Nogales international., 1943-07-09
The Jap Internment Question

mission was no exception.
Local citizens evince only passing interest in
whether not enemy aliens shall be permitted to
engage in corporate business venture in our state
They are content to let it slide after reading accounts
of the heated legal battle. Why not? Isn't it a
national issue to be threshed out by state and federal
governments?
In a way, yes The Japanese problem is national
in that hardly village in the country has not already
felt the bghting touch Of greedy Nippon. 1t is also
as local as the fate of your neighbor's family
Today of our city's youths, an admirable ex
ample of all the manly virtues, lies buried in far
away New Guinea, a victim of the Jap war machine
The soldier husband of woman raised in our
midst prisoner of tropical concentra-
tion camp Five relatives of families in this vicinity
share similar existence
county father died after the fall of Bataan not
knowing if his son was dead alive, and no yet
knows. Three other former county residents are
swallowed in the same oblivion.
Exact figures are obscured by censorship, but
something like half dozen young men from local
district have suffered wounds in the South Pacific
and in the Far North.
Still we remain unmoved.
Complacently view the awful spectacle Of
social workers. paid by taxes taken from your pocket
and mne weeping buckets of verbal tears in effort
to gain liberal treatment for nterned citizens of
Japan.
People of Arizona are subjected to the disgusting
affront of War Relocation Authority attorneys whose
salaries also paid by every American ranting and
clustering before corporation commission to OBJ
tain the preservation of so-called rights and correc
ton of so-caed injustces for enemy aliens.
What rights has a citizen of enemy nation
during wartime? To what degree does he deserve
liberal treatment?
The Jap practice is to swoop down upon an
enemy, beating and robbing him while placing him
under custody If he resistS bullets or bayOnets act
effective pacifier. Throw him into barbed
Wire enclosure where he must share tiny room with
dozen other miserable creatures leave him out
doors at the mercy of the elements. Feed him cup
of rice and few bits of putrid meat and vegetables
at rare intervals. This is too good for him. so occa
sionally give him the third degree combined with
oriental torture-hell feel much happier when it
is over If he becomes i'll is injured by the playful
mauling of guards-let him die:
Contrast this to the pampering Japanese have
received from WRA. Given roomy barracks, ade-
quate recreaiOnal facilities rationed foods in unra-
toned quantities, the best of medical attention. op
portunity to steal and destroy government property
and payment for labor, they continue to be disgrn-
tied They do not ask for mOre-they demand it
through mouthpieces provided by our own govern
ment.
The question Of permitting Japs to engage in
business IN our state is but single minor facet of
situation that reeks with injustices. Enemy aliens
not the who should howl about inequities
however. The elements of unfairness are the side
of American citizens in general who footing the
bills and enduring sorrows heaped upon them by
degenerate adversary, and particularly fighting
men who struggle along with inadequate resources
while public funds squandered on luxurious hav-
ems for insolent thousands of the vicious enemy.
Our corporation commission has given the only
answer to the point under discussion by which an
aroused public abide But what of the bigger
problem the final disposition of interned japanese?
Are our people willing to allow the War Reloca-
ton authority to muddle along inefficiently and
openhandedy it has up to the present After hos
tlities end will acquiesce to having hordes of
despcable aliens turned loose to wreak havoc upon
our state and nation the way they ruined California
farmers and fishermen with cut-throat competition
before the war? God forbid that we be such fools.
The situation has one-and only one-souton.
The program to be followed is fair to everyone in
volved, Japanese and Americans alike 1t contains