The Wilmington morning star., 1943-04-30
By wEsTBRooK PEGLER

| SACATON, AriZ.-This is one of several re-
mote and almost secret places in our country
in which we have attempted to sweep under
the rug one of our most heartrendng politico.
military problems On an enormous tract Of
the Arizona desert formerly farmed by a
colony OF Indians the war relocation authority
has planted $4,000 men, women and children
OF Japanese race. They include many who
were born in the United States and also,
therefore, under our laws and our sometimes
painful but continuing concept of liberty and
citizenship, are no less American than Pres
ident Roosevelt General Macarthur, or 1t.
Comdr. Mickey Reeves.
There are three types, the native Ameri-
can who was raised American and never
set foot in Japan the native American who
was sent back to Japan for education and
indoctrination during youth, and those who
were born in Japan. Almost all of this last
group entered the United States before 1924
Among them all there are many, and nobody
really knows how many, who hate the United
States and would stab in the back and
serve as greeting committee if the japanese
should bomb Seattle San Francisco in suf
ficient force to cause a serious emergency
And among the native Americans who were
raised American, there are some, and again
nobody knows how many, who would do their
best to kill the anti-Americans. There are
| some among those who were raised Japa.
ueoe dAu Among Tie japanese nduVe 1mml
grants of the older set who might defend
this country. These two young groups are
not trusted, however.
Yet, here they are, $4,000 of them in this
vast desert far from the two principal cities
of Arizona and in the heart of a defensive
military area where armies maneuver in train.
ing for desert warfare and hundreds of planes
snarl across the clear Skies all jumbled to-
gether, the loyal and the treacherous The
1n1yo1 1tv of fho
a terrible trial for, outwardly, they are not
distinguishable from the most brutal and i'm
placable enemies, and they are all on a com
mon footing
| This is not new deal problem nor the
result of any failure of willful social expert
ment. 1t is a dangerous and somewhat trag gic
development.
Up to this time it has been impossible tc
distinguish the loyal from the disloyal except
in relatively few individual cases. For one
reason, there has been not enough time MOI
large enough staff. For another, it is i'm
possible to know what is in the heart of q
man or woman who may proclaim his OF
her devotion to the United States only to &C
quire greater freedom to betray us. In the
sudden frightening military crits along the
West coast, just after Pearl Harbor it wa!
impel atlve that the American government vi
olate the rights of great number of citizens
with race the only consideration There wal
not time to judge the more than 900 indi
vidual cases each its merits, so we Dor
| rowed from Hitler one of his meanest devices
in sending them to internment.
| For their own protection against uncontrol
liable civilians, many of them truly and bravel,
patriotic, who long have held to the dictum
recently voiced by high military authorit,
on the West coast "a Jap's JAP" w,
adopted Hitler's protective custody" Blu
we may take pride in the fact that the dange
from which we thus protected these citizen
was created by an external army and no
artificlally fomented by our own government
as an excuse to round them up. We may b,
proud, too, that we have not tortured then
as Hitler did. And we can understand now
that II we had not put them away guarded
IN an inaccessible place, there surely wouls
have been horrible reprisals on HELPLESS Amer
leans in their hands,
The camp seems serene Young Japs bath,
in the irrigation canal on the edge of III,
reservation which is posted against intrusion
by 1t. Gen. j. ]. Dewitt from his headouar
ters IN San francisco, and guarded agains
, industries and internal connections by well
armed and alert unit of military police. On,
force OF about 600 interns who show apparen
loyalty to the United States are raising o1an
titles OF garden truck which, in the presenc,
OF 1000 shortage. nevertheless is barred
from the Tree market of civilian trade on thu
ground OF unfair competition
Inc situation is dangerous for much ron
tfaoaho mas been intercepted here now.
hhlVeS' photographs and PHOTOGRAPHIC materi
als' laolo equipment and maps showing th1
way W ana through Mexico. Yet recent or
"eA "'S ioroldden further search of parcels