SUMMARY
REPORT SUBMITTED
TO
TOLAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
ON
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
EMERGENCY DEFENSE COUNCIL
SEATTLE CHAPTER
JAPANESE AMERICAN CITIZENS LEAGUE
517 Main Street
Seattle, Washington
We wish to go on record now that the safety and welfare of the United States is, has been and will continue to be foremost in our minds. We, as American citizens, have a duty to this, our country, and the first tenet of that duty is complete and unshakable loyalty.
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We are wholeheartedly in favor of complete co-operation with the military and other authorities on withdrawal of civilians from the immediate vicinity of defense projects and establishments. But we do not believe that mass evacuation is either desirable or feasible.
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We also desire the privilege of remaining to fight shoulder and shed our blood, if necessary, in the defense of our country and our homes together with patriotic Americans of other national extractions if that time should ever come. It is repugnant to us that we be given a place of safety when our friends and neighbors remain behind to defend the things that we together created and developed.
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If, finally, the decision is that the Japanese must go, the Committee is assured of the Japanese American Citizens League's complete co-operation in the evacuation movement. Loyalty demands that orders, no matter what, be obeyed willingly and efficiently.
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In the state of Washington there are approximately 14,000 individuals of Japanese extraction. About 63 per cent, or 8,800 are American-born, therefore American citizens. The remainder, approximately 5,200, is foreign-born and alien.
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Of the alien group the average age of males is 59 years; of the females, 51 years. Many of these aliens have been in the United States for 45 and 50 years, all have been here since 1924 when the Exclusion Act went into effect, and their average tenure of residence in this country may be approximated at 30 years.
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The love of the alien Japanese for America is understandable. Many of the aliens are pioneers of the Pacific Northwest. They came here at the turn of the century when the State of Washington was comparatively a raw frontier, and they grew up with the country, aiding in its development.
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The average age of the American-born generation is 20 years, although there are a few individuals in their 40's.
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Juvenile court and police records show that the American-born Japanese rarely if ever are in difficulty with the law in spite of the fact that most of them come from Seattle's economically depressed areas.
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Contrary to popular belief that Japanese has not willfully segregated himself in his own little communities where he moves only in completely Japanese circles.
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The Japanese resident in the United States has made his greatest contribution in the field of agriculture and it is here that he can make a great contribution to the war effort of the United States.
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Japanese farmers in Washington cultivate 15,353 acres, some for two or three crops, or a total of about 18,000 acres of production. The total number of farms is 666, actually involving 1,166 alien and 2,206 citizen workers.
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The total value of produce handled by Japanese farmers in 1941 was roughly four million of which $3,029,760 was in Western Washington alone. Interstate shipments from Western Washington were valued at $1,089,209 in 1941 while $2,815,051 was sent to local markets.
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In Seattle there are 140 Japanese-operated grocery stores representing an investment of $500,000; 90 Japanese-operated dye works and cleaning establishments; 53 Japanese-operated restaurants, serving an estimated 25,000 meals per day; 206 Japanese-operated hotels with a total of 13,759 rooms; and 56 Japanese-operated apartment houses with a total of 1,300 apartments.
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Investigation will substantiate our contention that the relations between Americans of Japanese descent and Japanese aliens with the Caucasian community of the Pacific Northwest have, on the whole, been extremely good.
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Considerably more than one in every ten alien Japanese males is under detention by federal authorities. Many others are doubtless still under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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From the speed and organization with which the agitation for removal of Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese parentage grew, there is reason to believe that it was not only the result of hysteria or genuine fear of dangers, actual, potential or imagined. We have discovered that there is at least some agitation being conducted by interests which would profit from the removal of Japanese.
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Covering the problem of mass evacuation generally these are the important points:
1. The Japanese do not know where to go in case of general evacuation.
2. They wish to be directed by the government as to where to go.
3. They wish to be sent together, with families intact and in sufficient numbers to be able to help each other over the difficult period of adjustment.
4. They wish to be settled near large urban settlements.
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If a licensing system for individuals in vital and necessary occupations could be worked out under the supervision of either the military of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, unwanted mass evacuation can be avoided.