◆ SpookStack

A a sy meme _— : \) had acceis to the facts, is one of the strongest indictments Of the Government. Likewise, no proved case of sabotage by a Japanese on the Pacific Coast, on or since December 7, has come to public attention. These facts still have not been sufficiently publicized, and unfounded rumors con- tinue to circulate. Undoubtedly some of the alien Japanese and perhaps a few of the citizens are disloyal; these persons, presumably, are among those taken into custody by th: F.B.J. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that most Japa- . nese aliens are not aliens by choice, but have not been per- mitted to become American citizens. There is absolutely no _ evidence to support the rumors that the Japanese, as @ racial group, were either disloyal or an organized fifth column. Certainly many of them five near deferse plants, and vital harbors, highways, railways and power lines, but so do millions of Americans, regardless of race, and to deduce ? disloyalty from ‘this is absurd. That the Japanese on the West Coast have been in dangec because of their race since December 7, is acknowl- edged, and from that fact many ‘belicve that, however tragic it may be, the evacuation has been necessary for the protection of the Japanese themselves. Some murders, sup- posedly by Filipinos, naturally created great fear among the Japanese but, since the first of the year, the number of these incidents has dropped off, and steps were taken to protect the Japanese in a way they should be protected— by increasing focal police and F.B.I. aid. Evacuation amounts to compulsory protective arrest, which sets a dan- getous precedent in dealing with racial minorities and, in the long run, greatly adds to the problem of the protection of this particular minority. Meanwhile, the social, psycho- Hogical and human damage caused by the Government's ~Policy is immensely more tragic than were the compara- tively few cases of violence. : . The economic loss to the Japanese and the Japanese- Americans has been tremendous. The estimated wealth of the group, $50,000,000, has diminished greatly, possibly by as much as 75 or even 90 per cent. The loss of business, agricultural and professional positions, gained by slow and patient effort, means that the job of normal living in American communities once again has to be started almost from sctatch. Moreover, the effects upon our whole economy will be pronounced. The 23 per cent of the evacuecs who are in agriculture produced 40 per cent of California's truck crops, and in Los Angeles County, where 25,600 of the county's 40,000 acres of producing farm land are affected, white replacements can be found to take over only a frac- tion of the land. In other fields, 5,000 gardeners in greater Los Angeles and many. nursery men and floriculturalists are irteplaccable; fish fanciers will miss the Nippon Gold- fish Company, largest in the West; bacteriological research will miss the vital agre produced by a skilled young Nisei; school boards will have 20,000 fewer elementary pupils to plan for. . Some of the loss to the Japanese is directly attributable to profiteering, where expensive electric refrigerators, ra- dios, ete., went. for a song: more of it is due to the major unemployment and financial problem that has struck them a8 acracial croun since. December. 2am lite the Jacere cio 4 Canctitatinn sl Memandeonm ta dalen ccc ) Civil liberties have suffered 2 heavy blow, too, for, as the American Civil Liberties Union recently pointed out, this action undermines the very basis of constitutional gov- ernment and means that the Bill of Rights is not applicable in any area declared military by the Government. The | protection of the Government has been denied these people who should have equal rights for pasticipation in community life, due process of law, and so on. Suffering in Internment Psychological and physical suffering is the inevitable ac- companiment of life in what is essentially a concentration camp. Some of the evacuees, particularly the idealistic Niseis, ate resolved to make the most of this hardship, and are going through with it in a spirit of love and a deter- mination to train themselves and others for a better future. But tor more of the Niseis, the effect of having their prop- erty destroyed, their hopes for the future dashed, and chances for normal living ended is one of at least partial disintegration of personality. There is a fear that they will . be moved out into the desert and left there for many years, forgotten by white Americans, and the moral problem that has arisen in most of the camps is an indication of the psy- chological frustrations that exist. Living conditions are very crowded, with rooms twenty by twenty-five feet intended to accommodate ten ‘people. Eating is communal, and privacy. will be a thing almost un- known. A Nisei girl, commenting on the unpleasant climate at Manzanar, describes the dust that covers every- thing, the extreme heat that makes her dread the summer, and the Jack of anything creative to do, First-hand reports of visitors to the camps and the Nése‘s who are in them do not bear dut the romanticised stories that have appeared in the press, and emphasize the great suffering that results when so many persons are detained on the desert in close quarters. Racial understanding has been dealt a severe blow, for increased segregation of the Japanese, with corresponding lack of assimilation into the American community, is a feature of the plan. Where whites were coming into con- tact with the Japanese, they were losing some of their prejudice, and these contacts are now cut off. ‘For the Nisei it means being thrown back into a racial conscious- ness which he considers secondary to American citizenship, while the white American sees all Japanese lumped to- gether as disloyal and tends to regard them as inferior as a group. Racial intolerance is increased and its solution postponed by the evacuation. fa the immediate future the, rescttle- ment authoritics of the Government will be under great pressure to release some of the Japanese to do work in the _ fields as labor gangs, or to participate in other anti-social ventures. Some of the Rocky Mountain and Middle West- ern states already are taking action to prevent any perma- nent resettlement of the Japanese within their boundaries, and there is every reason to believe that resctttement will become more and more difficult as time gocs on, Repre~ sentative Rankin, of Mississippi, urges that thes. infor- tunates be kept in detention for the duration and tien ix shipped back to Japan, while other reactionaries are advo-