L. A. Japs Giving Bainbridge Evacuees Cold Shoulder

Japanese who were evacuated from Bainbridge Island to Owens Valley, Calif., last month are shunned as "stuck up" by the Orientals who were sent from Los Angeles' "Little Tokyo," according to letters reaching Seattle from Camp Manzanar today.

And the Bainbridge Island Japanese report they just can't get together with the California members of their race, because those from California appear to be about the most Oriental persons outside of Japan and "just don't speak the same language."

Paul Ohtaki explained in a letter that the difference is due to the fact that the Bainbridge Japanese lived in such different environment, intermingled while working and studying with white persons in a thriving community, that they simply can't comprehend the attitude of the first arrivals from Los Angeles, persons who had resided in a strictly Japanese community, otherwise the California city's "Little Tokyo."

Unpleasant Coldness

The Bainbridge Japanese complain that the unfriendly attitude of other Japanese at Camp Manzanar is even more unpleasant than the discomfort of the uncompleted center, where wind and dust storms often make visual conditions worse than the most severe Puget Sound fogs.

The Japanese from Puget Sound also are displeased because they are forced to remain idle. They are used to work, and lots of it, and they do not understand why they cannot take part in completing the barracks which will house them.

As yet there are no schools or churches, but these are expected to come later. Arrangements are being made with Bainbridge High School so that those high school students who were evacuated, and otherwise would have been graduated in June, can complete their courses through correspondence work. The island school board has approved such a procedure. Thirteen seniors were evacuated.

Army Men Praised

The islanders continue in praise for the Army men who had charge of the evacuation and who accompanied the 237 Puget Sound Japanese to Owens Valley. When the soldiers left, the Japanese from Bainbridge gathered to bid them an official farewell.

It is reported in other letters that Sada Omoto, formerly of Wing Point and a freshman at the University of Washington, had been assigned to the medical department at the camp and that John Nakata, former Winslow merchant, had been displaced in charge of the commissary.