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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