Nisei stranded in Japan, and a JACL conference looks ahead

Vol. 22, No. 9, March 2, 1946. 8 pages. View this issue

Japanese Americans stranded in Japan by the war were the subject of the lead story in this eight-page issue. An NBC correspondent reported from Tokyo that those with no record of collaboration with the enemy might be allowed to return, and a petition from 300 of them had gone to General MacArthur’s headquarters. The editorials and Nisei USA column returned to the question. The same front page reported that delegates at the ninth biennial JACL conference in Denver approved a $68,000 budget for peacetime work.

Other pages followed Nisei veterans: the 100th Infantry Battalion men who opened a taxi stand in Honolulu, the Distinguished Service Cross presented to the parents of Sgt. Robert Nakasaki, and the deactivation of the 282nd Combat Engineer Company. Three Tule Lake residents filed habeas corpus petitions in federal court. Columns by Bill Hosokawa, Mary Oyama and John Kitasako fill page 5.

What’s in this issue

Incarceration & Redress

• Nisei Stranded in Japan War, Petition for Right to Return to Homes in U.S., by P.C. Staff, page 1. An NBC correspondent reported from Tokyo that Japanese Americans stranded in Japan by the war may be allowed to return to the United States if they have no record of wartime collaboration with the enemy. A petition from 300 Japanese Americans asked General MacArthur’s headquarters for the right to return home, and most of the group were students and youths sent to Japan by parents to learn the language.
• Three Tule Lake Residents File Petitions in Court, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Three Tule Lake residents filed habeas corpus petitions in federal court alleging they were coerced by fellow segregees into renouncing their U.S. citizenship and faced illegal deportation. Federal Judge Louis E. Goodman issued a show cause order returnable March 18.

JACL

• Delegates Support Extension of JACL Work in Peacetime, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Delegates to the ninth biennial JACL conference in Denver unanimously approved a $68,000 budget to expand the organization’s peacetime program. The record appropriation roughly doubles the 1945 budget and keeps national offices operating while others become self-sustaining.
• Kido Awarded Selective Service Medal, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Saburo Kido, national president of the JACL, received the Selective Service Medal for his uncompensated service to the Selective Service System. Col. Carl I. Johnson praised his work in promoting fair treatment of Japanese American registrants.

Military & Veterans

• 100th Battalion Veterans Open Taxi Business, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Five veterans of the 100th Infantry Battalion pooled their mustering-out pay, savings, and borrowed money to open a taxi stand in Honolulu called the 100th Taxi Co. Each owns his own car and shares the operating expenses of the stand.
• Los Angeles Nisei GI Honored With Soldier’s Medal for Heroism, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The Soldier’s Medal was posthumously awarded to Pfc. Arthur M. Fukuoka of Los Angeles for rescuing a drowning American soldier at Marina di Pisa in 1945. His mother received the medal at ceremonies in Los Angeles.
• Panel to Moot Problems of Nisei Veterans, by P.C. Staff, page 1. A special panel on problems facing Nisei veterans was added to the Ninth Biennial JACL Convention program in Denver. Representatives of the American Legion, VFW, and American Veterans Committee will join Nisei veterans to discuss issues including separate posts and a possible Nisei veterans organization.
• Son of 442nd Veteran Receives Medal in Italy, by P.C. Staff, page 1. T/5 Daniel Ariyoshi of Loomis, Calif., a member of the 442nd Combat Team, was to receive his discharge in the Mediterranean theater. He had served in the Army since 1941 and would be employed as a civilian in the Peninsular Base Section headquarters at Leghorn.
• Soldiers Return From India Service, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Eighteen of approximately 35 Japanese Canadian soldiers who served in India before V-J Day have returned to Canada, the New Canadian reported. They arrived in New York aboard the Queen Elizabeth with other Canadian repatriates.
• Army Deactivates All-Nisei Engineer Company in Italy, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The 282nd Combat Engineer Company, an all-Nisei unit attached to the 442nd Combat Team, was deactivated in Leghorn, Italy on Jan. 31, 1946, exactly three years after its activation. The company fought through four major campaigns and received the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation along with over a hundred individual decorations.
• Proud Parents Receive Medal Awarded to Son Killed in Italy, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Issei parents of Sgt. Robert Nakasaki received the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously awarded to their son, who was killed by a German sniper in Seravezza, Italy in April 1945. The ceremony was held at Seabrook Farms, New Jersey, where the family had resettled from Manzanar.
• 442nd Regiment Guards Supplies in Italian Area, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which fought in Italy and southern France, is now part of the Peninsular Base Section guarding supply dumps between Naples, Livorno, and Bologna. The regimental post at Livorno is commanded by Col. V. R. Fellers.
• State Board Discrimination Challenged in L.A. Court Suit, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Attorney A. L. Wirin challenged the California State Board of Equalization’s refusal to issue a beer license to a Nisei wife’s cafe in Los Angeles, arguing the Board was denying licenses to all Japanese regardless of citizenship. He stated he would take the case to court if the license was not granted.

National

• Counties Must Face Problem of Indigent Aid, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The California Department of Social Welfare reported that several counties face planning for permanent housing and care of elderly Japanese released from wartime relocation centers. Fresno County residents were considering permanent housing for aged single men where they would grow part of their food with county supplementary aid.
• Canadian Supreme Court Rules Orders for Deportation Valid, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The Canadian Supreme Court upheld on Feb. 20 orders-in-council providing for the deportation of about 10,000 persons of Japanese ancestry. The court ruled 4 to 3 that wives and children under 16 would not be forced to accompany deportees.
• Cases to Test Legality of Race Restrictions in Residential Deed, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Two lawsuits filed in San Francisco against a Chinese American Navy veteran and a Filipino war worker seek to test racial covenants that bar non-white residents from the Silver Terrace district. The Interracial Commission of the San Francisco Council of Churches condemned the covenants in a pamphlet issued at the same time.
• Army Transport Leaves with 676 Repatriates, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Army transport General Ernst sailed from Los Angeles Harbor on Feb. 21 carrying 676 voluntary deportees of Japanese ancestry. Several young wives told reporters they did not want to leave the United States but were going because their husbands insisted.
• Many Offers of Marriage Reported by Canadian Nisei, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The New Canadian received letters from men across Canada proposing marriage to Japanese Canadian women facing deportation, offering to save them from being sent away. The proposals ranged from serious to satirical and reflected the deportation crisis in Canada.

Community

• Market Reopened to Returned Evacuees, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Businessmen of Japanese ancestry have been granted permission to operate produce businesses at the Ninth Street wholesale market in Los Angeles. Ted Igasaki, former treasurer of the Japanese Produce and Merchants Association, reported the news.
• Students Visit New York Buddhist Church, by P.C. Staff, page 2. More than fifty students from the State Teacher’s College of Montclair, N.J. visited the New York Buddhist church as part of an interfaith program. They heard a talk on Buddhist teaching from the Rev. Hozen Seki.
• CYBA Plans Program for Spring Months, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Central Young Buddhist Association outlined a spring program from March through June including a dance, religious meetings, a picnic, a cemetery cleaning project, and a graduation social. The first general assembly will be held March 17 at the Palomar ballroom.
• Chicago Issei Dies in Attempt to Stop Robbery, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Frank Kawamura, a native Chicagoan, died after being shot while trying to prevent burglars from taking $80 from the cash register of the restaurant where he worked as a waiter. Funeral services were held following the incident.
• Attorney Says Suit by State Seeks to Confiscate Property Owned by Nisei GI in Italy, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Attorney A. L. Wirin argued in San Diego Superior Court that the farm land at issue belonged to Nisei soldier Charles Yoshimura, now serving in Italy, and that the State’s escheat action was unfair. The Yoshimura family had been forced to evacuate in 1942 and could not keep up payments on the land.
• Snake River JACL Votes to Retain Headquarters in Salt Lake City, by P.C. Staff, page 6. The Snake River JACL chapter voted to ask that national JACL headquarters remain in Salt Lake City for the next two years and to retain the JACL Reporter. The chapter delayed a decision on admitting Issei to membership pending further information.
• Brief Urges Deportation Stay for Renunciants at Santa Fe, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Attorneys A. L. Wirin and J. B. Tietz submitted a brief to the Justice Department asking it not to deport renunciants held at the Santa Fe Detention Center. The brief argues the renunciants acted under coercion and misunderstanding and that deportation now would cause serious hardship.
• Immigration Officials Refuse Nisei GI Permission to Bring Canadian Wife Home to U.S., by P.C. Staff, page 8. Robert H. Kitajima, a recently discharged Nisei Air Force veteran, married a Canadian woman in Winnipeg but immigration officials barred her from entering the United States with him. He has appealed to the U.S. Attorney General, and the case may require an amendment to the Exclusion Act.
• Appreciation Fete for WRA Officials, Veterans Discussed, by P.C. Staff, page 8. The Chicago JACL cabinet discussed the upcoming national convention, funding for official and booster delegates, and a proposed appreciation banquet for retiring WRA officials and Nisei veterans. Suggestions were made for more informal and varied program formats.

Commentary

• Psychological Warfare Tactics Described by Nisei Veteran, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Nisei veteran Karl Yoneda, a member of the first psychological warfare team in the CBI theater, described propaganda methods at a San Francisco JACL meeting. He also praised fellow Nisei Koji Ariyoshi for his work in psychological warfare and China orientation.
• Editorial: The Supreme Court, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The Supreme Court ruled that martial law in Hawaii did not allow military authorities to usurp civil courts, ordering two civilians released. The editorial contrasts this decision with the Korematsu case and suggests the court may now be more willing to reconsider the mass evacuation of Japanese Americans.
• Editorial: Restrictive Covenants, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial condemns lawsuits seeking to remove Chinese American and Filipino American families from San Francisco homes on racial grounds. It argues restrictive covenants must be abolished to achieve the ethnic equality America claims to offer.
• White Peril in Japan, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial examines the roughly 10,000 to 15,000 American-born persons stranded in Japan, noting their wartime contributions as interpreters and intelligence workers and the varied reasons they were there. It argues that the loyal among them should be allowed to return while opportunists who collaborated should not.
• Rights Earned, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The Spokane Spokesman-Review praised a welcome home dinner honoring Japanese American veterans, calling it an acknowledgment of the debt Americans owe to soldiers of all racial origins. The editorial argues the veterans have earned full rights as Americans.
• Washington News-Letter: Second Chance Given Penitent Repatriates at Tule Lake Camp, by John Kitasako, page 5. The author argues that renunciants at Tule Lake who changed their minds deserve gratitude for the second chance the government is giving them. He contends they should show it by living as loyal Americans and recognizing the sacrifices of Nisei soldiers who made America more welcoming.
• Play on Celluloid: Interracial Film Guild Fights Hollywood Racial Stereotypes, by Mary Oyama, page 5. The International Film and Radio Guild, led by Leon Hardwick and including members of several minority groups, aims to eliminate racial stereotypes in movies, radio, and cartoons. The organization plans a review committee, a weekly radio broadcast, and research on minority contributions to media.
• From the Frying Pan, by Bill Hosokawa, page 5. Hosokawa recalls the 1942 JACL conference in Salt Lake City, where delegates from relocation centers and free-zone chapters outlined a course of action under Mike Masaoka’s leadership. He reflects on how the hardships of that gathering contrast with the Nisei’s position today.
• Nisei USA, by P.C. Staff, page 5. This column argues that American-born Japanese stranded in Japan should be judged individually on their loyalty and wartime conduct before being allowed to return. It also argues that servicemen should be permitted to bring foreign brides into the United States, calling existing restrictions a relic of racist hysteria.
• Lip Service to Ideals of Democracy Assailed, by P.C. Staff, page 6. Dr. William Agar, speaking to the Sacramento Community Forum, warned that democracy worldwide will fall unless racial intolerance and discrimination are overcome in America. He asked what it means to be an American when Japanese Americans who died for the country are treated as outsiders.

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