To the editor:
Quoting from G. W. Cornell's letter of Sept. 20 to the editor, "everything possible should be done to encourage all Japanese to return to their native land and..." Perhaps we could have just as easily relocated elsewhere but, my dear Mr. Cornell, because CALIFORNIA was our native land, we have returned.
In the spring of 1942, though charged with no crime, we were forcefully torn from our beloved home and lifelong, dear friends. With a lump in my throat, goodbyes were bade to fellow freshman classmates, wondering if we'd ever meet again. How clearly that day comes back to me now, the whole world seemed to crumble about us. Some of the evacuees were put behind barbed-wires in dusty Arizona, others in isolated camps in various parts of this country...our family was fortunate enough to be sent halfway across the continent to a camp in muddy Arkansas.
However, the greatest victim of this unrighteous uprooting of 70,000 American citizens certainly was not the Japanese-Americans themselves...rather, it was our basic concept of liberty, our standard of justice, and the appeal which we, as free people, should be making to the many oppressed people in the far corners of the world.
We love and intend to serve this great country with its high ideals. Hasn't America climbed to its present height of greatness because of the contributions of all racial groups? Is not our great American hero, Gen. Eisenhower, of German ancestry? It was certainly not for their own health that those Japanese-American boys fought so valiantly, giving of their blood, sweat, and tears, in some of the bitterest battles on the war fronts...no, they wanted to prove to doubting fellow-citizens of their undivided loyalty and devotion to this great country and the principles for which it stands.
Wouldn't it be indeed a wonderful world if each of us, rather than looking for the faults and ugliness in our neighbors and other nationalities, would just see the shortcomings and weaknesses in ourselves?
For those of you who still suspect our loyalty, we want you to know that we harbor no hatred toward you. Instead, we'll be praying for that glorious day when everyone all over this world, regardless of race, color, religion, background, or station in life, would all join hands together and live as God intended for us to live...as brothers.
Aiko Masada"
Only the possibility of serious harm to the nation could justify the compulsory uprooting of the thousands of American-born Japanese who are to be removed by the army from Pacific coast areas in which sabotage or aid to the enemy might be disastrous. The possibility did exist, and the presidential order for removal was imperatively needed. This is the opinion of calm thinkers who have the utmost regard for the civil rights of citizens.
"Unprecedented" is one of the terms of criticism voiced by the American Civil Liberties union. But unprecedented also is the residence in a vital combat zone of many thousands of American born individuals who are claimed as citizens by the country of their parents.
Few governments would have waited as long as the United States in trying to find a fair method of dealing with a section of the population so many of whom are open to suspicion as to their loyalty. For several weeks officials and ordinary citizens alike have sought a remedy that would preserve every peacetime right of every citizen and respect the undoubted fiction that the Japanese-American community on the Pacific coast was 100 per cent loyal.
Such a solution simply was not in the realm of possibilities. The presidential order, giving the army authority to evacuate all aliens or citizens deemed of doubtful trustworthiness in an emergency, is the only workable plan put forward.
Now that the order has been given, it should be made effective in the shortest possible time. Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens too, should be moved to inland points where they can best prove their loyalty to the United States by following the calling in which so many of them are proficient, agriculture. Thus they may help fill a national need and at the same time be self-supporting.
At the war's end, those Japanese-Americans, or even their alien parents, who have clear records on the books of our war department, will have won higher standing as Americans than they have been able to attain under the burden of dual citizenship which the Japanese government has forced upon them.
Their acceptance of the present inconvenience and of the tasks assigned to them will be the best evidence of loyalty. Kindly, generous treatment of them in their new status and cooperation at all points with the army in its problem will similarly give evidence of the loyalty of Americans in general to free and honorable traditions."
To the Editor: Your insipid and practically anti-democratic editorial in Tuesday evenings paper (regarding return of Japanese) is a sickening display of shoddy thinking to the mind of at least one soldier who has now served his country for over three years.
I am including a clipping from the News and hope you may profit by reading an editor who believes in our constitution and rights to all citizens instead of vested groups.
Perhaps it is too much to expect realistic thinking, or should I say honest, from an appeasement mind.
Let me assure you many, many soldiers are thinking seriously and discussing thoughtfully the problems of our country. We know full well that our form of government has been the best to date, but we do know that it can be improved by group effort. Those of the status quo school, you come too close to this group to be very helpful, are in for a rude shock if they think the American soldier doesn't know what he is fighting for. We are fighting for equal rights for all races and groups; opportunity for all, not those hereditarily fortunate.
I will continue my subscription, though I have never been so furious with an editorial as the one you had the nerve to foist on your readers Tuesday evening.
Your critic for a more democratic country.
CLARENCE A. MAHLER
Cpl. Jack E. Kirby of Freedom, captured by the Japs at the fall of Corregidor in May, 1942, and prisoner in various prison camps in the Philippines until Sept. 3, 1945, writes the following to the Register-Pajaronian:
"Since my return from the prison camps, I have been noting with growing alarm the discrimination against Americans of Japanese ancestry in this area. I went to school in Watsonville from the seventh grade on with these Americans, ran around with them, and candidly state some of my best friends here are Japanese.
"The difference in stature between the Japanese here and those over there is the difference between black and white. By stature, I mean not only shape and build but mind and motive as well. You undoubtedly know that outside of the American Indians, the Americans of Japanese ancestry have the highest percentage of volunteer record in our army. Why shouldn't I grant and fight for their equal opportunities.
"One of the real problems this area is facing is that of labor. I am convinced we need American labor and American laborers should be given first opportunity. If that is the case, let's use it. By that I mean the Americans, regardless of ancestry, English, Swiss, Italians, Japanese. Some people have been propagandanized to the point where they have lost sight of the truth that we fought for and what some of my buddies died for. The statement in the paper last Saturday by a large number of fellows from Camp McQuaide thoroughly expresses my sentiments, too. If fellows who have gone through the hell of war and prison camps can express so positively this conviction, how can some ignorant, pseudo-Americans successfully raise their voices? Let's be Americans about this!
CPL. JACK E. KIRBY"