tomoya Kawakita, a California-born Nisei accused of overt acts as an interpreter at a Japanese POW camp. The prosecution urged conviction while the defense argued the charges were trumped up and that Kawakita honestly believed he had lost his citizenship.
• Federal Court Ruling Opens Way to Restoration of U.S. Citizenship for Renunciants, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Judge Louis E. Goodman ruled that renunciations made at the Tule Lake segregation center were invalid due to duress and allowed 2,000 more names to be added to the roughly 2,900 already on the list for restoration of citizenship. The government was given 120 days to appeal, and renunciants will not be eligible to vote in November.
• Group Protests U.S. Policy on Issei Fishermen, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The Southern California ACLU protested Immigration Service requirements for departure permits and passports imposed on resident Japanese fishermen, calling them a nullification of the Takahashi decision. The group argued the requirements were racial discrimination that made fishing licenses practically worthless.
• Mrs. Iva d’Aquino Arrested In Tokyo by Army for Trial On Radio Broadcast Charges, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Iva Ikuko Toguri d’Aquino was arrested in Tokyo by U.S. Army officers on charges of treasonable propaganda broadcasts as one of the women identified as Tokyo Rose. She was to be transported to San Francisco for trial.
• Navy Citation to Tokyo Rose Strictly Joke, Says Sullivan, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Sacramento radio news editor Paul Sullivan stated that a mock Navy citation broadcast to Tokyo Rose in 1945 was a joke and not an official award. He clarified his role and that of other announcers on the recording.
• Report Potential Deportees May Ask Permanent Status, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Nichi-Bei Times reported that the Immigration Service has adopted a procedure allowing deportable Japanese nationals to apply for suspension of deportation under Public Law 863. Applicants must file specific forms, and Congress must act in each case.

Incarceration & Redress

• Issei Regain Star Theater in Stockton, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The Star theater in Stockton was returned to its pre-war Issei owners after the California Supreme Court upheld their property rights against a wartime lessee’s claim based on the abrogated U.S.-Japan treaty. The ruling protected the leases of all resident Japanese nationals in the state.

Community

• Nisei Girl Named Queen of L.A. News Guild, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Mary Kitano, an employee of the Los Angeles Daily News and former staffer on the Manzanar Free Press, was voted Miss Los Angeles Newspaper Guild. She will represent newspaper workers in the county-wide Union Queen contest during the Freedom Fiesta.
• Story of Radiopress, Inc.: Civilian Nisei in Japan Aid Democratic Processes, by Hideo Kuwahara, page 3. Kuwahara describes Radiopress, a Tokyo organization of Nisei who monitor English shortwave broadcasts and distribute transcripts to occupation departments, Japanese ministries, and newspapers. The group works long hours on modest pay to help democratize Japan.

Commentary

• Pacific Citizen editorial page: Hawaii Educator Wins Scholarship, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Shigeo Yoshida, principal of Waikiki school in Honolulu, was granted a scholarship for audio-visual education graduate work at Columbia University beginning in September. He planned to attend the JACL national convention en route to New York.
• The Nisei Have Come Back, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial reflects that the six turbulent years since 1942 have ended and Japanese Americans now return to normal life as full Americans heading to the Salt Lake City JACL convention. It credits Nisei fighting achievements, favorable court decisions, and the JACL’s role in facilitating their recovery.
• Another Wartime Myth Blasted, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial refutes the wartime claim that no Nisei or Issei ever gave intelligence information, citing Bradford Smith’s book Americans from Japan. Smith documents how Nisei and Issei informants helped U.S. agents expose Japanese spies before Pearl Harbor.

In-Depth

• Two Decades of the JACL, by Bill Hosokawa, page 4. Hosokawa reflects on the JACL’s twenty years since its first national convention in Seattle, noting how the early delegates have aged and started families. He honors the organization’s staffers and past presidents whose selfless service deserves recognition at the upcoming Salt Lake City convention.
• From the Frying Pan: The Stuff of Legends, by Bill Hosokawa, page 4. Hosokawa recounts colorful but untold stories from Issei and Nisei history, including Alaskan mail carrier Ju Wada, the Potato King George Shima, and a Utah prisoner forgotten for years. Each anecdote illustrates the unusual lives hidden within the ordinary Japanese American experience.
• Shing Is Their Business: Monterey’s Evacuee Fishermen Have Come Home to the Pacific Sea, by Marion Tajiri, page 5. Marion Tajiri reports on Monterey’s roughly 1,000 Japanese Americans who have returned to fishing, canneries, and dehydration businesses. The article also explains how the Takahashi decision ended the ban on Issei fishermen, while financial losses from evacuation still hinder their full return.

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