Loyal Editor Of Evacuee Paper Seeks Chance

MANZANAR, Calif., Jan. 10.--(AP)--Officials of the relocation center here, asserting that a knowledge of what Japanese-Americans are thinking is essential to an understanding of the relocation problem, called attention today to an editorial in the evacuee-edited Manzanar Free Press, which contained an inferential appeal for resettlement in normal life.

The editorial, titled "A Victorious New Year to You, America!" said in part:

"We ask you, the American people, to try us on our own merits. We are willing to stand or fall by our records, realizing that it is one of the inherent characteristics of the country we love, to appraise its people by the contribution they can make toward the total welfare of the nation.

"It is our belief that our country wants to fulfill the obligation to itself to permit the unhampered restoration of a group of its own people to their natural and rightful niche in the Americane scheme of life through an orderly process of evacuee resettlement. ... The citizen evacuees ... are not persuaded to resettle by glittering promises or job offers. The important consideration is that they be convinced in their own minds that they are acceptable to American communities as Americans."

Assistant Project Director Ralph L. Brown said the editorial was written by The Free Press editor, Roy M. Takeno, 30 years old, graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Journalism.