FRIENDS OF THE AMERICAN WAY
1360 WEST COLORADO STREET
PASADENA 2, CALIFORNIA
REPORT ON DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
150 letters, lately sent to the War Department by individuals and families in and about Pasadena, promise temporary homes, aid in finding employment, and a spirit of genuine friendship when the Government permits Japanese-Americans to return to the West Coast.
These letters promise 50 jobs and 125 homes, temporary or permanent, to our former neighbors. A small informal group, trying an interesting social experiment, sampled the sentiment in one important California community; 150 letters were the response. Goodwill, inarticulate and underground, is thus rising to the surface. The plan was simple and should succeed in other communities.
But -- everywhere there is community feeling to be mended, vicious legislation to be defeated, many urgent jobs calling for attention from real friends of the real America. What is your community doing?
The Pasadena group welcomes a chance to work and share experiences with others who would help preserve the democracy at home for which we fight abroad. We are writing you in the hope that you may enlist in this enterprise. We will gladly furnish suggestions if you will communicate with
FRIENDS OF THE AMERICAN WAY
By Mrs. Jerome W. MacNair
for the Committee
SCRAPS FROM THE MAIL BAG
"I am a student at P.J.C. and believe I express the sentiment of many of the students when I say we would be more than willing to have our fellow-students of Japanese ancestry again in our midst. We are sending our school paper out to them each week; we carry on a personal correspondence and keep the life-lines of friendship open and now feel we can help our friends in their readjustment and reintegration into a normal pattern of life."
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"My husband, a public accountant, is very busy and could plan his work so that a former evacuee who has had training in accounting could have full or part time work."
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"I shall be glad to provide living quarters in my home for any of the ( ) family of Poston, Arizona, and for any of the ( ) family, also of Poston, while they seek employment. This letter is written by one from whose home have gone two men into the service. I should be ashamed to face them on their return had I not found here for those same rights for which they are fighting away from home."
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"By profession I am a gardener and we need the Japanese gardeners back to help us this very minute. We gardeners who are left are meeting the shortage the best we can but are met daily with frantic pleas for help. Most home-owners would be willing to hire a loyal citizen of Japanese ancestry."
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"We shall be glad to entertain Mr. and Mrs. ( ) of Manzanar in our home while they are seeking employment. We will then turn the house over to them, as it belongs to their oldest son, now relocated in Chicago."
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"It has been our intention for some time to take into our home, Mr. and Mrs. ( ), formerly of Pasadena. This is an elderly couple, but the lady is still capable of doing dress-making and has many former customers longing for her return. She could work in our home and there would be no problems either financial or from our neighbors."
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"I shall be happy to assist them with my friendship and active good will to become reestablished. I shall be glad to help them find employment by any means within my power, expecially [especially] by helping my friends and neighbors to realize the value of their services and also to express appreciation of their loyalty to our land which is also theirs."
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"It is our responsibility to be willing to demonstrate our conviction through our way of life... We would like to do our part by having a young Japanese girl live with us and work for us while attending school."
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"As a group of neighbors we would like to offer hospitality to individuals or families of Japanese ancestry and will do all we can to facilitate their adjustment. We feel we represent the feeling of other families in this area."
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"I am interested to provide home and shelter, food and employment for one family, and would welcome Japanese friends and neighbors. They are an asset to a community. I have found them honest, industrious, and dependable."
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"I should like to go on record as being willing and eager to employ from 20 to 25 former Japanese Pacific Coast residents in my factory."