1943: Dies Committee claims refuted, Tule Lake named a segregation center

Vol. 17, No. 4, July 31, 1943. 8 pages. View this issue

The War Relocation Authority’s answer to the Dies Committee led the news in this eight-page issue. The WRA published material disputing statements made by committee members and staff, and the paper followed the rebuttal onto page 3. Beside it, WRA Director Dillon Myer announced that Tule Lake would serve as the segregation center, and Harvey Coverly described the groups to be held there. The War Department also said Nisei women would be accepted into the Women’s Army Corps from September 1.

On the editorial pages, Bill Hosokawa defended the JACL in his column From the Frying Pan, and Kiyoshi Hamanaka argued for group resettlement. S. I. Hayakawa wrote on how words shape racial prejudice. Also inside: a look at Minidoka one year on, Army news from Camp Shelby, including a baseball championship and a gift to a Hawaii polio fund, and a Boston donor’s contribution to the JACL civil rights fund.

What’s in this issue

National

• WRA Exposes False Statements, Distortions by Dies Sub-committee Members, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The War Relocation Authority published material refuting public statements by Dies Committee members and staff about Japanese Americans and the relocation program. The WRA disputed claims including an insane evacuee’s threat against the President, a supposed Japanese military unit at San Pedro, and reports of espionage training schools.
• WRA Names Tule Lake Camp As New Segregation Center, by P.C. Staff, page 1. WRA Director Dillon Myer announced that the Tule Lake center in northern California will serve as the segregation camp. He cited its size, agricultural opportunities, the number of disloyal evacuees already there, and its location at the edge of an evacuated area.
• WRA Director Hopes Evacuees Look Eastward, by P.C. Staff, page 1. WRA director Dillon Myer expressed his hope that most evacuees being released would settle permanently in the West, Midwest, and East rather than return to the West Coast. He said Arizona remained closed to resettlement due to anti-Japanese hostility.
• Council on Minority Rights Opposes Anti-Nisei Laws, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The Council on Minority Rights in Seattle passed a resolution opposing legislation that would deprive Americans of Japanese descent of their legal rights. The Council also supported resettlement programs for Japanese Americans.
• Tule Lake Director Gives Classification Of Disloyal Groups, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Harvey Coverly, director of the Tule Lake project, announced that evacuees ineligible for outside relocation will be segregated there under stricter discipline and increased military guard. He identified three classes of evacuees to be held at the camp.
• Three Charged With Violation Of Land Act Law, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Arizona prosecutors charged T. G. Decker, alien Kaijuro Kishiyama, and his American-born daughter with conspiring to violate the state’s anti-alien land law over a five-acre farm lease. The complaint alleged the daughter was a front for her father as the real lessee.
• Dies Committee Charges Refuted by WRA, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The WRA continued its point-by-point rebuttal of Dies Committee claims, disputing allegations about the Butoku-kai, a Tokyo espionage school, the Hokufei Butoku Kai, and fence removal at Poston. It noted the Committee’s contradictory statements and the limited number of WRA staff who were conscientious objectors.
• U.S. Inspector General Asks Tolerance for Evacuee Group, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Major General Virgil Peterson, army inspector general, called for calm and considered action in Arizona regarding Japanese Americans after investigating demands for restrictions. He warned that mistreatment could endanger American soldiers held in enemy prison camps.
• Dayton Regulations Against Farm Help Illegal, Says Paper, by P.C. Staff, page 3. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorialized that Dayton and Columbia County authorities were using unconstitutional methods to confine Mexican and Japanese laborers to a single street. The paper urged advance planning and warned against the racial clashes seen in Detroit.

Military & Veterans

• Nisei Women Be Accepted in WAC Ranks, by P.C. Staff, page 1. The War Department announced that a limited number of American-born women of Japanese descent will be accepted for enlistment in the Women’s Army Corps beginning September 1. Applications will be taken at Army recruiting stations and at War Relocation Centers.
• General Richardson Upholds Citizen Rights of Nisei, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Lieutenant General Robert C. Richardson Jr., military governor of Hawaii, declared that Americans of Japanese extraction are as much American citizens as he is. His statement followed a policy of tolerance patterned after his predecessor, General Emmons.
• Ninety-One Volunteers Inducted Into Army From Poston Center, by P.C. Staff, page 2. A fourth contingent of nineteen volunteers left the Poston relocation center for the Japanese American combat team training at Camp Shelby, bringing the total from Poston to 91. The group departed for induction at Fort Douglas, Utah.
• Nisei Students Believe Japan May Be Democracy After War, by P.C. Staff, page 7. Nick Iyoye, a nisei University of Denver student, told the Rocky Mountain News that Japan can be changed into a democracy after the war. He based this on his 1937 visit to Japan and on the view that Japanese leaders would welcome democratic reform.
• Dental Health of Japanese American Combat Team Soldiers Praised, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Captain Wayland F. Hogan, regimental dental surgeon, reported that Japanese American volunteers at Camp Shelby had notably healthier teeth than comparable groups in other regiments. He attributed this to elementary school oral hygiene programs, diet, and climate.
• Procedures for Segregation of Evacuees Outlined by WRA, by P.C. Staff, page 8. WRA Administrative Instruction No. 100 set out the categories of evacuees to be segregated at Tule Lake and the procedures for transfer. Persons whose loyalty was questioned would be moved, with family members allowed to accompany them and appeal rights provided.
• Kajikawa Becomes Member of Field Artillery at Shelby, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Pvt. Bill Kajikawa, former assistant football coach at the State Teachers College in Tempe, Arizona, joined the 622nd Field Artillery of the Japanese American Combat Team. His athletic background and past JACL leadership in Arizona are noted.
• Nisei Volunteers Win Shelby Baseball League Championship, by P.C. Staff, page 8. The 442nd Infantry baseball team won the non-division championship at Camp Shelby, defeating the 631st Tank Destroyers 2 to 1. Savage Tanaka hit the winning home run in the seventh inning.
• Nisei Combat Team Members Donate to Hawaii Polio Fund, by P.C. Staff, page 8. Members of the Japanese American Combat Team at Camp Shelby, including former Hawaiian Varsity Victory Volunteers, raised $7,098 for the Hawaii Poliomyelitis Emergency Hospital Fund. The donation was turned over to Colonel C. W. Pence.

Community

• N. Y. Nisei Girl Gives Blood For Soldiers of Free China, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Kathleen Iseri, a Japanese American employee of the War Relocation Authority, donated a pint of blood at the Chinese Blood Bank in New York City for fighting soldiers of Free China. She said she wanted the Allies, including China, to win just as any American does.
• Play Center For Workers May Be Former Buddhist Temple, by P.C. Staff, page 1. Negotiations were progressing to convert the former Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles into a municipal recreation center for children of war workers. Police described housing and health problems caused by an influx of Southern Black families into the area.
• Wyoming Towns Rescind Ban On Evacuees, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Following new resolutions by the town councils of Powell and Cody, Wyoming, the WRA removed Park County from its list of closed areas, opening it to Heart Mountain residents. The councils cited an acute labor shortage and clarified they never intended to restrict Japanese employment on farms.
• Nisei Involved In Street Fight Near Recovery, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Frank Hokamura, injured in a June 18 fight in Chicago between Filipino sailors and Japanese American seamen, was reported recovering. The Chicago JACL denied a Hearst newspaper account that the Japanese Americans made a slighting remark about the navy.
• Hunt Ball Club Loses in State Semi-pro Tourney, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The Minidoka relocation center baseball team from Hunt lost a 6-4 decision to the Idaho Falls Merchants in their first appearance in the Idaho state semi-pro championships. Hunt’s pitcher Ralph Takami struck out eight.
• Bostonian Contributes $950 to JACL Civil Rights Fund, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Godfrey L. Cabot of Boston donated $947.47 to the JACL civil rights fund, funding printing of briefs filed in the Hirabayashi and Yasui cases. The JACL report showed the organization incurred over a thousand dollars in deficit from its civil rights litigation.
• Workers Strike Against Bans in Washington Cannery, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Restrictions on Japanese American and Mexican pea harvesters at Blue Mountain canneries in Dayton, Washington were relaxed after workers struck. The curfew had followed an unsolved attack on a Dayton woman, and the canneries resumed operations after the strike.
• Gila High School Forms Junior Co-op, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Butte High School at Gila River formed a student co-op called the Junior Industries of Butte High School to give students business experience. Products such as wallets, sandals, and ashtrays will be made and sold, with proceeds going to the student body fund.
• Tule Lakers Make Offering Plates for Chinese Church, by P.C. Staff, page 7. Evacuee Christians at Tule Lake made offering plates from tule grass and donated them to the Stockton Chinese Christian Center. The presentation was made by Al Philp of the College of the Pacific.

Commentary

• Loyal Evacuees Too Good to Mix With Nazis, Says Seattle Times, by P.C. Staff, page 2. This Pacific Coast Round-up column surveyed West Coast press coverage of evacuees, including an Oregon sheriff praising Japanese farm laborers and a Seattle Times editorial on consolidating an Axis prisoner camp. It also criticized California officials and organizations opposing evacuee return.
• Many Protest Rep. Costello’s Verbal Attack on Masaoka, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Protests from New York and western groups followed Congressman John Costello’s attack on JACL secretary Mike Masaoka during a July 15 Town Meeting broadcast. The ACLU’s Clifford Forster wrote to the moderator, and a footnote defending Masaoka was added to the published transcript.
• The American Fascists, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial praises Vice-President Wallace and Wendell Willkie for denouncing American fascists who fan racial violence. It argues that Japanese Americans face the same fascist mindset that drives mob violence and discriminatory exclusion.
• Exit the Balcony Emperor, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial marks the fall of Mussolini, whose fascist regime is described as collapsing under Allied pressure. It argues that similar regimes in Germany and Japan will also fall, and that Japanese Americans will one day celebrate Tojo’s collapse.
• Nisei Molly Pitchers, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial welcomes the War Department’s decision to open the WAC to loyal American women of Japanese descent from September 1. It notes assurances that nisei women will not be placed in segregated units.
• America Is Home, by P.C. Staff, page 4. The editorial argues that issei who have lived in America for decades have contributed greatly to the nation yet remain barred from citizenship. It reprints an argument from the Gila News-Courier that the issei have the greatest claim to America.
• S. I. Hayakawa Applies Science Of Semantics in Combatting Racial Attitudes and Prejudices, by P.C. Staff, page 5. Semanticist S. I. Hayakawa argues that word-fetishism and conditioned responses to labels contribute significantly to racial prejudice. He urges people to examine the actual facts behind labels instead of reacting automatically.
• From the Frying Pan: Re: The Work of the JACL, by Bill Hosokawa, page 5. Bill Hosokawa defends the JACL as the only representative nisei organization to withstand evacuation and gain strength. He argues its work with the WRA and public figures has been valuable despite criticism.
• White House Statement, by P.C. Staff, page 5. The editorial digest discusses a July 18 White House statement by James Byrnes on evacuation and relocation. It notes the Los Angeles Times praised the statement while also spreading Hearst smears about Chicago incidents.
• The Case For: Evacuee Group Resettlement, by Kiyoshi Hamanaka, page 6. Kiyoshi Hamanaka argues that individual resettlement fails to address the needs of issei-headed families with young children. He proposes group and cooperative farm resettlement to provide the social and economic security these families need.
• Colorado Calling!, by P.C. Staff, page 6. The column urges nisei to speak out publicly on evacuation and relocation, describing a letter the author sent to Rocky Mountain News associate editor Lee Casey. The letter lists the financial and social costs of the mass evacuation and calls for restoration of civil rights.

In-Depth

• The Literature of Evacuation, by P.C. Staff, page 4. This feature surveys the cultural record of Japanese American evacuation through art, music, cartoons, and camp publications. It compares the evacuation experience to the Okie migration and notes that a nisei novel has yet to appear.
• A Look at Minidoka, One Year After, by Hunt, Idaho staff, page 5. A weekend visit to the Minidoka center in July 1943 found gardens, irrigation, and older evacuees content with their settled routine. Most young adults had already migrated out of the camp, and the center appeared well ahead in resettlement.

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