WAR FANATICISM STIRS TULE LAKE
By WENDELL WEBB
Associated Press Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5.--A fanaticism born of war brought bristling guns and tanks to the Tule Lake Japanese segregation center today to climax 18 months of smoldering revolt.

Strikes, riots, beatings and vandalism finally have forced the Army to take control from the War Relocation Authority, now in the spotlight of official probes.

Almost since its inception, Tule Lake--in the isolated bottom lands of Far-Northern California--has been the major trouble point for the W.R.A., which is charged with housing, the approximately 107,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans evacuated from critical areas of the West.

State of Mind Known Long

Fifteen thousand originally were sent to Tule Lake. And indicative of their state of mind even months ago is the fact that nearly half remained there when a segregation program was begun to make Tule Lake the center for all evacuees regarded as disloyal to America.

To the 7,000 who remained, about 8,000 have been added from other centers and previous troubles have been multiplied many times. All 15,000 now there, with the exception of children and a few adults who elected to remain with their families or friends, are regarded as definitely disloyal. Events of the past week have proved the point.

There was a definite undercurrent of strife when newspaper men visited the center last May. There had been food strikes demands for more shoes, refusals to work. But rebellious leadership was weak.

With the arrival of the newcomers, particularly evacuees from Hawaii, where most Japanese remain undisturbed, the picture changed. New leaders strove for power and control. Thousands fell into line.

The evacuees have refused to harvest crops for other centers. (Hundreds of volunteer internees have been sent in to do the work.)

The disloyal Japs held national and local W.R.A. officials virtually prisoners while presenting demands for better food, oiled streets, new Caucasian personnel.

The beat a medical officer, a construction employe, a guard.

Two Major Purposes

From W.R.A. statements and from observation it appears that the trouble sparks from two major purposes (and perhaps a hundred others):

The desire for recognized authority on the part of a few score internees, who would govern the attitudes and actions of the thousands of others, some of whom might wish to live in quiet regardless of their loyalty;

The hope of forcing repatriation even before the end of the war, and recognition in Japan as martyr-heroes of the Rising Sun.

There are Christians, Buddhists and countless sects as Tule Lake. There are citizens of Japan and the United States. There are the nisei (born and educated here, and citizens); there are the kibei (born here and citizens, but educated in Japan); and there are the issei (aliens, born in Japan).

It is the kibei to which most of the trouble is ascribed.