Back
to the Decision to Intern Japanese Americans
John
L. De Witt to Karl R. Bendetsen
Transcript of telephone conversation
January 30, 1942
There’s
a tremendous volume of public opinion now developing against the
Japanese of all classes, that is aliens and nonaliens, to get
them off the land, and in Southern California around Los Angeles—in
that area too—they want and they are bringing pressure on
the government to move all the Japanese out. As a matter of fact,
it’s not being instigated or developed by people who are
not thinking but by the best people of California. Since the publication
of the Roberts Report they feel that they are living in the midst
of a lot of enemies. They don’t trust the Japanese, none
of them.
|