Amidst great national controversy, the House of Representatives refused to vote on the bill before adjourning March 21, thus avoiding even more severe discrimination. A few Japanese-American farmers who lived in Glendale were threatened and intimidated. Anger, resentment and prejudice prompted acts of aggression, as homemade bombs were thrown at Japanese homes and used to sabotage their irrigation ditches. These isolated incidents did not, however, accurately reflect what was in the hearts of most Glendale citizens. As World War II broke out, many Japanese were interned in camps, displaced from their homes, farms, businesses and friends.
Friendship is the context within which prejudice and divisiveness lose their power.
Glendale children and young people developed bonds of friendship in school and at play that eased the tensions of diversity. Helen Tanita and Mary McAllister, for instance, knew each other as Helen and Mary, and celebrated their differences as friends. Generations of those friendships have somewhat blurred the lines of distinction. Whether Chinese, Russian, Basque or Lebanese, Glendale children learned to enjoy each other as friends. The political power structure, lacking this positive rational context, provided the means to discriminate for those that felt it in their hearts.