(Editor's note: Itsumi Oita, co-winner of the American Legion Armistice Day oratorical contest, was invited to contribute a guest editorial this week and to express the feelings of the Americans of Japanese ancestry in regard to the war.)

Although this article is my own opinion, I know that I speak for all the Japanese American students in Watsonville high school when I say that loyalty to the United States, the country in which I was born and which I love, is foremost in my mind. Words are sometimes poor instruments of expression. We have no divided allegiance. We are for America.

We Japanese American citizens fully realize the great responsibility upon us to prove this loyalty by our actions.

Our parents came here from Japan many years ago. They came here because they wanted a better way of life, and they are not citizens only because the laws of our country bar them from that great honor. We, the second and third generations, are citizens; we are proud to be citizens of the United States. As citizens we are not only willing but eager to serve America in every way. Many of our brothers, over 2500 of them, are now serving in the United States army. We, too, when we are old enough, will serve. We, too, will fight for our country against our enemies, whoever they may be.