Evening star., 1945-07-01
Applying Methods
OF Social Science
In Handling Jops
THE GOVERNING OF MEN

TIE OoNGtIfAls1 or MIAN
| By Alexander II. Leighton.
| princeton University Press,
s3.75.J
Back in 1912, when Americans
we're just beginning to learn of the
barbarities committed by the jap
anese against their countrymen
resident in Japan. news was circu-
lated to the effect that strike
had occurred in one of the camps
(the one at Poston, Ariz.) which
had been set up by our Govern
ment for japanese evacuees from
the West Coast. There were stories
to the effect that the evacuees had
struck because of frivolous reasons,
as that their food was not suffi-
ciently attractive. and that they had
trampled and spat upon the Ameri-
can flag and hoisted the flag of
Japan. Considering the relative
treatment of Americans at Jap
hands, there was some conversa-
tional indignation and the general
attitude was that rough handling
would not be amiss. Then the story
passed on into day before yester-
dav's news and American interest
lapsed. Here we have a detailed
account of what took place.
The author is a psychiatrist and
anthropologist, now a naval officer.
who. as his publisher puts it, was
assigned TO the camp ito apply the
methods of social science" The
quotation will carry its warning to
experienced readers; 1t. Comdr.
Leighton's style bristies with 'postu-
lates," "pressures, trends" orr
entations," "integrations" and SINH
lar terms beloved of social science.
But he has a sense of story, too,
and In spite of his smooth gray
argot, he makes forward-moving
narrative.
What he tells is one more tale
of governmental muddling. 1t was
decided for military reasons to
evacuate the Japanese inhabitants
OF the West Coast to other areas and
the evacuation was duly carried out.
Previously, however, other govern
mental departments, as Justice, had
issued statements that there would
be no such action. Right at the
start, therefore, the Japanese had
a taste Of divided and contradictory
authority.
Then, when the move was decided
on, there was further division. The
War Relocation Authority turned
the management of the Poston
camp over to the Once of Indian
Affairs, for the reason that the
camp was located on an Indian
reservation. But there was no clear
establishment of direction. The Re-
location Authority and Indian Office
both went at the job and each fol-
lowed its own policy. The Authority
regarded the camp as temporary
residence to be maintained only
until the evacuees could be settled
elsewhere; consequently 1t ordered
a mere subsistence level of opera
ton. The Indian Office, on the other
hand, informed the eyacuees that
the camp was to be made into a
self-sustaining community with its
own industries, agriculture and irri-
CATION, and urged them to turn to
in the spirit of pioneers and build
themselves a green garden IN the
Arizona desert.
But none of these representa-
tions were carried out and, In the
meantime, by any American stand
ard, camp conditions were bad. The
housing was rough, the food poor,
the medical care insufficient, the
location extremely disagreeable. The
Japanese were not tortured, as were
their American opposite numbers in
Japan, but they we're aware that
they were being given a run-around.
Having been Americans for quite a
spell, they reacted in the American
way. They struck.
The immediate cause of the strike
was the detention by the FBI of an
evacuee suspected of assault to kill
inspired by Axis enthusiasm.
That is the story which 1t. Comdr.
Leighton tells, and even in his nom
expressive verbiage it is embarrass-
ing. One feels that if the Japanese
had been put under definite and
dependable authority, even though it
were comparatively harsh, they
would not have rebelled, for they
would have grasped the military
sense of it. But they we're sub
jected to roseate promises which
llapsed into evasions when pressed
flor fulfillment and that drove them
to pitch of quite understandable
evaporation Stern justice is al
ways preferable to polite hypocrisy
and, no matter what may have been
the reasons, polite hypocrisy IS what
the evacuees received, If 1t. Comdr.
Leighton is accurate. Discreditable
though the truth of the business is.
there is merit in having it fully
published at last. M. &C. r..