The Omaha guide., 1946-05-18

American Civil Liberties Union
The greatest racial discrimination in
American law does not affect Negroes
as commonly supposed, but Orientals.
The United States is the only major
nation in the world which puts up a
racial bar to citizenship. By the Orien-
tai Exclusion Act of 1924, it excludes
from citizenship and immigration all
Orientals, except the Chinese, to whom
special exemptions as allies was gran
ted during the war. None of the orien-
tai peoples except the Chinese, with
a quota of los per year, may enter the
United States as permanent residents.
Those who are here either came in be-
fore 1924 or secured temporary per-
mits.
This wholesale racial discrimination
against Oriental peoples is an affront
TO almost half the pOpuaton of the ear
tn. Its origins go back to the cary days
OF slavery when in 1870 citizenship
was confined TO free white persons.
1t took the Civil War to extend it to
Negroes. 1t took World War | to ex-
tend it to American Indians. 1t took
World War ii to extend it to the Chi
ese.
There we have stopped. No resident
Filipino whose compatriots fought with
the American armies can become a
Us citizen. After Philippine indepen-
dence in July, We will graciously per-
init the immigration of 100 Filipinos
a year.
But such retail measures are not
enough. The gross injustice Of this
wholesale racial barrier can be correc-
ted only by the total repeal of the Or
iental Exclusion Act, putting all the
Oriental nations on exactly the same
quota basis as all other nations, and
extending to their citizens precisely the
same rights Of U. S. citizenship.
The fear of organized labor that such
action would result in a wholesale in
vasion of cheap labor is without found
alton. On the basis of the 1890 CEN
sus, on which all quotas are figured,
only $50 could be admitted annually
from all Oriental countries. If it is OBJ
jected that Japan as a recent enemy
nation would be included in the re-
= peal, it may be answered that Japan's
quota for immigration would be less
than 100, and that those now resident
in the United States are as much en-
titled to citizenship as any other ORR
.ehtals. The disloyal were interned dur
ing the war and later deported to ia
pan. Furthermore, the loyal were ia
Tiers and mothers and close relatives
of 10000 American boys Of. Japanese
extraction who volunteered for mill
tary service and covered themselves
with glory on the battlefronts of Eu-
rope.
W. have a further moral response
bility to the japanese in the U. S.
They were the victims of one of the
worst racial tragedies ever suffered BY
a minority in American life. As a mea-
sure of security the entire $4,000
people of japanese blood on the Paci-
fic Coast, two-thirds American born.
were removed from their homes, Jobs
and schools, and evacuated to con-
centration camps in the far West. And
there for two long years they were
kept behind barbed wire, guarded by
soldiers, living in barracks. solely on
the ground of their racial origin. That
the discrimination was wholly racial
is proved by the fact that no other
Axis nationals were removed from the
Pacific Coast, nor indeed from the At
lantic Coast where the danger Of at.
tack, sabotage and espionage was even
greater.
Racial discrimination against Jap
anese and other Orientals in our fed
eral law has brought other disabilities.
Western states hostile to them have
adopted laws prohibiting land owner
ship or occupancy by persons 'ineli-
gible to citizenship, and denying them
licences for professions. Their attemp-
is to put property in the names of their
A~merican-born children have been fru-
strated by court actions. Their chill
dren are in many places segregated in
public schools. Economic competitors
IN agriculture have resorted to vigi-
lante action against Japanese Ameri-
cans. The vast losses in property from
the hasty evacuation will never be com.
pensated, though their valid claims will
be presented in the courts and Con.
gress.
The Oriental population in the Uni.
ted States is a tiny fraction of the
whole. less than 100000 people, with
over half of these in Hawaii. But over
half the people of the earth in the
Oriental populations, against whom
the discrimination is directed, are re.
sentful of American prejudice EN-
bodied in law. They know that Amer
lean law is based on white supremacy
Yet they see the United States cham
pion world democracy and they real
the pledges in the United Nations oh
arter against racial discrimination. Oul
segregation laws at least put up a pre-
tense of equal but separate accomo
dations, denied by all facts; but GU
racial bars to immigration and citizen
ship make no prctensc' TO- equality
Only total repeal of the Oriental Ex
clusion Act will abolish the creates
SINCE obetace to realizing our mora
claims To democratic leadership.