HUGE COAST AREA HIT BY NEW REGULATIONS
Italian, Japanese, and German aliens in all of Santa Cruz county will be subjected to a 9 p.m. curfew and be permitted to travel only between their homes and jobs after Feb. 24.
Meantime, in connection with yesterday's local evacuation order, Thomas Clark, alien co-ordinator for the western defense command, indicated "farm colonies might be established for enemy aliens and their families ordered out of vital defense areas."
The new order, originating Wednesday from the office of Attorney General Francis Biddle, includes a broader territory than the previous restricted area west of State Highway No. 1, from which all such aliens must evacuate by Feb. 24.
The curfew restrictions are:
1. Between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. all enemy aliens shall be within the place of residence indicated on their identification certificates.
2. At all other times they must be found only at the place of residence or employment indicated on their identification certificates, or going between these two places, or within an area of not more than five miles from the place of residence.
ARREST
Biddle said an enemy alien found during the curfew hours anywhere except at his home or place of employment would be subject to immediate arrest and internment.
He said exceptions would be granted by U.S. attorneys only in cases "where a compelling reason exists and after completion of a suitable investigation."
A large portion of California is affected by this latest ruling.
Biddle announced also that certain alien enemies may be excluded entirely from the restricted areas whenever the justice department deems such action necessary.
In this connection he called upon police or other persons in Santa Cruz, as well as other communities, in possession of information concerning enemy aliens whose presence within a restricted area might endanger the national security, to turn this information over to the federal bureau of investigation.
Clark also said instructions would be given the aliens shortly regarding disposition of themselves and their families after they leave the restricted defense area. He said federal agencies were ready to extend relief to such families if and when needed.
He did not indicate concerning the possibility of farm colonies whether they would be established in interior California or in some other states. Governor Culbert Olson said he did not believe there would be any mass exodus to states in the interior.
The proscribed area, about 500 miles long and varying from 30 to 150 miles in width, extends from the Oregon border along the coast line to a point about 50 miles north of Los Angeles.
Biddle explained that the restricted area does not extend south to the Mexican border because no recommendations for such action in southern sections of California had been received yet from the war department.
In addition, Biddle designated 11 more "restricted" areas in which enemy aliens must obey the curfew regulations. These were in the vicinity of hydro-electric generating plants throughout California.
In addition to the restricted areas, Biddle has established 86 prohibited areas in California. Enemy aliens must completely evacuate 69 of these areas by Feb. 15 and the other 17 by Feb. 24.
The extensive coastline region designated as "restricted Area No. 1" has an eastern boundary beginning at a point in Siskiyou county where U.S. Highway No. 99 crosses into Oregon. The boundary then juts west and south generally along the lines of the Klamath and Trinity rivers, approximately to the town of Redwood Valley, in Mendocino county.
CLEAR LAKE
At that point the boundary swings eastward just north of Clear Lake to Marysville, and then turns south, passing east of Sacramento and Stockton, and thence to a point just north of Maricopa.
The southern boundary of the area follows the line delineating the northern and southern California military sectors, which runs eastward from a point on the coast near the boundary between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
The other restricted areas designated today include property extending form 300 to 500 feet in any direction from the following hydro-electric generating plants of the Pacific Gas and Electric Co.: Hat Creek No. 1 and No. 2, and the Coleman plant, all in Shasta county; the De Salba plant, Butte county; the Colgate plant, Yuba county; the Spaulding No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 plants in Nevada and Placer counties; the Halsey plant, Placer county, and the Weise plant, Placer county.
The area within 500 feet in any direction from the Big Creek hydro-electric generating plant of the California Electric Pacific Co., located seven miles north of Bishop in Mono county, also was restricted.
Meantime, Donald Younger appealed to Governor Olson to use his influence toward creation of a federal agency to pass upon aliens "who might be given permits to continue working on ranches," under management of American citizens.
Younger's efforts are aimed, it was explained, to prevent disruption of important farming industries in this county and elsewhere along the coast.
HUGE ACREAGE
Explaining that Italian-Americans engaged in production of artichokes, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and other vegetables, occupy approximately 3500 acres of coastal land in Santa Cruz county, Younger said that the exclusion of such farmers from this region would result in serious financial and agricultural loss, in a night letter to the governor last Saturday.
In reply, the governor wired: "...I believe that farmers of Italian lineage who have not yet become citizens of the United States, but are thoroughly loyal to this country in its war with Italy, will not be disturbed in carrying on their agricultural production work. Press report had reference to denial of licenses to alien enemy produce distributors who, as such licensees, are given access to Army and Navy reserves and other vital defense areas. About seventy-five per cent of such licensees happen to be Japanese and the greater part of them are alien Japanese.
"As to all who are classified as alien enemies, careful surveys will be made and census taken so as to protect the innocent and the loyal from whom no sabotage or fifth column activities could spring. They will be given an opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States."
CHEERED BY ANSWER
Cheered by the governor's reply, Younger wired yesterday:
"Santa Cruz county Italian-American farmers, including American citizens employing aliens and aliens who are loyal to United States but neglected naturalization, were greatly heartened tonight by your telegram.
"United States attorney general Monday, announced fifteen additional areas in which enemy aliens will be excluded. Number 28 included land between state highway No. 1 and Pacific ocean or Monterey bay from Laguna creek, northerly of Santa Cruz, to Carmel river, Monterey county. This includes most of the acreage in Santa Cruz county that is farmed by Italian-Americans, much of which is not near any defense installation. It also includes major portion of Santa Cruz, including business area, but excluding reservoirs and public utility plants.
"Tuesday's Washington dispatches indicate no exceptions to alien evacuation orders, which is well for areas such as Camp McQuaide, Santa Cruz county, and Fort Ord, Monterey county, but would be hard on Santa Cruz county, which needs vegetables now produced by Italian-Americans.
"Santa Cruz coast farmers wonder if Attorney General Biddle could not approve of some federal agency, perhaps not even connected with the United States department of agriculture, or some state agency, appointing voluntary, independent committee in each county to pass upon or recommend aliens who might be given permits to continue working on ranches, perhaps providing ranches must be managed by a citizen. Bond or other security might even be required before issuance of such permit. Believe such a committee or commission and bond authorized under section 21 of title 50 of the United States Code."
(In San Francisco News) A Japanese-American is an American citizen of Japanese racial extraction. He is a citizen because he was born in the United States. A Japanese born outside of this country can not be a citizen by naturalization.
But under the 14th amendment to the constitution any person born in the United States is an American citizen by the mere fact of birth here. This amendment was incorporated in the constitution a few years after the Civil war to reaffirm the citizenship of the emancipated colored people.
The war between America and Japan revealed the attitude of the American government and people towards the Japanese-American. Without challenging his citizenship or casting a blanket charge against his loyalty, they believed that his close association with the alien Japanese both here and in Japan made him a potential danger to the security of this country.
Therefore, as a war measure his residence, movements, and activities were placed under restriction and supervision. This action was held to be a protection for the majority from a group so regarded as was the Japanese-American as well as a protection for the group itself at a time when public feeling against it ran high and when the government must prevent all internal dissensions.
The liberal and minority groups in this country made only perfunctory protests against the Japanese-American segregation, making it clear, however, that fundamental constitutional principles were not involved in the case and recognizing, moreover, that when public safety so requires the constitution itself authorizes the temporary suspension of personal civil rights like the right of habeas corpus.
These are stern realities.They happened here. And there is no guarantee that they will not happen again in other forms. The loyalty of the majority of the Japanese-Americans manifested chiefly by their acquiescence in the plans of the American government for them was generally considered as strictly formal and was not enough to allay the suspicion of potential disloyalty that clung and still clings around them as a group. The patriotic service of some of them in the armed forces of the United States was completely neutralized by the disloyalty openly and proudly expressed by not a few of them at the Government relocation centers.
When peace comes, the Japanese-American can not again be really happy here. He will always have to deliver more than sixteen ounces to every pound in whatever he does or says. He will be enveloped in an atmosphere of silent hostility. He will feel keenly like a foreigner in the country of his birth as often, in his spiritual life, he must feel as keenly like a deserter from the country of his fathers. He needs to be in his elements to be natural and Japan seems to be the best place for him.
These things belong to the realm of the spirit and are deep and abiding, and man-made laws will effect an amelioration but not their elimination. "It is one of those things" and it will remain so. All in all, the Japanese-Americans as well as the other American citizens would be happier if they didn't continue the grandiose fiction that they feel towards each other like fellow citizens whose rights and privileges are sacredly equal when in the domain of realities they are not.
So, after the war, with hard lessons learned and new duties beckoning, I would do the following things if I were a Japanese-American citizen who had to live in a relocation center during the war by order of the American government and with the approval of the American people:
1. I would overlook the legal and/or legalistic considerations surrounding my American citizenship and its treatment while the emergency of war lasted.
2. I would remember the fact, without admitting that I am a slacker, that I wasn't required by the government to risk my life in the war while other American citizens were so required with the result that many of them were wounded, shocked or killed.
3. I would thank God that I am still in the land of the living and thank the American government for returning my property to me and taking care of it while the war was in progress.
4. I would intensify my feeling of gratitude for the United States for the opportunity in pre-war times to have lived, worked and prospered under its flag, the result of all of which was to make me more useful to myself, my family and my fellowmen.
5. I would be grateful to those Americans who sympathized with my fate but could do nothing in the emergency as well as to those, including public officials, who protected those of my rights that did not impinge upon the security of the nation at war.
6. I would go to Japan with my family and my savings armed with the determination to show to the Japanese people, by precept and example, the way of life that has made the American people free, contented, prosperous and peace-loving.
7. I would use my savings, my experience and my enthusiasm to start business enterprises in Japan to give employment to people and help in the post-war reconstruction of the country. (The Japanese assets in the United States are approximately 150 million dollars, which would be a sizeable block of capital in impoverished Japan.)
8. I would appeal to Japanese in other parts of the world, especially in Latin America, to follow my example and go to Japan to help rebuild it materially and regenerate it spiritually. (In Latin America there are some 250,000 Japanese, while in the United States, including Hawaii, there are some 300,000 both citizens and aliens).
9. I would strive in every way possible to establish peaceful, friendly and beneficial relations between the land of my birth - the United States and the land of my fathers - Japan.
10. I would do these things cheerfully and resolutely after knowing what I have known and after satisfying myself that I could do something to help the land of my fathers to abandon its medieval ideas and to realize its enlightened role in the orderly progress of mankind.
11. Finally, I would hold the foregoing expressions as my acceptance of the challenge to what is noblest and strongest in me and as my contribution to the reconstitution of moral and material values that must be at the foundation of the new world, humbled, purified and reconciled."
SALINAS (Special to Register-Pajaronian) - The Monterey Bay Empire, which takes in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties, has a serious question facing it, as the Japanese begin to return to this area. Sincere, unselfish, unprejudiced, thinking and planning is necessary to the proper solution of this question. Prominent, patriotic citizens have been meeting for months in dispassionate discussion, keeping principally in mind the future generations in the United States of America, particularly the Pacific coast states.
This group is filing articles of incorporation, associating themselves under the name of "Monterey Bay Council on Japanese Relations," and will invite all citizens in the area to join the organization, and extend a special invitation to those citizens who might feel opposed to some of their contemplated plans and actions "for in America we can have opposing ideas and still get along together," its leaders say.
No one knows for a certainty what is the correct thing to do in all instances when such a large important question is under consideration, it was declared.
The articles of incorporation include a statement of the general purposes of the organization, which reads as follows:
"1. To conduct by all proper and lawful means an educational program regarding the background, history, pre-war activities and future disposition of Japanese in the United States of America.
"2. To exercise all legal means: (a) To discourage the return to the Pacific coast of any person of Japanese ancestry not in the uniform of the armed services of the United States. (b) To insist upon the deportation after the war of all alien Japanese whose loyalty to the United States or whose past affiliation or actions have demonstrated interest inimical to the welfare of the United States. (c) To insist upon the strict supervision, and regulation by local, state and federal government of all Japanese schools, societies and organizations in this country. (d) To promote further legislation and insist upon strict enforcement of existing laws so as to completely eliminate dual citizenship. (e) To strengthen and demand strict enforcement of the existing Japanese alien land laws."
Mass meetings are planned for the near future, and all of the activities of the organization will be open to the public at all times. The Monterey Bay Council on Japanese Relations headquarters are 601 Salinas National Bank building, Salinas."
Sacramento (UP) - Gov. Earl Warren Tuesday signed the Engle bill (SB140) putting more "teeth" into the Alien Land Law of 1920 designed to prevent Japanese from farming in the manner they used before the war.
The new act outlaws the practice of many alien Japanese of farming by acting as guardians of their wives and children in whom title was vested under the law governing guardianship. It prevents any agreement made in the name of the wife or children of an ineligible alien for the use or transfer of land when the alien himself is allowed thereunder to enjoy beneficial use of the land.
Any violation of the act is a felony whereas the present statutes only cover a conspiracy to violate the act. Guardians may not farm nor manage lands in a guardianship except in the exclusive use and benefit of the ward.
The measure was sponsored by the District Attorneys' association, Native Sons of the Golden West, American Legion, and Attorney General. Sen. Clair Engle, Red Bluff, was the author."
SAN FRANCISCO (UP) - Japanese-American evacuees who could fill at least 15,000 vital industrial and farm jobs are hesitating about returning here because of concern over housing and employment, Harold Boyd, chairman of the Council for Civic Unity of San Francisco, said Friday.
Boyd asserted that this is "hindering the war effort," and that the concern of the nisei has been due to a "misunderstanding" about available housing and employment. "The nisei are among the most skillful farmers," he said, "and farmers who have gladly used German war prisoners as farm labor, would be glad to employ American citizens of Japanese ancestry as free labor."
Only 12 Japanese have returned to the west coast since revocation of an army exclusion order against them."
JAPANESE AMERICANS IN DRIVE THIS WEEK; PARENTS ASSISTING
A goal of $25,000 was set by the defense bonds committee of the local Japanese American Citizens League chapter as the campaign among members and Japanese families in this valley expected to get underway this week.
Albert Umino, chairman, and his precinct captains composed of Jimmy Hirokawa, Taira Fujimoto, Bill Shirachi, Min Hamada, Louie Waki, and Dr. Ito will rally every possible aid to conduct the drive successfully and to do their part in the preservation and perpetuation of liberty and the democratic way of life.
An "all-out" defense of this country was keynoted in the discussions and recommendations made at the board of governors meeting Saturday evening. As evidence of their faith in the government of the United States and their position in the world crisis, voluntary subscriptions of larger denominational bonds were purchased by parents of the JACL members. These advance subscribers will head the list of the stamps and bond purchases to be made by the members and their parents.
The board of governors announced the appointment of Yoshiye Takata as part-time secretary to manage the temporary headquarters to be maintained in the office of Dr. Frank Ito with hours being 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. daily during the week.
"We also serve" badges are being sold by Pearl Matsumoto and Kikuye Takata which will supplement the emergency funds and the pins may also be obtained at the office of the local headquarters.
Under the chairmanship of John Yamauchi the annual membership enrollment drive will begin and will include new members. Acting under instructions from the national headquarters the membership committee will request the presentation of birth certificates to renew and enroll the membership this year. The request concurs with the purposes of the JACL as expressed in the national slogan which reads: "For better Americans in Greater America."
One thousand one hundred and ninety six persons of Japanese origin or descent will leave Santa Cruz county this week for the reception center on the rodeo grounds at Salinas. Thence they will go to colonies in inland areas.
The 1196 will represent 216 families who signed up with the Civilian Wartime Control Administration in the memorial building in Watsonville Friday and yesterday.
Of the 1196 total, the north end of Santa Cruz county will send 86, representing 17 families, most of whom have been resident on berry farms.
The first contingent to leave from the memorial building in Watsonville will be 52 Japanese, representing the families of workers who will be employed at the reception center as cooks, butchers, bakers or in similar capacities.
Families will be kept intact.
The rest of the Japanese will leave the Watsonville center at hours which have been assigned them on Wednesday and Thursday.
The evacuees may use their own automobiles to travel to the Watsonville memorial building, but from that point their trip to Salinas will be by bus.
12,000 ON COAST
San Francisco, April 25 (AP) Over 12,000 additional Japanese in northern and southern California, and at Seattle, Wash. have registered during the last two days for processing incident to their evacuation from these areas, the army's wartime civil control administration announced tonight.
Registration in certain of the areas will continue through tomorrow, bringing the total figure higher.
WILL DO THEIR BEST ON FARMS SAYS I MOTOKI
Approximately 200 Japanese families will remain in the Pajaro valley until the official moving notice following the voluntary evacuation deadline at midnight Sunday.
I. Motoki, who was secretary of the now disbanded Japanese association, reported some 25 families would leave before Sunday midnight.
"Those Japanese staying on the farms here will do their best and put all their efforts into farming as the United States government requests until they are evacuated under official army orders," Motoki declared.
He added that he will be the last Japanese to leave and will assist Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans in final details such as cleaning up debts, moving, etc. His office is at 59 Union street, telephone 1434.
Motoki added that Japanese farms "look good this year with fine crops of berries, lettuce and garlic expected."
Enemy aliens or citizens of Japanese descent seeking to evacuate the prohibited area voluntarily may obtain travel permits from the office of the U.S. employment service, 21 West Lake avenue. The office was scheduled to remain open all day Saturday and Sunday, and John I. Sutton, manager, said it would be open Saturday and Sunday evenings for persons unable to call during normal working hours who telephone 1271 for appointments.
Squadrons of police and FBI agents, meanwhile, swept across northern California Saturday, arresting Japanese aliens affiliated with secret societies and considered dangerous.
For Japanese who remain, a curfew was in effect between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. throughout the coastal area."
ARMY HEADQUARTERS, Pacific Ocean Areas (UP) - American soldiers of Japanese ancestry suffered 2111 casualties in the European war, an army compilation showed Tuesday.
The total covered battles in Italy and France and included 361 killed in action, 49 died of wounds, 1651 wounded, 34 missing and six captured.
Japanese-American soldiers fought in the 100th infantry battalion and the 442nd regimental combat team. Both outfits included large numbers of Hawaii's Japanese.
They were conspicuous especially in the Italian campaign, landing at Salerno and fighting into Cassino and Rome.
American-Born Included in Army Order
Twenty-five hundred Japanese, both alien and American-born, German and Italians will leave the Pajaro valley under evacuation plans announced Tuesday by the army.
No deadlines have been set, but both enemy aliens and American-born Japanese will be ousted gradually from the western half of the states of Washington, Oregon and California and the southern half of Arizona. The army Tuesday declared that district a military area.
The Pajaro valley, which contains an estimated 2500 persons of Japanese nationality or ancestry, will be one of the areas most affected by the order issued Tuesday by Lt.-Gen. John L. DeWitt, chief of the western defense command. Of the valley's population of approximately 25,000, Japanese and Japanese Americans make up about 10 per cent.
Created in the most drastic step yet taken toward enemy alien control, the area was designed by Gen. DeWitt under authority granted by President Roosevelt. It will affect 140,000 enemy aliens and 70,000 American-born Japanese. California alone has 93,000 alien and American-born Japanese.
Gen. DeWitt emphasized that the proclamation merely sets up the prohibited and restricted areas on the coast and does not represent an order for aliens and Japanese-Americans to move out. Evacuation will be ordered later, with enough time being given to avoid serious hardships to aliens.
The general advised, however, that "those Japanese and other aliens who move into the interior out of this area now will gain considerable advantage and in all probability will not again be disturbed."
Japanese, Japanese-Americans and Germans and Italians in the Pajaro valley will be affected this way by Tuesday's proclamation:
They will not be required to move at once. Eventually, under orders to be issued later, Japanese and Japanese-Americans will be required to leave the coastal area completely. Some under army permission, may be allowed to live and work in a "restricted zone" in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. The rest will be required to move east of a line roughly following the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Gen. DeWitt said immediate compulsory mass evacuation of all enemy aliens and American-born Japanese was not practicable and that there would be no mass evacuation. The entire process, he said, will be progressive and gradual, aimed at clearing the vital district but avoiding economic hardship to the extent consistent with the military urgency which impelled the action.
The proclamation set up two special areas and 101 specific zones in this pattern:
1. Military area No. 1: the western half of the three coastal states, the southern border area of California and the southern half of Arizona. 2. Military area No. 2: the parts of the four states not included in No. 1. Enemy aliens and Japanese-Americans may live there. 3. Special prohibited zones A-1 through A-99 inclusive. They include power plants and key military areas in the "restricted zone," where aliens will be barred although they may, under permit, be living in the restricted zone.
DeWitt said future proclamations affecting the area will be concerned with five classes of persons, namely:
Class 1 - Persons suspected of espionage, sabotage, fifth column or other subversive activity. Class 2 - Japanese aliens. Class 3 - American-born persons of Japanese lineage. Class 4 - German aliens. Class 5 - Italian aliens.
Persons in class 1 are already being apprehended, DeWitt said, and the evacuation program does not concern them.
"Evacuation from military areas will be a continuing process," the military commander said. "Persons in Classes 2 and 3 (alien and American-born Japanese) will be required by future orders to leave certain critical points within the military areas first. These areas will be defined and announced shortly. After exclusion (of aliens and American-born Japanese) has been completed around the most strategic areas, a gradual program of exclusion from the remainder of Military Area No. 1 (all of California except the eastern mountains) will by developed."
When the work is completed, German and Italian aliens will be next in line for evacuation. Germans and Italians over 70 years of age will not have to move unless suspected of enemy activity, the general said. Families of Germans and Italians in the American armed forces also will be exempted unless suspected, the general said.
Boundaries of the prohibited military zone and the restricted zone will be defined in maps to be published in this newspaper within the next few days. In the Monterey Bay area, the prohibited zone extends back from the coast to points east of San Jose, Gilroy, Hollister and Tres Pinos. In other parts of the state the boundary line runs east of Willits, Santa Rosa, Vallejo, San Luis Obispo, Santa Paula, Burbank, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Escondido, and north of El Centro and Holtville in the Imperial valley. The restricted zone, in which aliens may be permitted under special authorization, includes most of the rest of the state's populated area except for the extreme eastern strip of the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys.
Enemy aliens and American-born Japanese will be required to register changes of address under a procedure yet to be announced.
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