Tule Lake renunciants, the 442nd’s toll, and attacks on returning families

Vol. 21, No. 15, October 13, 1945. 8 pages. View this issue

Two stories ran across the top of the front page. A Justice Department official said some Tule Lake segregees who had renounced their citizenship now wanted it back, and rehearings might follow. The paper also printed official figures for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Battalion: 534 enlisted men and 35 officers killed in action. Larry Tajiri wrote about Nisei linguists in the Pacific, Bill Hosokawa contrasted Allied bans on discrimination in Germany with an attack on a Buddhist temple in Watsonville, California, and an editorial, “Men of the 442nd,” reprinted a soldier’s tribute.

Also inside are reports on violence and protests against returning Japanese American families, including a federal acquittal in the Watson brothers case and a Loomis family’s burned home. Short items follow Nisei soldiers, a Hawaii labor leader, and John Kitasako’s look at the WRA’s return program. Page 5 carries a reprinted short story, “Welcome Home!” by Sgt. Len Zinberg.

What’s in this issue

Incarceration & Redress

• Washington Official Reveals Some Tule Lake Segregees Seek to Regain Citizenship, by P.C. Staff, page 1. A Justice Department official disclosed that a number of Tule Lake segregees who renounced citizenship now seek rehearings to regain it. Plans for legal action, possibly reaching the Supreme Court, are reportedly being made by the detained group.
• Grand Jury Acquits Watson Brothers of Federal Charges in Coast Terrorism Trial, by P.C. Staff, page 2. A federal grand jury acquitted Auburn brothers James and Claude Watson of dynamite possession and conspiracy charges stemming from an attempted bombing of a returned evacuee’s shed. The verdict followed an earlier acquittal in Placer County Superior Court.
• Army Control Removed at Tule Lake Camp, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Military control of guarding the Tule Lake segregation center ended, and Immigration and Naturalization Service border guards took over. The War Relocation Authority remains in charge of the roughly 18,000 residents.
• Letters to ACLU Say Tule Nisei Renounced Citizenship Under Duress, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The Northern California ACLU reported hundreds of letters from Tule Lake residents claiming they were coerced into renouncing citizenship through threats and parental pressure. The organization cited cases of families separated by deportation orders.
• Housing At Air Strip Have Temporary Quarters for Evacuee Group, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Nearly one thousand evacuees arrived in Los Angeles from Granada and are housed temporarily in converted barracks at the Lomita Air Strip. Rent ranges from $15 to $29 per month depending on family size.
• Lomita VFW Unit Protests Return of Evacuee Group, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Lomita post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars voted unanimously to protest the WRA’s plan to establish a demobilization center for returning evacuees at the Lomita Flight Strip. The post has long opposed the return of Japanese Americans to the area.
• Soldier Overseas Protests Burning of Evacuee Home, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Sgt. Clarence E. Hulse, serving overseas in the Pacific, sent a two-peso note to the Sakamoto family after hoodlums burned their home near Loomis. He wrote that the contribution was one GI’s protest against such tragedies.
• American Veterans Committee Asks President for Action Against California Terrorists, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Los Angeles Area Council of the American Veterans Committee asked President Truman to order vigorous prosecution of anti-Japanese American violence in Northern California. The council cited shootings, arson, and vandalism against returning families.
• WRA Housing Plan Opposed in Sacramento, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Opposition arose to a federal plan to take over the Grant Union Defense Dormitories in Sacramento for returning evacuees. Grant Union’s principal said the facilities were needed for veterans enrolled in the college.
• Editorial Digest: Democracy in Berlin, Fascism in California, by Bill Hosokawa, page 6. Hosokawa contrasts Allied orders banning racial discrimination in Germany with the terrorist attack on a Buddhist temple housing returned evacuees in Watsonville, California. He argues the violence reflects shame on every American.
• WRA Answers Criticisms of Coast Return Program, by John Kitasako, page 6. Kitasako reports that critics accuse the WRA of forcing evacuees back to the West Coast without housing or support. WRA officials respond that employment is available, public assistance is the main hurdle, and housing negotiations continue.
• Weimar Sanatorium Ousting of Japanese Alien Patients, by P.C. Staff, page 7. The governing board of the Weimar sanatorium in Placer County moved to remove 15 alien Japanese patients to make room for American citizens. Board members noted that the sanatorium was already overcrowded.
• Civil Rights Action Sought by Evacuees in San Francisco, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Local residents of Japanese ancestry met in San Francisco to discuss infringements on civil and citizenship rights, especially in escheat cases. Parents of servicemen worried their sons’ property could be jeopardized by their parents’ ineligibility for citizenship.
• State Board Raises Dual Citizen Issue, by P.C. Staff, page 8. California’s Alcoholic Beverage Control board granted the first liquor license to a Japanese American since the evacuee return. Board members questioned whether dual citizenship claims could be trusted despite the record appearing sound.

Military & Veterans

• 969 Men of 442nd Combat Team, 100th Battalion Killed in Action in Italy, France, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Official figures published in ‘The Story of the Combat Team’ detail the killed, wounded, and missing of the 442nd and 100th Battalion from 1943 to 1945. The totals include 534 enlisted men and 35 officers killed in action.
• Gov. Warren Opposes Use of Prisoners, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Governor Earl Warren denied reports that he sought Japanese prisoners of war for California harvest work and voiced positive opposition to the idea. He warned such a move would incite resentment and disorder toward Japanese citizens in the state.
• Sgt. Chuman May Have Been First Nisei in Tokyo, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Staff Sgt. George Chuman, attached to the First Cavalry Division, may have been the first Nisei soldier to enter Tokyo. The report comes from the Military Intelligence Language School at Fort Snelling.
• Nisei GI Given Bronze Star for Action in Burma, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Tech. Sgt. Shojiro Taketa received the Bronze Star for monitoring Japanese radio frequencies with the First Air Commando group in Burma. He was credited with locating an unknown Japanese airfield there.
• Canadian CIO Union Backs Rights of Loyal Evacuees, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Six interior locals of the International Woodworkers of America petitioned the Canadian government to grant full citizenship rights to loyal persons of Japanese ancestry. Union president Harold Pritchett said the union had many such members in British Columbia.
• Reveal Nisei GIs Witnessed Japan Surrender Ceremonies, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Maj. Gen. Clayton Bissell warned Nisei graduates at Fort Snelling that Japan remains an unsolved problem for the Allies. He noted previous graduates served as interpreters at the surrender ceremony aboard the battleship Missouri.
• Nisei Wins Quick Promotion on Job in Los Angeles, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Susumu Nabara, a member of the United Electrical Workers union, was set to become a foreman at Pacific Sound Equipment Co. in Los Angeles. He had only recently returned from an Arkansas relocation center and advanced quickly after joining the union.
• Nisei GIs Arrive From Hawaii for Occupation Training, by P.C. Staff, page 2. About 350 Nisei soldiers from Hawaii arrived in San Francisco en route to Fort Snelling for occupation training. The training includes a course in the Japanese language to prepare them for long-term duty in Japan.
• Nisei War Veteran Finds Home in Wisconsin City, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Discharged veteran Frank Taka Okada and his family found a home in Madison, Wisconsin, thanks to a serviceman landlord who rented to a veteran’s family. Okada served over a year in Italy and France as a supply sergeant.
• Nisei GIs Win Promotion to Officer Rank in Manila; Two Promoted to Captain, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Two military intelligence school graduates, First Lts. Junichi Buto and Ralph Yempuku, were promoted to captain, among the first Nisei to reach that rank in the Pacific. Six others were promoted to first lieutenant and sixteen to second lieutenant in Manila.
• Sgt. Ben Kuroki Awarded DFC at B-29 Base, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Tech. Sgt. Ben Kuroki, a Nisei gunner, received an oak leaf cluster to the Distinguished Flying Cross for B-29 missions over Japan. He is believed to be the only Japanese American to earn the DFC in the war against Japan.
• 5333 Casualties Suffered by Nisei Units in Europe, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Continuing the casualty report, the article lists killed, wounded, and missing figures for 442nd campaigns from Rhineland-Vosges through Po Valley. It totals the casualties across the European campaigns.
• Nisei Veteran Joins World War II Post of American Legion, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Roy Mita, a University of Wisconsin student under the GI Bill and Italian campaign veteran, became a charter member of a new American Legion post of World War II veterans. He is married to Dorothy Hayashi.
• First Nisei From 442nd Unit Reenlists Into Regular Army, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Pfc. Jack T. Yasuda of L Company became the first 442nd soldier to reenlist in the Regular Army for three years. He fought through the Rhineland, North Apennines, and Po Valley campaigns and said simply that he likes the Army.

Community

• Philadelphia Nisei Raise Funds for Friends Committee, by P.C. Staff, page 1. A dance given by Philadelphia Nisei raised $116.51 for the resettlement program of the American Friends Service Committee. The committee has its national headquarters in Philadelphia.
• Placer Attorney Wills $100 To GI Victim of Vandals, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Mrs. Elinor Lowell Morrison forwarded a $100 check to Sgt. Cosmo Sakamoto to help compensate for his family home destroyed by suspected vandal fire near Loomis. The gift honored her late father’s final request.
• Japanese Military Distrusted Repatriates, Says Sgt. Higa, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Pfc. Thomas Higa reported that Japanese military authorities distrusted Okinawans repatriated from the United States, suspecting them of being spies. Higa, an interpreter on Okinawa, described his experiences upon returning from the island.
• Hospitality Party Held for Nisei GIs at CIO Canteen, by P.C. Staff, page 2. JACL, International Institute, YWCA, and CIO sponsored a hospitality party for over one hundred Nisei servicemen at the CIO Servicemen’s Center in San Francisco. Eighty-one Nisei hostesses volunteered, and a vocal performance was featured.
• Girl Reporter Is First Nisei to Join L.A. News Guild, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Mary Kitano became the first Nisei employed by the Los Angeles City News Bureau and the first to join the Los Angeles chapter of the American Newspaper Guild. She describes being met with surprise but acceptance once colleagues learn her background.
• Okasa Attends Special Class on Community Relations, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Joe Grant Masaoka participated in a community relations class in Richmond, California, sponsored by the American Council on Race Relations and the state Department of Justice. The class discussed race relations and the Nisei soldier’s return.
• Nisei Labor Leader Jack Kawano Cites Progress of Hawaii Trade Unionism, by John Kitasako, page 3. Jack Kawano, president of an ILWU local of about 1,500 members in Hawaii, describes how organized labor has broken the Big Five’s political dominance. He notes Nisei leaders hold many union presidencies and that racial harmony has aided union growth.
• Disclose Many Nisei Caught by War in Japan Were Jailed, Retained U.S. Citizenship, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Ricardo Yoshida, a Japanese-born interpreter, told a Honolulu correspondent that Nisei caught in Japan during the war honored Nisei who died for America. Tetsuo Shinjo reported that many Nisei in Japan were rounded up and separated from their families.
• Elmer S. Kite Opens Law Practice, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Elmer S. Kite, former member of the Poston legal department, opened a law practice in Los Angeles as an associate with A. L. Wirin and J. B. Tietz. He had previously worked in the camp’s legal office.
• Milwaukee JACL Prints First Issue of Newspaper, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The first issue of the Milwaukee JACL News appeared, announcing the Autumn Frolic dance and group bowling sessions. The chapter’s newspaper marks a new community publication.
• Six-Year Old Child Saw Youths Start Belvedere Fire, by P.C. Staff, page 3. A six-year-old girl witnessed two youths start the fire that destroyed the homes of two Japanese Americans in Belvedere, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. She told authorities the youths threw a flaming bottle and drove off in a tan car.
• San Francisco AVC Group Condemns Treatment of Nisei, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The San Francisco Chapter of the American Veterans Committee unanimously passed a resolution condemning discrimination against Japanese Americans returning to California. The resolution called such acts without legal or moral justification.
• Satow Discusses Relocation Program, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Masao Satow of the National YMCA program staff spoke to the Racine Lions Club on the status of the relocation program. He addressed the progress of returning Japanese Americans.
• Miyama Incident Won World-Wide Approval, Says Mayor, by P.C. Staff, page 7. San Francisco Mayor Roger Lapham wrote to Mrs. May Miyama that his backing of her husband’s job as a city electrician-mechanic drew worldwide approval. He said most letters, including from servicemen, supported his stand.
• Tulare County to Extend Aid to Evacuees, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Tulare County Welfare Director T. Pyott prepared to grant relief to needy Japanese Americans on the same basis as other residents. Supervisors agreed the county has a legal responsibility to aid any needy person regardless of race.
• Nisei Couple Take Marriage Vows in Cleveland Garden, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Beatrice Otera and Kakuchi Araki were married before a Presbyterian minister in a British Cultural Garden in Cleveland on September 2. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported the wedding.

Sports

• Yoshinaga, Kadayama Aid North Central Gridiron Victory, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Benny Yoshinaga and M. Kadayama played center and right guard for North Central College in a 13-6 win over Milwaukee State Teachers College. A local newspaper praised Yoshinaga as a stalwart on defense.

Commentary

• Nisei and Labor, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial argues that American workers of Japanese ancestry have disproved the myth that they cannot be unionized, citing the ILWU’s success in Hawaii. It criticizes Teamsters leader Dave Beck and quotes a Utah Nippo column urging Nisei to support the labor movement.
• Men of the 442nd, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial reprints the introduction to The Story of the 442nd Combat Team, an anonymous GI tribute to the courage of Japanese American soldiers. It stresses their fighting spirit and their battle against suspicion and intolerance.
• Telling the Pacific Story, by Larry Tajiri, page 4. Tajiri argues that Nisei linguists trained by the Army made a decisive contribution to Pacific victory through intelligence and propaganda work. He calls for the story of their wartime role to be told as they prepare for occupation duty in Japan.

In-Depth

• Welcome Home!, by Sgt. Len Zinberg, page 5. A returning soldier finds his childhood home vandalized and marked with hateful graffiti after his return from war. The short story, reprinted from Yank Magazine, contrasts the warm welcome he expected with the hostility he faces.

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