HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

February 15, 1943

Honorable John J. McCloy
Assistant Secretary of War
4E-886, Pentagon Building
Arlington, Virginia

Dear Mr. McCloy:

I am inclosing a photostatic copy of the letter of February 11, 1943, received from you recently in reference to a modification to the mixed marriage policy because I have a feeling that it was not prepared or signed by you. Its style and signature tends to confirm this feeling.

For comparison, both as to style and signature, I am inclosing a photostatic copy of one of the last personal letters received from you dated January 1, 1943. You can see that there is no close resemblance between the two signatures.

I am sending this personally to you because I want to bring it to your personal attention as I feel I can without your thinking me as being of an unduly suspicious nature.

I am sorry that I did not have an opportunity to see Colonel Scobey when he made his recent trip to Manzanar and other Relocation Centers.

With kindest regards and best wishes.

Faithfully yours,

J.L. DeWITT
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army
Commanding

2 Incls:
#1, Photo. cy 1tr 1-1-43
#2, Photo. cy 1tr 2-11-43

WAR DEPARTMENT
OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
WASHINGTON, D.C.

February 11, 1943

Dear General DeWitt:

The enclosed letter from the Director, War Relocation Authority, requesting authorization for return of certain evacuees to Military Area No. 1, with statements of fact of six specific cases attached, is referred for your consideration and report. In his letter, Mr. Myer asks for a reconsideration of your mixed marriage policy.

While I have no desire to insist that you grant clearance in the specific cases submitted herewith, nor to urge a revision of your policy on mixed marriages, I do feel the time and situation is such that a re-examination of policy can be made. The War Department policy in the treatment of the entire Japanese problem is, as you know, undergoing some revision. Authorization has been given for the formation of an American-Japanese combat team, plans are under way for the acceleration of the release of loyal Japanese from relocation centers, and War Department policies are being revised to permit the employment of released American-Japanese in war industries.

In the early days of the evacuation steps had to be taken which involved rough lines. However, at present instead of denying spouses of mixed marriage residence in the military area solely on the arbitrary establishment of racial background, would it not be better to establish the loyalty or disloyalty of the individual as a guide to granting a clearance? It seems difficult to predicate the loyalty test of a Japanese spouse on the status of whether or not the union possessed unemancipated children, or as to whether or not a Japanese spouse is married to a civilian or a soldier.

I appreciate that you are concerned with taking adequate measure to guard against dangerous or potentially dangerous Japanese from entering Military Area No. 1; but where evidence is conclusive that the spouse of a mixed

marriage is not only not potentially dangerous but actually is loyal to the United States, would it not be desirable to accept that conclusion as the basis for approving an application for return? As in the cases of Italian and German aliens, you always have power of individual exclusion.

My concern in this matter is actuated by the influence your policies will have on the related War Department policy which recognizes the loyalty of individuals rather than assuming disloyalty to a group as a whole, and to the efforts of the War Department to assist in a general solution of the Japanese problem.

JOHN J. McCLOY
Assistant Secretary of War

Lieutenant General J.L. DeWitt
Commanding General, Western Defense Command and 4th Army
Presidio of San Francisco
California

HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDING GENERAL
PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

15 February 1943

Honorable John J. McCloy
Assistant Secretary of War
Washington, D.C.

My dear Mr. McCloy:

This will acknowledge your letter of February 11, 1943, concerning proposed modifications of the mixed marriage policy under which certain persons of Japanese ancestry are permitted to return for residence within the evacuated area of the Western Defense Command.

At the time of evacuation, the Japanese were regarded with suspicion and mistrust by the average resident of the West Coast. To curtail mounting hysteria, rioting and public demonstrations, and for many other military reasons, the Japanese were evacuated under complete Federal supervision. Voluntary migration had to be abandoned because of danger to Japanese. The situation with respect to the re-acceptance of Japanese in the evacuated areas has not altered. Although certain individuals are prone to believe that persons of Japanese ancestry would be acceptable to the communities from which they were evacuated, I am convinced that this belief can be regarded only as wishful thinking.

If the present mixed-marriage policy is modified on the theory that loyalty can be determined and Japanese wives who are allegedly loyal be permitted to return to the evacuated area, there would be no real justification for not allowing any such Japanese to return. The proposal to extend the policy to include childless families is highly objectionable because it will pave the way for large numbers of Japanese women to return to the evacuated areas, and has no relation to the original objective of protecting mixed blood children and adults from a Japanese environment.

It is unwise to initiate any policy which will lead to the return to the evacuated Pacific Coastal area of any persons of Japanese ancestry beyond those now being permitted to return.

Sincerely yours,

J.L. DeWITT
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army