This Is a Coast Problem; Keep Japs Away From Here

The Pacific Coast awaited with intense interest and some impatience a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on the constitutionality of the evacuation of American-born Japanese from the vital military areas of Washington, Oregon and California.

And pending that decision, the controversy was aired and irritated by investigations before the Dies committee, where some of the testimony indicates sharp disagreement in high quarters over the Army's evacuation policy.

Whatever the Supreme Court decided, and whatever of truth, stripped of emotion, the Dies committee gleans, the fact remains that neither of these proceedings will terminate the discussion or solve the problem. The people of these three states do not want the Japanese evacuees to return to the coast before the war is over.

Pacific Coast citizens do not believe that the Japanese-Americans in the relocation centers are suffering any greater hardships than American boys in the Aleutians or the South Pacific. They believe the American-born Japanese are safer in the relocation centers than they would be at large. They believe the Pacific Coast is safer as long as all the Japanese are kept away from the coastal defense area.

Whatever decisions are reached in august circles in the national capital, the Army and the Pacific Coast states must find a way to forestall the return of any Japanese to the areas along this coast which we may sometime be forced to defend against the attack or invasion from the sea.

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