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Exclusion
Poster
WESTERN
DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY
WARTIME CIVIL CONTROL ADMINISTRATION
Presidio of San Francisco, California
May 3, 1942
INSTRUCTIONS
TO ALL PERSONS OF
JAPANESE
ANCESTRY
Living
in the Following Area:
All of that portion of the City of Los Angeles, State of California,
within that boundary beginning at the point at which North Figueron
Street meets a line following the middle of the Los Angeles River;
thence southerly and following the said line to East First Street;
thence westerly on East First Street to Alameda Street; thence
southerly on Alameda Street to East Third Street; thence northwesterly
on East Third Street to Main Street; thence northerly on Main
Street to First Street; thence north- westerly on First Street
to Figueron Street; thence northeasterly on Figueron Street to
the point of beginning.
Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 33,
this Headquarters, dated May 3, 1942, all persons of Japanese
ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the
above area by 12 o'clock noon, P. W. T., Saturday, May 9, 1942.
No Japanese person living in the above area will be permitted
to change residence after 12 o'clock noon, P. W. T., Sunday, May
3, 1942, without obtaining special permission from the representative
of the Commanding General, Southern California Sector, at the
Civil Control Station located at:
Japanese
Union Church,
120 North San Pedro Street,
Los Angeles, California.
Such permits will only be granted for the purpose of uniting members
of a family, or in cases of grave emergency.
The Civil Control Station is equipped to assist the Japanese population
affected by this evacuation in the following ways:
1. Give advice and instructions on the evacuation.
2. Provide services with respect to the management, leasing, sale,
storage or other disposition of most kinds of property, such as
real estate, business and professional equipment, household goods,
boats, automobiles and livestock.
3. Provide temporary residence elsewhere for all Japanese in family
groups.
4. Transport persons and a limited amount of clothing and equipment
to their new residence.
The
Following Instructions Must Be Observed:
1. A responsible member of each family, preferably the head of
the family, or the person in whose name most of the property is
held, and each individual living alone, will report to the Civil
Control Station to receive further instructions. This must be
done between 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Monday, May 4, 1942,
or between 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. on Tuesday, May 5, 1942.
2. Evacuees must carry with them on departure for the Assembly
Center, the following property:
(a) Bedding and linens (no mattress) for each member of the family;
(b) Toilet articles for each member of the family;
(c) Extra clothing for each member of the family;
(d) Sufficient knives, forks, spoons, plates, bowls and cups for
each member of the family;
(e) Essential personal effects for each member of the family.
All items carried will be securely packaged, tied and plainly
marked with the name of the owner and numbered in accordance with
instructions obtained at the Civil Control Station. The size and
number of packages is limited to that which can be carried by
the individual or family group.
3. No pets of any kind will be permitted.
4. No personal items and no household goods will be shipped to
the Assembly Center.
5. The United States Government through its agencies will provide
for the storage, at the sole risk of the owner, of the more substantial
household items, such as iceboxes, washing machines, pianos and
other heavy furniture. Cooking utensils and other small items
will be accepted for storage if crated, packed and plainly marked
with the name and address of the owner. Only one name and address
will be used by a given family.
6. Each family, and individual living alone will be furnished
transportation to the Assembly Center or will be authorized to
travel by private automobile in a supervised group. All instructions
pertaining to the movement will be obtained at the Civil Control
Station.
Go to the Civil Control Station between the hours of 8:00 A. M.
and 5:00 P. M.,
Monday, May 4, 1942, or between the hours of 8:00 A. M. and 5:00
P. M.,
Tuesday, May 5, 1942, to receive further instructions.
J. L. DeWITT
Lieutenant General, U. S. Army
Commanding
SEE CIVILIAN EXCLUSION ORDER NO. 33.
RELOCATION
of Japanese Americans
War Relocation Authority
Washington, D.C.
May 1943
________________________________________
Background
During the spring and summer of 1942, the United States Government
carried out, in remarkably short time and without serious incident,
one of the largest controlled migrations in history. This was
the movement of 110,000 people of Japanese descent from their
homes in an area bordering the Pacific coast into 10 wartime communities
constructed in remote areas between the Sierra Nevada Mountains
and the Mississippi River.
The evacuation of these people was started in the early spring
of 1942. At that time, with the invasion of the west coast looming
as an imminent possibility, the Western Defense Command of the
United States Army decided that the military situation required
the removal of all person of Japanese ancestry from a broad coastal
strip. In the weeks that followed, both American-born and alien
Japanese residents were moved from a prescribed zone comprising
the entire State of California, the western half of Oregon and
Washington, and the southern third of Arizona.
The Relocation Program
The United States Government having called upon these people to
move from their homes, also assumed a responsibility for helping
them to become established. To carry out this responsibility,
the President on March 18, 1942, created a civilian agency known
as the War Relocation Authority.
The job of this agency, briefly, is to assist in the relocation
of any persons who may be required by the Army to move from their
homes in the interest of military security. So far, the work of
the WRA has been concerned almost exclusively with people of Japanese
descent who formerly lived close to the Pacific rim of the country.
At first, plans were made by the Western Defense Command and the
WRA to build accomodations only for a portion of the 110,000 evacuated
people. A considerable percentage of them, it was hoped, would
move out of the restricted area and resettle inland on their own
initiative. During March of 1942, some 8,000 actually did move,
but the great majority were held back by limited resources, general
uncertainty, and mounting signs of community hostility in the
intermountain region. By the latter part of March, it had become
apparent that such a large-scale exodus could be handled effectively
on a planned and systematic basis. Accordingly, all further voluntary
evacuation was halted by the Western Defense Command on March
29 and plans were initiated by the WRA for establishing relocation
centers with sufficient capacity and facilities to handle the
entire evacuated population for as long as might be necessary.
The relocation centers, however, are NOT and ever were intended
to be internment camps or places of confinement. They were established
for two primary purposes: (1) To provide communities where evacuees
might live and contribute, through their work, to their own support
pending their gradual reabsorption into private employment and
normal American life; and (2) to serve as wartime homes for those
evacuees who might be unable or unfit to relocate in ordinary
American communities. Under regulations adopted in September of
1942, the War Relocation Authority is now working toward a steady
depopulation of the centers by urging all able-bodied residents
with good records of behavior to reenter private employment in
agriculture or industry.
The procedures are relatively simple. At a number of key cities
throughout the interior of the country, the WRA has field employees
known as relocation officers and relocation supervisors. These
men, working in close collaboration with local volunteer committees
of interested citizens and with the United States Employment Service,
seek out employment opportunities for evacuees in their respective
areas and channel such information to the relocation centers where
an effort is made to match up the jobs with the most likely evacuee
candidates. Direct negotiations are then started between the employer
and the potential employee and final arrangements are made ordinarily
by mail.
Before any evacuee is permitted to leave a relocation center for
the purpose of taking a job or establishing normal residence,
however, certain requirements must be met:
1. A careful check is made of the evacuee's behavior record at
the relocation center and of other information in the hands of
the WRA. In all questionable cases, any information in the possession
of the federal investigative agencies is requested and studied.
If there is any evidence from any source that the evacuee might
endanger the security of the Nation, permission for indefinite
leave is denied.
2. There must be reasonable assurance from responsible officials
or citizens regarding local sentiment in the community where the
evacuee plans to settle. If community sentiment appears so hostile
to all persons of Japanese descent that the presence of the evacuee
seems likely to cause trouble, the evacuee is so advised and discouraged
from relocating in that particular area.
3. Indefinite leave is granted only to evacuees who have a definite
place to go and some means of support.
4. Each evacuee going out on indefinite leave must agree to keep
the WRA informed of any change of job or address.
The primary purpose of this program is to restore as many of the
evacuees as possible to productive life in normal American communities.
The specific procedures being followed have been approved by the
Department of Justice as sound from the standpoint of national
security and have been endorsed by the War Manpower Commission
as a contribution to national manpower needs. As the program moves
forward, the costs of maintenance of the relocation centers will
be steadily reduced.
Persons
interested in employing evacuees from relocations centers for
any sort of work should communicate with the nearest relocation
supervisor of the WRA. The addresses and names of these supervisors
are:
The
Evacuated People
In
the interest of both accuracy and fairness, it is important to
distinguish sharply between the residents of relocation centers
and the militarists of Imperial Japan. Two-thirds of the people
in the centers are American citizens, born in this country and
educated, for the most part, in American public schools. At all
centers, the residents have bought thousands of dollars worth
of war bonds and have made significant contributions to the American
Red Cross. Many of them have sons, husbands, and brothers in the
United States Army. Even the aliens among them have nearly all
lived in the United States for two decades or longer. And it is
important to remember that these particular aliens have been denied
the privilege of gaining American citizenship under our laws.
It
is also important to distinguish between residents of relocation
centers and civilian internees. Under our laws, aliens of enemy
nationality who are found guilty of acts or intentions against
the security of the Nation are being confined in internment camps
which are administered not by the War Relocation Authority but
the Department of Justice. American citizens suspected of subversive
activities are being handled through the ordinary courts. The
residents of the relocation centers, however, have never been
found guilty–either individually or collectively–of
any such acts or intentions. They are merely a group of American
residents who happen to have Japanese ancestors and who happened
to be living in a potential combat zone shortly after the outbreak
of war. All evidences available to the War Relocation Authority
indicates that the great majority of them are completely loyal
to the United States.
The
Relocation Centers
The
physical standards of life in the relocation centers have never
been much above the bare subsistence level. For some few of the
evacuees, these standards perhaps represent a slight improvement
over those enjoyed before evacuation. But for the great majority
of the evacuated people, the environment of the centers–despite
all efforts to make them livable–remains subnormal and probably
always will be. In spite of the leave privileges, the movement
of evacuees while they reside at the centers is necessarily somewhat
restricted and a certain feeling of isolation and confinement
is almost inevitable.
Housing
is provided for the evacuee residents of the centers in tarpaper-covered
barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking
facilities of any kind. Most of these barracks are partitioned
off so that a family of five or six, for example, will normally
occupy a single room 25 by 20 feet. Bachelors and other unattached
evacuees live mainly in unpartitioned barracks which have been
established as dormitories. The only furnishings provided by the
Government in the residence barracks are standard Army cots and
blankets and small heating stoves. One bath, laundry, and toilet
building is available for each block of barracks and is shared
by upwards of 250 people.
Food
is furnished by the Government for all evacuee residents. The
meals are planned at an average cost of not more than 45 cents
per person per day (the actual cost, as this is written, has averaged
almost 48 cents), are prepared by evacuee cooks, and are served
generally cafeteria style in mess halls that accommodate between
250 and 300 persons. At all centers, Government-owned or Government-leased
farmlands are being operated by evacuee agricultural crews to
produce a considerable share of the vegetables needed in the mess
halls. At nearly all centers, the farm program also includes the
production of poultry, eggs, and pork; and at a few the evacuees
are raising beef and dairy products. Every evacuee is subject
to the same food rationing restrictions as all other residents
of the United States.
Medical
care is available to all evacuee residents of relocation centers
without charge. Hospitals have been built at all the centers and
are manned in large part by doctors, nurses, nurses' aides, and
technicians from the evacuee population. Simple dental and optical
services are also provided and special care is given to infants
and nursing mothers. Evacuees requesting special medical services
not available at the centers are required to pay for the cost
of such services. As all centers, in view of the crowded and abnormal
living conditions, special sanitary precautions are necessary
to safeguard the community health and prevent the outbreak of
epidemics.
Work
opportunities of many kinds are made available to able-bodied
evacuee residents at relocation centers. The policy of WRA is
to make the fullest-possible use of evacuee skills and manpower
in all jobs that are essential to community operations. Evacuees
are employed in the mess halls, on the farms, in the hospitals,
on the internal police force, in construction and road maintenance
works, in clerical and stenographic jobs, and in may other lines
of activity. Most of those who work are paid at the rate of $16
a month for a 44-hour week. Apprentices and others requiring close
supervision receive $12 while those with professional skills,
supervisory responsibilities, or unusually difficult duties are
paid $19. In addition, each evacuee working at a relocation center
receives a small monthly allowance for the purchase of work clothing
for himself and personal clothing for his dependents. Opportunities
for economic gain in the ordinary sense are almost completely
lacking to the residents of the centers.
Education
through the high-school level is provided by WRA for all school-age
residents of the relocation center. High schools are being built
at most of the centers, but grade-school classes will continue
to be held in barrack buildings which have been converted for
classroom use. Courses of study have been planned and teachers
have been selected in close collaboration with State departments
of education and in conformity with prevailing State standards.
Roughly one-half of the teachers in the schools have been recruited
from the evacuee population. Japanese language schools of the
type common on the west coast prior to evacuation are expressly
forbidden at all relocation centers.
Vocational
training is provided at relocation centers as part of the regular
school program for youngsters in connection with the employment
program for adults. The purpose of this training is twofold: (1)
To equip the evacuee residents so that they will be able to play
a more productive role in agriculture or industry outside the
centers and (2) to provide potential replacements at the centers
for those who go out on indefinite leave.
Internal
security at each relocation center is maintained by a special
police force composed largely of able-bodied evacuee residents
and headed by a nonevacuee chief plus a few nonevacuee assistants.
Misdemeanors and other similar offenses are ordinarily handled
by the Project Director or by a judicial commission made up of
evacuee residents. The maximum penalty for such offenses is imprisonment
or suspension of work and compensation privileges for a period
of 3 months. Major criminal cases are turned over to the outside
courts having appropriate jurisdiction. At each center, the exterior
boundaries are guarded by a company of military police who may
be called into the center in cases of emergency. The Federal Bureau
of Investigation is also called in from time to time as the need
arises.
Consumer
enterprises, such as stores, canteens, barber shops, and shoe-repair
establishments are maintained at the relocation centers in order
to that the residents may purchase goods and services which are
not provided as part of the regular subsistence. These enterprises
are all self-supporting and are managed by evacuee residents mainly
on a consumer cooperative basis. Each resident is eligible for
membership in the relocation center cooperative association and
all members are entitled to patronage dividends which are derived
from the profits and based on the individual volume of purchases.
As rapidly as possible the cooperative associations are being
incorporated under appropriate laws.
Evacuee
government is practiced in one form or another at every relocation
center. In some of the centers, formal chargers have been drawn
up and evacuee governments roughly paralleling those found in
ordinary cities of similar size have been established. In others,
evacuee participation in community government has been along more
informal lines and has consisted largely of conferences held by
a small group of key residents with the Project Director whenever
important decisions affecting the population must be reached.
The evacuee governmental set-up is not in any sense a substitute
for the administration provided by the WRA Project Director and
his staff, but residents are encouraged to assume responsibility
for many phases of community management.
Religion
is practiced at relocation centers with the same freedom that
prevails throughout the United States. Nearly half of the evacuees
are Christian church members. No church buildings have been provided
by the Government but ordinary barracks are used for services
by Protestants, Catholics, and Buddhists alike. Ministers and
priests from the evacuee population are free to carry on their
religious activities at the centers and may also hold other jobs
in connection with the center administration. Such workers, however,
are not paid by WRA for the performance of their religious duties.
Leisure-time
activities at the centers are planned and organized largely by
the evacuee residents. The WRA merely furnishes advice and guidance
and makes certain areas and buildings available for recreational
purposes. At each center, recreational activities of one sort
or another have been organized for all groups of residents from
the smallest children to the oldest men and women. Local branches
of national organizations such as the Red Cross, the YMCA, the
YWCA, and the Boy Scouts are definitely encouraged. At some of
the centers, athletic contests are arranged periodically with
teams from nearby towns.
Student
Relocation
Although
the War Relocation Authority is placing first emphasis on relocation
of evacuees in private employment, student evacuees are also being
permitted to leave the centers for purposes of beginning or continuing
a higher education. Applicants for student leave much meet the
same requirements as all other applicants for indefinite leave
and are permitted to enroll only at institutions where no objection
to the attendance of evacuee students has been raised by either
the War or Navy Department. The WRA provides no financial assistance
to evacuees going out on student leave.
Conservation
of Evacuee Property
When
110,000 people of Japanese descent were evacuated from the Pacific
coast military area during the spring and summer of 1942, they
left behind in their former locations an estimated total of approximately
$200,000,000 worth of real, commercial and personal property.
These properties range from simply household appliances to extensive
commercial and agricultural holdings.
At
the time of evacuation, many of the evacuees disposed of their
properties, especially their household goods, in quick sales that
frequently involved heavy financial losses. The majority, however,
placed their household furnishings in storage and retained their
interest in other holdings even after they were personally transferred
to relocation centers. Since these people are not in the position
of absentee owners and since many of their properties are highly
valuable in the war production effort, the War Relocation Authority
is actively assisting them to keep their commercial and agricultural
properties in productive use though lease or sale and is helping
them in connection with a wide variety of other property problems.
To
carry out this work, the Authority maintains an Evacuee Property
Office in San Francisco with branches in Los Angeles and Seattle
and employs an Evacuee Property Officer on the staff at each relocation
center. Two principal types of service are rendered. In connection
with personal properties, such as household furnishings, the Authority
provides–at the option of the evacuee owners–either
storage in a Government warehouse located within the evacuated
area or transportation at Government expense to a point of residence
outside. In connection with real estate, commercial holdings,
farm machinery, and other similar properties, the Authority acts
more in the role of intermediary or agent. At the request of evacuee
property-holders, it attempts to find potential buyers or tenants,
arranges for the rental or sale of both commercial and agricultural
holdings, checks inventories of stored personal goods, audits
accounts rendered to evacuees, and performs a variety of similar
services. Any person who is interested in buying or leasing the
property of evacuees should communicate with the nearest Evacuee
Property Office in the West Coast evacuated area. The locations
of these offices are:
Whitcomb
Hotel Building, San Francisco, Calif.
Room 955, 1031 South Broadway, Los Angeles, Calif.
Room 6609, White Building, Seattle, Wash.
Whenever
possible, these offices will try to put potential buyers or tenants
in touch with potential sellers or lessors among the evacuee population.
It is should be emphasized, however, that the WRA has no authority
to requisition the property of evacuees and cannot force any resident
of a relocation center to sell or lease against his will. Final
agreement on terms is solely a matter between the parties directly
involved.
________________________________________
Relocation of Japanese Americans. Washington, D.C. : War Relocation
Authority, 1943.
Newspaper Articles
S.F.
CLEAR OF ALL BUT 6 SICK JAPS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the first time in 81 years, not a single Japanese is walking
the streets of San Francisco. The last group, 274 of them, were
moved yesterday to the Tanforan assembly center. Only a scant
half dozen are left, all seriously ill in San Francisco hospitals.
Last night Japanese town was empty. Its stores were vacant, its
windows plastered with "To Lease" signs. There were
no guests in its hotels, no diners nibbling on sukiyaki or tempura.
And last night, too, there were no Japanese with their ever present
cameras and sketch books, no Japanese with their newly acquired
furtive, frightened looks.
A
colorful chapter in San Francisco history was closed forever.
Some day maybe, the Japanese will come back. But if they do it
will be to start a new chapter—with characters that are
irretrievably changed. It was in 1850 — more than 90 years
ago — that the first Japanese came to San Francisco, more
than four years before Commodore Perry engineered the first trade
treaty with Japan. The first arrival was one Joseph Heco, a castaway,
brought here by his rescuers. What happened to Heco is, apparently,
a point overlooked by historians. He certain came and probably
went – but nobody seems to know when or where.
Not
for another 11 years did the real Japanese migration begin. In
1861, the second Japanese came here. Five years later, seven more
arrived. The next year there were 67, and from then on migration
boomed. By 1869 there was a Japanese colony at Gold Hill near
Sacramento. In 1872 the first Japanese Consulate opened in San
Francisco – an office that passed through many hands, many
regimes, and many policies before December 7, 1941. On that fateful
day, according to census records, there were 5,280 Japanese in
San Francisco.
They
left San Francisco by the hundreds all through last January and
February, seeking new homes and new jobs in the East and Midwest.
In March, the Army and the Wartime Civil Control Administration
took over with a new humane policy of evacuation to assembly and
relocation centers where both the country and the Japanese could
be given protection. The first evacuation under the WCCA came
during the first week in April, when hundreds of Japanese were
taken to the assembly center at Santa Anita. On April 25 and 26,
and on May 6 and 7, additional thousands were taken to the Tanforan
Center. These three evacuations had cleared half of San Francisco.
The rest were cleared yesterday.
These
last Japanese registered here last Saturday and Sunday. All their
business was to have been cleaned up, all their possessions sold
or stored. Yesterday morning, at the Raphael Weill School on O'Farrell
Street, they started their ride to Tanforan. Quickly, painlessly,
protected by military police from any conceivable "incident,"
they climbed into the six waiting special Greyhound buses. There
were tears – but not from the Japanese. They came from those
who stayed behind – old friends, old employers, old neighbors.
By noon, all 274 were at Tanforan, registered, assigned to their
temporary new homes and sitting down to lunch.
The
Japanese were gone from San Francisco.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco Chronicle
May 21, 1942
NEW ORDER ON ALIENS AWAITED
Only
One State Set for Evacuees
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new evacuation order which may affect 200,000 Pacific Coast
enemy aliens and their American-born children was awaited today
as governors of states between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi
— with one exception — announced they would permit
Japanese aliens to live only in concentration camps if they were
moved inland.
Lieut. Gen. John L. DeWitt, commanding general of the Fourth Army
and the Western Defense Command, said a proclamation would be
issued “shortly” designating military areas from which
the exclusion of certain groups will be required.
President
Roosevelt has given the Army authority to designate certain vital
defense areas and exclude from them all persons, citizens and
aliens alike.
Governors Queried
Rep. John H. Tolan (D., Cal.), heading a House committee investigating
national defense migration, said he had polled the governors of
15 states west of the Mississippi River on proposals to send evacuees
from Pacific Coast states.
Nine
replied, in effect: “No Japanese wanted—except in
concentration camps.”
However,
Governor Ralph L. Carr of Colorado told General DeWitt his state
would receive evacuated aliens as a contribution to the war effort,
and General DeWitt telegraphed him the Army’s thanks.
The
final decision as to who will be excluded, from where and when
are “military decisions which must be based on military
necessity,” General DeWitt said.
He
was strongly critical of those who carried “unfounded rumors”
and “so-called official statements” regarding Pacific
Coast evacuation.
Japs Prepare to Go
Nevertheless, executives of the Japanese-American Citizens League
were preparing their members for complete evacuation from the
Coast. They pledged wholehearted co-operation with the Army.
Only
the Army knows where these evacuees will go, and General DeWitt
made plain that wherever they are moved, the public must accept
them.
‘Clamor’ to Be Ignored
“Public clamor for evacuation from non-strategic areas and
the insistence of local organizations and officials that evacuees
not be moved into their communities cannot and will not be heeded,”
he said.
“Considerations of national security come first.
“The
appropriate agencies of the Federal Government are engaged in
far-reaching preparations to deal with the problem. A study is
in progress by those agencies regarding the protection of property,
the resettlement and relocation of those who are affected.
“The
complete preparation will include measures designed to safeguard
as far as possible property and property rights, to avoid the
depressing effect of forced sales, and generally to minimize resulting
economic dislocations.
“As
soon as these studies are concluded, definite designation of persons
to be affected willl be made.”
Co-ordinator Sought
Rep. Tolan has asked President Roosevelt to appoint a Federal
co-ordinator to have charge of evacuees’ problems, and possibly
an alien property custodian for each of the Western states.
Replying
to Colorado Governor Carr’s offer to co-operate, General
DeWitt said: “I am hopeful that the governors of other states
in this region will take a similar position, as it will be most
helpful to me in solving the program [problem].”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco News
March 2, 1942
Behind the News With Arthur Caylor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This, in a way, may be an add on [Westbrook] Pegler’s Friday
column, in which, among other things, he made very clear the importance
of the Negro people’s attitude toward the war. My story
is that, whatever the philosophy involved, the enemy’s agents
in our town are not neglecting an attempt to create a Japanese-Negro
anti-white-race fifth column.
The Japanese colony and the Negro colony in San Francisco are
close enough neighbors to provide many contacts. They share some
things in common. The color-line is not so noticeable as it is
elsewhere. This had made it possible, my agents learn from loyal
Negro sources, for Japanese to spread racial propaganda.
It
isn’t propaganda of the ridiculous Nazi kind, either. It
doesn’t tell the Negro people that they’re really
black Aryans. It points out subtly that their own experience should
teach the Negroes that there’s less difference between brown
and black than between black and white.
It
takes advantage of all the real discrimination that has gone on,
as well as the propaganda the Communists have used in past years
in their effort to grab off the Negro vote. It attempts to sell
the Negro on the idea that, although pacific by nature, he has
often been forced into American military enterprises—and
paid off in dirt.
It’s
not nice to think that Japanese agents should be trying to stir
up strife right in our own town—and at a time when the Japanese
problem may mean such tragedy for loyal Japanese-Americans. But
if you don’t think such things can go on, who do you suppose
is tearing down air-raid shelter signs and defacing other notices
designed to prevent confusion and save lives? Now is the time
for Jap spies to do their stuff.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The San Francisco News
March 2, 1942
EVACUATION TO BE CARRIED OUT GRADUALLY
93,000 Nipponese in California Are Affected by Order
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The entire California, Washington and Oregon coasts, as well as
the Southern sections of California and Arizona along the Mexican
border, today were designated Military Area No. 1 by Lieut. Gen.
John L. DeWitt, commanding the Western Defense Command and Fourth
Army.
From this vast area, General DeWitt announced “such persons
or classes of persons as the situation may require will by subsequent
proclamation be excluded.”
Eventually
this vast area will be cleared of all alien and American-born
Japanese, as well as many Italians and Germans, but General DeWitt
emphasized there will be no mass evacuation of Japanese, as some
state and local officials have suggested. Mass evacuations, said
General DeWitt, would be “impractical.”
“Evacuation
from military areas will be a continuing process,” he said.
“Japanese aliens 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 has been completed around the most strategic area,
a gradual program of exclusion from the remainder of Military
Area No. 1 will be developed.”
93,000 Affected
Unofficial estimates were that 93,000 aliens and American-born
Japanese in California would be affected by today’s orders
and those to follow.
While
no immediate evacuation order was issued, General DeWitt suggested
all Japanese—alien and American-born—might do well
to get out of Military Area No. 1 as quickly as possible.
“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,” he said.
Where to Go?
Where they might go, however, was uncertain. All portions of California,
Oregon, Washington and Arizona were designated Military Area No.
2, from certain portions of which enemy aliens and American-born
Japanese may be excluded.
General
DeWitt said “military necessity is the most vital consideration,
but the fullest attention is being given the effect upon individual
and property rights” and that “plans are being developed
to minimize economic dislocation and the sacrifice of property
rights.”<
Creation
of Military Area No. 1 eventually will clear all American-born
and alien Japanese and hundreds of other enemy aliens from the
coastal section of California in which are located the most important
military and industrial establishments.
This
area is divided into two zones, A1 and B1. Enemy aliens will be
completely barred from zone A1, and in zone B1 their movements
will be greatly restricted.
The
proclamation also imposed restriction on persons within the military
area and designated postoffices as places where enemy aliens must
register every time they change place of residence within the
area or by leaving the area. Forms are being prepared.
Enemy Aliens in Five Classes
Enemy aliens, for greater efficiency, have been classified into
five classes and proclamations affecting their future will be
forthcoming with these numbers, General DeWitt said.
No.
1—All persons suspected of espionage, sabotage, fifth column
or other subversive activities. The FBI and intelligence services
are rounding them up daily.
No.
2—Japanese aliens.
No. 3—American-born Japanese.
No. 4—German aliens.
No. 5—Italian aliens.
After
the military areas are cleared of Japanese, the general indicated,
German and Italian aliens would be next in line for evacuation.
However, German and Italian aliens 70 years of age or over will
not be required to move “except when individually suspected.”
Also exempted will be “the families, including parents,
wives, children, sisters and brothers of Germans and Italians
in the armed forces,” unless such removal is required for
specific reason.
Area Divided Lengthwise
The area of the four Western states named is divided lengthwise
into the two military zones. Fronting the ocean and from a distance
of three miles off shore to beyond the coast range mountain areas
is the prohibited zone “A-1.”
The
adjoining territory—which in Central California extends
as far east as Placerville, thereby slicing the Sacramento and
San Joaquin Valleys down the middle—comprises restricted
“zone-B.”
In
addition there are 97 specific localities and communities containing
military installations and utilities which are closed to non-citizens
and are marked “prohibited zones A2-A99 inclusive.”
San
Francisco and the entire Bay Region as far as Vallejo and Tracy
are within the prohibited zone. To the north Highway 101 in general
follows the contours of the line dividing the prohibited zone
from the contiguous restricted zone.
The
restricted zone extends approximately from Highway 101 to Highway
99E to the vicinity of Fresno, thence along 99 to where it joins
California Highway 198, eastward near the towns of Johannesburg,
Daggett, and Cadez, along Highway 66 to Topock, Ariz., past Mathia,
Hot Springs Junction, Phoenix, and more or less to the Arizona-New
Mexico state lines to Mexico via the towns of Superior, Bowie
and San Simon.
General
DeWitt has announced creation of a special civilian staff headed
by Tom C. Clark, Federal alien co-ordinator, to assist the Army
in the economic planning made necessary by the evacuations.
Protests Over-ruled
Informed that governors of nine interior states were protesting
any resettlement of Japanese in their areas, General DeWitt said
military necessity must take precedence over civilian wishes.
The
proclamation and the specific evacuation orders which are to follow
“shortly” are culmination of an alien control policy
the Government instituted immediately after the attack on Pearl
Harbor.
FBI
agents seized key Japanese, German and Italian leaders in nationwide
raids. Then aliens were ordered to turn in cameras, shotguns,
short wave radio sets, binoculars and other materials usable for
spying or sabotage. Next all enemy nationals were ordered to register
so the Government could check identities and residences.
History Traced
In January the policy of excluding enemy aliens from strategic
areas was developed. The Army and the FBI cleared 147 such districts
in the four Western states on Feb. 15 and Feb. 24. FBI agents
instituted wholesale raids to seize contraband and “potentially
dangerous enemy aliens” including leaders of Japanese, Italian
and German labor, military and naval societies.
Thus
approximately 15,000 enemy aliens were brought into custody or
removed from vital areas.
General
DeWitt’s proclamation seeks to bring all remaining enemy
aliens on the Coast—closes area to possible Japanese attack—under
control.
Mike
M. Masaoka, national secretary and field executive of the Japanese
American Citizens League, said today:
“We
are instructing the 65 chapters of our organization in 300 communities
to call meetings immediately in their locality to discuss methods
by which they can correlate their energies and co-operate extensively
in the evacuation process.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SECURITY
COMMITTEE MAKES RECOMMENDATIONS
The Committee on National Security & Fair Play, headed by
Dr. Henry F. Grady, former assistant secretary of state and president
of the American President Steamship Lines, today urged that care
of evacuated persons be committed to civilian government agencies
experienced in social welfare.
It
is said there “appear to be only three methods of caring
for evacuees"—allow their settlement whereby they can
work freely and produce for the war or civilian needs; set up
supervised work projects or support them in part or whole at public
expense.
The
committee warned that “indiscriminate removal of citizens
of alien parentage might convert predominately loyal or harmless
citizens into desperate fifth-columnists.”
Thus
far, it said, 9000 have been evacuated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The San Francisco News
March 3, 1942
JAPANESE ON WEST COAST FACE WHOLESALE UPROOTING
The
greatest forced migration in American history was getting under
way today.
Along
the entire Pacific Coast, and from the southern half of Arizona,
some 120,000 enemy aliens and American-born Japanese were moving,
or preparing to move, to areas in which the threat of possible
espionage, sabotage or fifth column activities would be minimized.
None of the Japanese had actual orders to get out of the coastal
military area designated yesterday by Lieut. Gen. John L. DeWitt,
Western defense and Fourth Army commander, but all had his warning
that eventually they must go.
Before
deadlines are set for clearing of the area—twice as large
as Japan itself—there is much to be done by the Army and
by governmental agencies co-operating with it in working out a
program that will call for the least possible economic confusion.
Thomas
C. Clark, alien control co-ordinator, said in Los Angeles he hoped
Japanese might be removed from coast prohibited areas within 60
days, but that “we are not going to push them around.”
“We
are going to give these people a fair chance to dispose of their
properties at proper prices,” Mr. Clark said. “It
has come to our attention that many Japanese farmers have been
stampeded into selling their properties for little or nothing.”
Sixty-five
chapters of the Japanese-American Citizens League, which claims
a membership of 20,000 American-born Japanese, will hold meetings
soon in 300 communities “to discuss methods by which they
can correlate their energies and co-operate extensively in the
evacuation process.”
Necessity Realized
Mike
Masaoka, national field secretary of the league, said its members
“realize that it was the necessity of military expediency
which forced the Army to order the eventual evacuation of all
Japanese,” and that he “assumed” the classification
of Americans of Japanese lineage “in the same category as
enemy aliens was impelled by the motives of military necessity
and that no racial discrimination was implied.”
Among
those who must move, after the Army swings into its plan for progressive
clearing of the 2000-mile-long military area (Japanese and Japanese-Americans
will be affected first) are more that 400 University of California
students—315 American-born Japanese, 11 alien Japanese,
75 Germans and six Italians.
Deadline Definite
General
DeWitt gave no indication when the first deadline for Japanese
in the coastal area would be set.
There
was continued action, however, against “Class 1” persons
listed in General DeWitt’s announcement of the military
area. This class includes persons definitely suspected of sabotage
and espionage, of which several thousand already have been taken
into custody by the FBI on presidential warrants accusing them
of being potentially dangerous aliens.
Among
the most important arrests during the past 24 hours was that of
George Nakamura, an alien Japanese living close to the Santa Cruz
shoreline. In his possession FBI agents and police said they found
69 crates of powerful fireworks of the signal type—rockets,
flares and torches.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The San Francisco News
March 4, 1942
Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evacuation of Japanese from California’s agricultural areas
will necessitate serious adjustments in farming and marketing
of fruits and vegetables in this state farm spokesmen said today.
Officials of the California Farm Bureau estimated that 40 per
cent of all California’s vegetables were raised by Japanese,
with the percentage of fruit lands under their control running
somewhat less.
Some
types of agricultural produce are practically dominated by Japanese
labor or control.
‘Nearly 100 Per Cent’
“Strawberries
are nearly 100 per cent under the control of Japanese,”
one farm authority said. “The work requires the most arduous
form of ‘stoop labor’ and much of it must be done
on hands and knees. It is impossible to get any other type of
labor than Japanese to stand the pace of the nine-month season.”
Japanese
plantings in celery, tomatoes, peppers, are important and it is
estimated that they likewise are responsible for nearly 75 per
cent of the state’s acreage in cucumbers, onions and spinach.
While
officials of the Farm Bureau point out that white farmers can
handle the planting of tomatoes this year, the problem of their
harvest later will create a real problem.
Early School Closing?
“It
has been proposed to close rural schools earlier this year as
a potential source of labor for harvesting tomatoes,” one
bureau official said.
Other
proposals under considerable by farm groups include shutting down
relief projects to provide more farm workers, and possible use
of Mexican labor.
Lettuce
harvests around the Salinas Valley are not expected to be affected
where an ample of supply of Filipino labor is available. The valley
supplies 90 per cent of the lettuce to the entire country when
the flow of “green gold” is at its seasonal peak.
Close
watch is also being kept on the possible movement of Italians
from the coastal belt, particularly in the artichoke industry
which they dominate from Colma to Monterey County. The harvest
season is just reaching its peak and will last about another month.
The
impending evacuation of Japanese “makes possible a return
of the Chinese to the good earth,” The Chinese Press, only
all-English Chinese paper in America, said today.
Editor
Charles Leong said:
“A
few Chinese remember that their parents labored on farms in the
Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and all along coastal farm
areas. Many owned potato and asparagus ranches. In farm centers
like Watsonville and Santa Cruz, Chinese at one time owned all
the strawberry business.
“But
when the old-timers passed on, it seems that the ranch life, a
hard life, did not appeal to the second generation. As a result
the Japanese today have a monopoly on an industry when the Chinese
could have continued to develop... .”
California
faces the major problem with the Japanese on farm lands on the
West Coast, the census figures reveal, as they are listed as owning
68 million dollars worth of farm lands here and only an additional
two million dollars worth of farm lands in Oregon and Washington
combined.
The
three major clusterings of Japanese in rural areas are in the
Sacramento River delta regions, the lower San Joaquin Valley district
and the country around Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.
Within
the Bay Area the number of farms owned by Japanese are listed
as follows: Alameda County, 130; San Mateo County, 71; Contra
Costa County, 70; Marin, 4, and Santa Clara, 390.
The
Japanese exodus also will hit the lawns and gardens of thousands
of Bay Area residents, particularly those on the Peninsula, for
there seems no substitute labor supply to replace the hundreds
of Japanese gardeners. Fast and efficient workers, some of the
Japanese have been caring for from 40 to 50 gardens each.
The
entire problem is being studied closely by officials of the California
State Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau, and other state and
Federal agencies interested in agricultural questions.
‘Japtown’ Problem
Under
study locally was the matter of the eventual clearing out of the
Japanese section roughly bounded by Geary, Pine, Octavia and Webster-sts,
in which several hundred homes and shops are occupied by Japanese.
The
1940 census listed 5280 Japanese—2004 citizens and 2276
aliens—in San Francisco. The majority of them live in the
Japanese section. Some have been interned and many more already
have moved inland. But possibly 4000 still are there.
What
will become of the homes and shops they eventually will vacate
is under discussion by real estate organizations. No decision
has been reached.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SANTA FE, N.M., March 4.—In the wake of reports that “nearly
3000 Japanese” being evacuated from the Pacific Coast would
be interned in New Mexico, Governor John E. Miles today announced
his state would co-operate fully. He urged strict methods to safeguard
New Mexico citizens.
The
San Francisco News
March 4, 1942
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