Title: "Prowling Boys Find Suspected Jap Propaganda," Seattle Times, 10/1/1944, (ddr-densho-56-1067)
Densho ID: ddr-densho-56-1067

Prowling Boys Find Suspected Jap Propaganda

How 15 Seattle boys, 8 to 14 years of age, spent four days prowling a little-used storeroom of a Japanese-owned hotel at 306 Sixth Ave. S., and uncovered a cache of what police believe may be pre-Pearl Harbor Japanese propaganda, was disclosed by juvenile authorities here yesterday.

The youngsters finally were apprehended when A.J. Holben, manager, became suspicious of recurring strange noises he heard coming from the back of the hotel. When he investigated he found the boys using an ax to break open the stored trunks of evacuated Japanese.

The boys fled, but several were arrested by police a few blocks away.

Questioned by Capt. G.W. Kimball, head of the Junior Safety Division, the captured youths implicated their companions. The boys related to Kimball lurid tales of finding Japanese literature, machine-gun bullets, cartridge belts and rolls of film.

Detective Lieut. C.E. Neuser, dead of the national defense detail, reported the film was a "highly questionable nature," and that a further investigation of it will be necessary.

The ammunition and cartridge belts were found to be of American manufacture, and Neuser said the literature was "harmless" and consisted mostly of American-published books.