Criminal complaints charging conspiracy to violate the alien property act of 1920 were filed against three Japanese in superior court at Salinas Friday by Monterey County District Attorney Anthony Brazil.
The complaints charge that Toshi Hanazono, a nisei of Salinas, bought property at Nativadad which she turned over to Yeido Ikeda and his wife Satsuka, both aliens. The property, 71 acres of produce land, then was cultivated by the Ikedas, the complaints allege.
Aug. 15 was set as the date on which the Ikedas will appear to show cause why the property should not be confiscated.
The complaints are the third such actions brought in California against alien Japanese. The Ikedas are now in the Posten, Ariz., relocation camp.
WASHINGTON (UP) - More than 500 persons of Japanese ancestry have returned to the Pacific coast from relocation camps, Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes said Saturday.
War Relocation authority records completed through Feb. 17 show that 413 Japanese went to California, 43 to Washington, 33 to Oregon, and 32 to Arizona. The report covered a seven-week period since the army announced on Jan. 2 that they would be permitted to return to their homes.
An additional 1200 Japanese have relocated eastward from the camps since the first of the year, the statement said. These included 352 who went to Illinois, 120 to Ohio, 85 to New York, 78 to Michigan, and 63 to New Jersey. This group followed approximately 33,000 Japanese who previously had relocated eastward.
WRA reported that Japanese returning to the west coast "have had a predominately friendly reception in spite of several isolated instances of threatened boycott and organized resistance."
The agency said a large number of the approximately 60,000 center residents to be relocated during the next 10 months, "have definite plans and a set date of departure."
In the first group movement since lifting of the Japanese exclusion program Sept. 4, 74 Japanese evacuees arrived at Watsonville junction Wednesday morning, Fred Rhodes, local WRA official, stated.
A small group of the evacuees was expected to remain on the Monterey county side of the Pajaro valley. The remainder will be brought to Watsonville and probably housed temporarily in the Watsonville hostel (Buddhist temple) at Union and Bridge St.
Rhodes stated many of the Japanese were available for farm work if housing is provided for them. Housing is one of the most difficult aspects of replacement of the evacuees, Rhodes said.
When the exclusion program was ended, last week, approximately 77 Japanese had returned to the valley already. It is estimated that 40 per cent or approximately 900 of the 2300 Japanese evacuated in March 1942, will return to the Pajaro valley within six months or a year. At present, the valley's Japanese population stands around 150.
Washington (UP) - War Relocation Authority officials disclosed Friday that 8200 Japanese were moved early this month to a new segregation center at Tule Lake, Calif., and that by Jan. 1 there will be 10,000 more segregated at that camp.
The Japanese who have been and will be taken to the camp are those found disloyal to the United States among the 90,000 who were ousted from the Western Defense Command Area in the first year of war. Some, however, will be children and wives who choose to remain with the member of the family whose segregation is ordered.
The major move of disloyal Japanese was completed by the army Oct. 11. This also included the movement from Tule Lake of 6000 Japanese believed loyal to this country to one of the nine other camps maintained by the WRA.
Under the plan begun a year ago, the segregation of disloyal from loyal Japanese was to be completed by Oct. 20, but delay resulted because of the incompletion of housing facilities and the intensive investigation of thousands who pledged loyalty to the United States but whose pledge was suspected of being insincere.
WRA officials also disclosed that 15,000 Japanese have been permitted to leave the camps to take jobs after being cleared by intelligence agencies and an additional 7000 are out on temporary leave to fill seasonal jobs. The majority eligible for leave are reluctant to depart, however.
PHOENIX, Ariz. (UP) - U.S. District Judge Dave W. Ling Tuesday sentenced 98 Japanese-American draft registers to one year in prison.
Sentence was imposed on defendants in three test cases but is binding on all of the other Nisei from the Poston relocation center at Parker, Ariz., who refused to respond to selective service calls.
An appeal will be taken immediately to the U.S. circuit court of appeals and the case may go from there to the U.S. supreme court.
The cases were consolidated by agreement of the government and defense counsel. Judge Ling heard the testimony without a jury.
The court found the defendants guilty after overruling a motion to quash the indictments.
The American-born Japs, virtually all of them from California, asserted they were exempt from the draft since they were in effect military prisoners at the relocation center. Most of them have renounced American citizenship and asked to be sent to Japan after the war.
Second large group of returning Japanese to the Pajaro valley arrived Friday morning with 97 men, women and children leaving the train at Watsonville Junction, Fred Rhodes, local WRA official, announced.
With the exception of 10 or 15 Japanese going to Monterey, the remainder will stay here. Sixty of them will be housed, at least temporarily, in the hostel established in the Buddhist temple; the remainder have their own homes, Rhodes said.
The new arrivals bring the valley's Japanese population to nearly 250. WRA estimates show that 900 of the 2300 evacuated Japanese are expected to return eventually from relocation camps.
Thursday night, over 50 members of the CIO Agricultural Workers' union met at their hall, 115 Van Ness Ave., to hear Lt. Roger Smith, who fought with the Japanese-Americans of the 442nd combat team in Italy and France, relate his experiences. He was introduced by Earl Watters, ex-marine veteran of three years' South Pacific warfare and who is now with the WRA. Lt. Smith's appearance was arranged by Rhodes.
Lt. Smith, after explaining he volunteered for the assignment to speak in behalf of the American soldiers of Japanese descent of whose loyalty he is absolutely convinced, said he was proud to have served with the 442nd regiment and that "the Japanese-American troops proved themselves loyal at all times. According to the war department records and the appraisal of the outfits alongside of which they fought, they were the most outstanding combat team in the European theater of operations."
He called attention, also, to the 3000 to 5000 nisei soldiers in the Pacific area, "many of them in combat or performing hazardous jobs. Through the information they gained from the enemy and their efforts in persuading large numbers of Japanese to surrender, they shortened the war in the Pacific immeasurably," he said."
Further evidencing the need for national martial law, which Riptide consistently has advocated, is the action of the Civil Liberties Union which is endeavoring to nullify the evacuation of Japanese who are American citizens.
The organization contends it is unconstitutional to evacuate citizens of the nation without "due process of law," and is making a test case of the issue through the person of a young Japanese citizen who evaded the evacuation order hiding in a basement only to be caught some time later.
True though it may be that the Civil Liberties Union might have a case under normal conditions, it is to be remembered that we are not living in normal times.
All of us have been, and will be again many times before this war is ended, deprived of certain of our liberties and comforts of life without "due process of law." And we are not squawking about it. THIS IS WAR.
If President Roosevelt would declare MARTIAL LAW such cases which hamper our war effort could not arise. Under martial law all civil rights are abrogated.
The Civil Liberties Union is performing a disservice to our country in this attempt to nullify the evacuation of citizen Japanese, to say nothing of menacing the lives of our people and the safety of our nation.
It is better that a thousand loyal Japanese be interned than permit one traitor to go free and bring death to our boys."
Mr. Fred Jenkins, Editor Watsonville Register-Pajaronian Watsonville, California.
Dear Sir:
In regards to your editorials regarding to the Japanese questions, I think you are an egotistical fool. Any man of your capacity who makes such unethical statements as you have been making should have no place in an American journalistic field. You should be over in Germany working for Hitler or in Japan working for Tojo.
Do you consider for a minute that we American citizens of Japanese ancestry are being treated fairly in being placed in a concentration camp, although it is not called concentration camp by our government, but theoretically it is? We didn't complain when we were placed in the camp. Constitutionally, it was illegal to place us in the camp without due process of law. You know that yourself. I suppose you are afraid to admit it. If you don't happen to know that, you better go back to school and start all over again from the first grade. I've often wondered if you read the constitution of the United States of America. I have read it, and I know what it means to me. I cherish it more than anything else.
Ever since our evacuation you have been condemning American citizens of Japanese ancestry. You think the war was caused by us citizens. As far as the war is concerned we had no more to do with it than any other American citizens. You ought to know that, if you don't I am telling you so now.
It may be that you are influenced by outside interests, which I don't doubt it a bit. There are such organizations as the American Legion and the Native Sons of Golden West which have been raising a lot of stench. You take the Legion, they are suppose to be the veterans of the last World War. What did they fight for - to preserve the rights of man and our ways of living wasn't it? What are the boys in our armed forces doing now, same thing all over again. There are thousands of Japanese in our armed forces, in case you don't know. I for myself have two brothers in the armed forces, and I am proud of it. I have one who is training for combat duty at Camp Shelby, Mississippi with the rest of the soldiers of the Japanese ancestry. They are proud to be serving the country of their birth. According to the commanding officers, they are just as good as any American soldiers, if not better. These officers are proud to be their commanders. Doesn't that speak well for the Japanese-American soldiers?
At the present time our government have been asking for volunteers for the combat duty. Considering the situations we are in, the number of volunteers have exceeded expectation. That speaks pretty well for itself. If these boys had no faith in America they would have not volunteered.
At the time when we are trying to help out by volunteering for armed forces or working on the farms in various part of the United States to help out in the war efforts, you are still belittling us. That is uncalled for. Are you working for the axis propagandists? Your writings should sound good to Berlin, Tokyo or Rome. Do you get any satisfaction in making fantastic statements in your paper concerning us?
In regards to the release of internees or evacuees, as we are called, from the relocation centers, which you have been making lot of rumpus about; I don't think you know what procedures we have to go through in order to get our permit to relocate. If you do know, you are keeping it away from your readers. We have to have our past records checked by the War Relocaton authority and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After they check our records, if they find that we are all right, they will issue a leave clearance as soon as we find employment. By such process the loyal ones are separated from the disloyal ones; and only loyal ones are permitted to leave.
I don't think that you don't have to complain or worry about our release when the F.B.I. are taking care of it. They should know what to do better than you do. Anytime you should feel that you are capable of handling the Japanese questions better than the F.B.I., why don't you write to Mr. J. Edgar Hoover and apply for a job. He might be able to use you.
If you are a taxpayer, it might interest you to know that this fiscal year it is costing the government nearly 80 million dollars of the taxpayers' money just to operate the relocation centers. That is no chicken feed if you ask me. More the evacuees are released from the camps, the more it will relieve the taxpayers' burden, besides helping out the war effort so that the victory can come sooner.
Say Mr. Jenkins, why don't you come down to Poston and spend a week or so and look over the camp? I don't know if you have visited any of the War Relocation centers or not. If you haven't you should; it might alleviate your thoughts somewhat concerning us fellows who are interned here a little bit anyway. We are having a wonderful climate here now. The dust blows here so hard some days that sometimes you couldn't see more than few feet away from you. The sun is getting blistering hot now, just around hundred degrees or better during the hottest part of the day. Not bad, eh! All at the government's expenses.
The food is nothing to brag about. From what I have read in your paper as well as others, there seems to be an impression that we are being fed better than our armed forces. If it is true, I don't see how the soldiers can fight. If at any time you think we are being fed better than the armed forces, you better visit our camp and find out for yourself.
In closing let me remind you that the people like you are hampering with the government's effort to relocate us. Maybe you are enjoying yourself by butting into the government's affairs, but I don't think it will get you anywhere by bucking the government, for they are determined to go ahead with their relocation plans.
Yours truly, T. FUJITA Block 220-6A Colorado River Relocation Center Poston, Ariz., April 20, 1943
First and final account of Coroner Pat Freeman, administrator of the estate of George Michael Heckel, "an enemy alien," was filed in superior court yesterday, the final paragraph in the life of a Santa Cruzan who chose death to leaving his home.
Heckel, a 73-year-old German, lived at 134 Columbia street here for over a decade until the alien restriction law went into effect early in 1942. He had taken out his first citizenship papers, but hadn't gone further and had to move out of the restricted zone where he lived.
Heckel was despondent over moving, but he told his neighbor, Earl Kensinger, that perhaps he would move to Boulder Creek. However, nostalgia overcame him on a stormy February night and he walked down to the ocean, a short distance from his home, and then without leaving a note leaped into the ocean.
Three days later his body was found washed ashore and battered by the pounding breakers.
After the accounting of Administrator Freeman, it was found that the old man had bought a $500 war bond on January 1, 1942, just 24 days after Pearl Harbor.
A month later George Heckel was forced to leave from his home but instead he chose death.
He left no will and no relations, so his estate will revert to the state of California. After selling his real property, etc., Administrator Freeman announced Heckel's estate at $3,989.25, including a $500 war bond, cash, $526; 200 shares in the Dumbarton bridge, $74 , and U.S. savings bonds, purchased by the administrator, valued at $3000."