The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-17
Fair Enough
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, BY King Features Syndicate, Incl

returned from the war witr honors, profession
al political promoters OF racial and religious
frictisn who profess to sbhor prejudice are
exploiting as an act of Eitlerism our mass
deportation of about 100. 900 American Japa-
nese rom the Pacific coast to concentration
camps inland in 1912. These people were held
in compounds throughout 1913 and were
gradually dispersed thereafter, some finding
new homes away from the coast and others
being deported TO japan as enemy aliens.
The rest returning whence they came.
In the current propaganda it would appear
that some American authority of fascist men
tality committed this outrage contrary to the
sense Of the nation and the government.
The exclusion and deportation were ordered
in emergency by Lieutenant Gen. ]. j. De-
Witt, commander of The western defense I'M
der an act Of Congress. signed by Franklin
D. Roosevelt and upheld by h Supreme
Court in an opinion by Justice Black. Justice
Frankfurter filed a separate opinion, concur
ring but excused himself by saying that al
though he found no constitutional torbiddance
this did not necessarily mean that he ap-
proved the act itself or an executive order by
President Roosevelt upon which General De-
Witt further relied for his authority.
There is now an Illusion that an overwhelm-
ing majority of the deportees were known to
be loyal to the United States. This is a by
product If victory. AS far as General Dewitt
could tell. all but a few could reasonably be
suspected Of devotion to Japan and the en-
peror. The white Americans Of California
were almost unanimously apprehensive and
mobbed japanese settlements if they had not
been taken away, thus bringing down re.
prisals on Americans in japanese captivity.
The term JAPANESE here Is a broad one,
including loyal native Americans as well as
disloyal Americans and W1natur allied natives
OF Japan.
The impression now being promoted that
the majority were obviously patriotic to the
United States is false. Early in 1943 the young
men of h class known as Kibei, native
Americans educated m Japan. were invited
to volunteer for the American Army and most
Of them refused to foreswear ale glance to
the emperor. They may have been afraid that
if thew djd so their relatives in Japan would
be punished but there was no way to de-
termine what their reasons were. Later. some
were drafted and thus relieved Of the re-
sponsibility Of decision. How many, ard how
well they served I never learned. Native
Americans who had never seen Japan volun-
teered in larger numbers but in no great
mass. either. The military record Of those
who did join the American forces, volunteers
and d~rattees. was far superior to those Of
some other units of men Of distinct racial
identity.
In fairness, it must be noted that these
young japanese were under no greater obi
CATION than Caucasians TO volunteer and,
further In their favor, it must be remembered
that they had reason to feel very bitter
against the United States. The parents Of
many had lost property values in farms, ma
chinery shops and stores which they had to
abandon suddenly and they realized that eau
casian neighbors on the coast had been alert
To the chance 10 acquire their holdings at
distress prices. They and their relatives lived
in crowded long houses II the desert, hurnlll-
ated, suspected and surrounded by wire, with
M.P.'s in American uniforms at the gates.
The invitation to put or the same uniform
was ironic to many Of them.
Racial persecution undoubtedly was present
here and Justice Black and all the majority
were hypocrites in their ~tortuous finding that
racial discrimination OF fntagonism was not
the reason. They squirn-ed to find that the
petitioner in the case on appeal was exclud-
ed because we are at war with the japanese
empire" and because the military authorities,
who Feared a Japanese invasion, decided
that military urgency demanded that all citi-
zens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from
the West coast temporarily"
Under the dictum and Frankfurter's own
version Of the same nonsense, Frankfurter,
himself a native of Austria. might have been
sent TO a desert camp WIN a ClOtnlnS al
lowance of $3.50 a month and pay of SIG a
month # he had been willing to do chores
about the place. Justice Murphy, in an cratic
moment, found himself Oh the side Of intel
~lectual honesty and replica that the exclusion
Of "aIl persons of japanese ancestry, both
| alien and non-alien in the absence Of martial
law. goes over the very brink Of consti-
tutional power and falls into the ugly abyss
of racism."
1t was a dangerous, hysterical, high-school
writing, and characteristic, but true. An en-
barrassing situation due. ir part, to the care
less importation and admission Of japanese
IN decades past and the concurrent rise of
Japanese ambitions and military power. And
it is not unreasonable to reflect that if Japan
had invaded the Pacific coast and had won
the war many of those who have lately shown
loyalty to the United States would have greet
ed the conquerors and shown them around
the American defense5. japanese are human,
and it would be naive to reject the posi-
the warmth OF the new cordially, kindled by
victory and confidence among us, are not just
following the band-wagon.
However, American justice is so fastidious
that any proposal to indemnify the loyal Japa-
nese in their losses Of property and wages
during their imprisonment will be adopted
with a whoop of spiritual satisfaction.
It seems that We snot a man because, we
thought he made a pass to draw a gun and
wallet 10 show us mis- drivers license.
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