Digital History>eXplorations>Japanese American Internment>The Decision to Intern>John DeWitt to Karl Bendetsen

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.

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