CONFIDENTIAL
WAR DEPARTMENT
M.I.D
Washington 25

MID 201,
NICHOLSON, Herbert (H.V.)

24 August 1943
(Date)

Subject: NICHOLSON, Herbert (H.V.)
1554 Las Lunas Street
Pasadena, California

Summary of Information:

According to an article appearing in the Rafu Shimpo, Los Angeles bi-lingual Japanese daily on 22 January 1942, the Rev. and Mrs. Herbert (H.V.) NICHOLSON are particularly prominent members of a committee in charge of "aid to distressed resident Japanese families".

The above committee is one of a number of committees of the AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE which is affiliated with the AMERICAN QUAKER GROUP. Although there is no indication of subversive intent on the part of this committee, which has been under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it appears that its interracial and international connections leave it liable to manipulation by anti-American elements.

In its Sunday edition of 28 March 1943, the Des Moines Register-Tribune, on the "People's Open Forum" page devoted about two and a half columns of space to several articles favoring more equitable treatment of loyal Japanese. A "letter to the editor" occupying a large share of this space was written by H.V. NICHOLSON, 1554 Las Lunas Street, Pasadena, California. "Letters to the Editor" were under the main caption: "Nisei Ideals Declared as High as any Person's--One Contributor Thinks Democratic and Christian America Should Set Example for the World". A photograph allegedly showing the evacuation from the West Coast was printed on the page with this caption: "...... this wholesale evacuation from the West Coast was primarily caused by certain high pressure economic and political groups using false propaganda about sabotage in Hawaii to influence the primitive minds of the American people. These false stories have been officially denied but the damage was done," a quotation from the NICHOLSON letter.

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