Washington's Japanese Best Adjusted in Camps

Are Japanese happy in the relocation camps outside military zones, or do they want to leave them? How some former Seattle residents are helping in the cooperative government of these camps is told in this article, second of a series dealing with problems of the Nisei as they have been outlined to Robert W. O'Brien, of the University faculty.

By ANNE SWENSSON

American-born Japanese from the State of Washington, and particularly those who have attended colleges and universities, are the best adjusted of the relocated Japanese, according to Robert W. O'Brien, University of Washington administrator recently returned from six months' service with the Student Relocation Council.

"The Army and the War Relocation Authority have done a thorough job and a good one," O'Brien said. "But they've also had fine cooperation from many of the younger Japanese-Americans who help them organize and cooperatively govern the camps.

"These are no luxury camps. They are practical solutions, where possible, for a difficult problem."

O'Brien, whose work took him on a survey of all ten relocation camps, told of several former University of Washington students who have not left the camps, but have preferred to remain part of the governing bodies within them.

Bill Hosogawa [Hosokawa], former Tokyo and Seattle newspaper man, heads the Hart [Heart] Mountain Camp in Wyoming, while Dick Takeuchi, a Seattle youth, also a journalism student at the University, is editor of The Minidoka Irrigator, at Camp Minidoka, Idaho.

At Tule Lake, Calif., Frank Miyomoto [Miyamoto], a former sociology teaching fellow at the University of Washington, is making a study of the effects of evacuation on the personality of the Nisei. Abraham Hagiwara, another University student whose home was in Alaska, also has a responsible position at Camp Minidoka.

Part of O'Brien's job as national director of the Student Relocation Council was to assist in the answering of letters of commendation and complaint regarding the relocation program.

Camps Have Legion Units

"We pointed to the many instances of successful participation in community and civic affairs of the American citizens of Japanese ancestry," he said. "All the camps have American Legion units, for instance, with membership including men who served in the First World War.

"There is even a U.S.O. unit at one camp, where entertainment is furnished to sons of the camp occupants, soldiers who return there to visit their parents."

O'Brien pointed out that the gradual individual relocation program of the War Relocation Authority may return to civilian life at least half of the camp occupants if the program is successful.

According to 1940 census figures, of the nearly 150,000 Japanese residents of the United States, two-thirds are citizens. There are about 80,000 in camps, and the remainder left military zones voluntarily.

Many Attend Colleges

Through Midwestern offices of the W.R.A., workers are placed on farms, and in industries. Many students are returned to colleges, given scholarships and other aid, furnished by the schools and through the aid of the Student Relocation Council, which is financed by churches, educational associations and the Carnegie Foundation.

All the Japanese are anxious for the day when they will leave the camps, O'Brien asserted.

"Although everything is done to give them a normal life, they want to return to the civilian world of reality," O'Brien said.

Christmas holidays were a particularly hard time for the internees, and feeling ran high.

"Public reaction was wonderful, and the flow of gifts into the camps touched the hearts of the American Japanese," he said. "There were more gifts than there were children at all the camps, and it gave the people the assurance that they had not been shipped off and then forgotten.

Boost for Christianity

"One lad told me that Christmas was a tremendous boost for the Christian cause over the old-country Buddhists, because there were even more than enough gifts for all the Buddhists and all the Christians combined on the Christian holiday."

O'Brien also told of the cheers that went up when the Wyoming high schools recognized the Hart [Heart] Mountain basketball team by admitting it to the state league.

"Every youngster in camp grew inches that day," the official said. "It really only takes a small token of democratic feeling to reassure these people that they are wanted and needed.

"In another town, the American Legion post heard of a Japanese family who had a son fighting with our forces in Europe. They presented the family with a service flag. Because of that, those people would die today for this country, if they were asked."