JAPANESE LEAVE MINIDOKA FAST

Only 1,500 persons remain in the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho, and the camp will be closed November 1, George Townsend, acting area supervisor for the War Relocation Authority said yesterday.

"We have been transferring them out of the camp at the rate of 400 a week for the past six weeks," Townsend said, "and although there is still considerable discrimination against these people, Seattle has been far more tolerant and less prejudiced than most other cities of the Pacific Coast."

Townsend said many of those still at Minidoka plan to settle in the Middle West and the East, but that some will return to the Northwest.

A spokesman for the War Relocation Authority in Washington, D.C., told the United Press yesterday that more Japanese-Americans now are moving from the relocation centers to the West Coast than to the East Coast. When the Army lifted its ban against their presence in the Western Defense Command early this year, two moved east to every one coming to the West Coast, he said, but the ratio now is reversed.

Difficulties in getting the Japanese Americans resettled were predicted Americans resettled were predicted by the spokesman if slashes are made in W.RA. funds.

Splendid Adjustment

"These people have made a splendid adjustment to the conditions they have had to face, and they are gradually being found employment, although some have had to accept jobs they would not choose," Townsend said. "They are gradually getting their businesses back, although it is slow, partly because of the housing and office space shortage."

A few returning Japanese, employed in essential industries, and families of service men can qualify for housing with the Public Housing Authority. Others are "doubling up" in quarters already available, until suitable housing can be arranged.

Townsend said most W.R.A. offices would be closed by April 1, but ahead lies the big job of clearing warehouses of possessions of the Japanese which were put in storage at the start of the war.

100 Arrived Wednesday

Hundreds of warehouses in cities all over the United States, particularly on the Pacific Coast, are filled with household furnishings and office and store equipment, Townsend said, which poses a problem for those who are unable to get housing. All will be expected to remove their belongings by the first of the year.

Each day finds more Japanese and Nisei coming back to the Seattle area. Two special cars brought 100 here Wednesday.