They're Disloyal And Should Be Treated As Such

Immigration authorities report that Japanese in this country, both alien and native-born, who wish to go to Japan, are being sent on their way as fast as possible. So far, some 8,000 of them have been shipped through Seattle, under supervision of the district immigration office.

Meanwhile, the authorities seem in quandary about what to do with the large number of native-born Japanese who renounced their American citizenship, and as many more of the alien class, who warmly proclaimed their loyalty to Japan, while detained at relocation centers. most of these, it is said, have changed their minds since Japan's defeat, and now wish to remain in the United States.

For some of these native-born, the tender plea is offered that they renounced their American citizenship because they thought they were not wanted in this country, having been so persuaded by disloyal Japs. Truth is that in renouncing citizenship they justified the belief that they were not wanted. They are not wanted now.

American-born Japanese come into the full rights of citizenship at the age of 21. By that time they have had the benefits of American schooling; have been in close and continuous contact with the American system of government on all levels, and with the American way of life. Any who could be moved to renounce American citizenship after so much personal experience with its freedoms and benefits, can have no more right to remain here than any other undesirable alien; and no shadow of right to restoration of citizenship.

There has been no change in our immigration laws in many years. The quota system still stands. But before our relations with Japan became severely strained, the Japanese kept coming in almost as freely as if there were no laws at all. All that while the laws were enforced and the quotas held rigid as against all other people on earth. Even Canadian cousins found it difficult to cross the line for more than a few day's visit, and were subject to official scrutiny and inquisition lest they overstay their alloted [allotted] time.

Here on the Pacific Coast where most of the Japanese congregated, and where nearly all Japanese-Americans were born, we have reason to understand them and some capacity for segregation. We appreciate the good qualities of the law-abiding and industrious. We know that American birth and education has produced among them many good and loyal citizens.

Such Japanese, whether native-born or of alien birth, have earned and deserve the respect of all. Neither they nor any of the rest of us can condone disloyalty or have any sympathy for those who persisted in their allegiance to Japan, even to the extent of renouncing American citizenship.

Japan in collapse doesn't look as good to those persons as they had hoped to see it in victory. They may have changed their minds. But that doesn't make them the kind of people any of us care to deal with or have in this country. They, too, should be sent to the land the favored in war, and as speedily as possible.