Board Denies Armed Nippons Abound in U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO, Saturday, March 2. -- (U.P.) -- The California joint immigration committee issued a statement today characterizing as fantastic any assertion that there are 500,000 armed Japanese in the United States.

Uncontradicted publication of such an assertion, the statement declared, "is likely to disturb the friendly relations and mutual appreciation now existing between Japanese and Caucasians in California which has developed since settlement of the immigration question in 1924."

Roy W. Knabenshue of Pasadena, pioneer airship builder, told the House patents committee in Washington Thursday that "half a million Japanese are in this country, and could form an army immediately in case of war."

Although Knabenshue was not mentioned by name, it was obvious that the joint immigration committee's statement was in answer to his assertion.

Signed by V.S. McClatchey, executive secretary, and James K. Fisk, chairman, the committee's statement calls attention to the fact that the entire Japanese population in the United States, men, women and children, is only about 300,000, almost equality, divided between Hawaii and continental United States.