HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEFENSE COMMAND AND FOURTH ARMY
Office of the Commanding General
Presidio of San Francisco, California

014.31 (G-2)

8 September 1942

SUBJECT: Separation of Kibei from Nisei.
TO: Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, War Department, Washington, D.C.

1. With reference to my letter August 23, 1942, file 014.31 on the above subject:

2. There is attached three copies of a report of an alien resident of the War Relocation Authority (an independent civilian agency) camp at Manzanar, California, which clearly shows a dangerous trend in disloyalty among center residents there, especially the Kibei. The 12th Naval District evaluates the source as reliable and this headquarters estimates the information as reliable and credible.

3. The necessary comingling of all classes of Japanese in accomplishing their evacuation from the Pacific Coast has exposed the second generation Japanese to the danger of complete and irreconcilable alienation by the Japanese indoctrinated "Kibei". The latter, Japanese born in the United States but educated in Japan, are persistently undermining the second generation American educated Japanese, or "Nisei", who are largely American in outlook and education. One method of attack is achieved by pointing out the present comingling of all persons of Japanese ancestry on the same basis and without separation or distinction, regardless of background.

4. The recommendations contained in my letter quoted in Par. 1 above are reiterated and emphasized and the early separation of "Kibei" and "Issei", or alien Japanese, from "Nisei" and the adoption of appropriate steps for the eventual repatriation of segments of the former two classes, is urgently recommended.

/s/ J.L. DeWitt
Lieutenant General, U.S.A.
Commanding