STATEMENT OF RICHARD R. HITE, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY ­ POLICY, BUDGET AND ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

FOR DELIVERY AT JULY 14, 1981, HEARING OF THE COMMISSION ON WARTIME RELOCATION AND INTERNMENT OF CIVILIANS

Opening Remarks. I appreciate the opportunity to present this statement to the Commission. I will attempt to define the role of the Department of the Interior concerning the relocation and internment of American citizens of Japanese descent, Japanese aliens, and Aleutian civilians which occurred during the second World War.

If this definition appears to be somewhat cursory or oversimplified it must be recognized that we are discussing an element of American history which occurred nearly forty years ago. Most of the detailed records which were created during this period have been transferred to the custody of the National Archives and Records Service (NARS).

My remarks today have been developed since our receipt of the memorandum from the Commission, dated June 29, 1981. Based on review of information which does exist within the Department and-through discussion with NARS records specialists, we have developed a basic understanding of the War Relocation Authority (WRA) and of the role exercised by the Department of the Interior.

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INTRODUCTION. In the weeks following the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 1, 1941, the U.S. Department of War, supported by orders and opinions from the Department of Justice, strongly advocated the evacuation of Japanese-American citizens and aliens from strategic areas along the Pacific Coast of the United States. This view was also voiced by the West Coast Congressional delegation, the press, and various public groups. In response to these activities, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War or Army Military Commander designated by the Secretary, to establish "military areas" and exclude therefrom "any or all persons." This Order led to a series of actions initiated by Lieutenant General John B. DeWitt, U.S. Army, Commanding General of the Western Defense Command. Two of the key actions were 1) the designation of the Western half of the Pacific Coast States and the Southern third of Arizona as a military area and a stipulation that all persons of Japanese descent would eventually be removed and 2) the establishment of the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) which had responsibility for carrying out the evacuation program.

On March 18, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9102, creating the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to assist persons evacuated by the military under Executive Order 9066. The WRA, organizationally, was established in the Office of Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President. Milton S. Eisenhower was appointed by the President to be the Director of the WRA.

During the next few months, from March through August, the WCCA and WRA evacuated and relocated approximately 110,000 persons from their homes either to Army Assembly or War Relocation Centers. In June, as this effort was underway, President Roosevelt appointed Dillon S. Myer to succeed Milton Eisenhower as WRA Director after Eisenhower's resignation to become Deputy Director of the Office of War Information.

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The WRA operated as part of the Executive Office of the President until February 16, 1944, when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9423 transferring the WRA to the Department of the Interior. From the inception of the WRA in 1942 until it was transferred to Interior, our role was that of making available land for five of the ten relocation centers which were established.

I will now briefly describe Interior's role during the period up to February 1944 as well as for the period from February 1944 through the termination of the WRA program in June 1946.

I should note at this point that the information I am about to provide relates principally to the evacuation and relocation of the Japanese-American citizens and aliens as opposed to the internment of approximately 1,000 Aleuts. The records we have thus far reviewed contain very little information concerning the Aleut experience.

INTERIOR'S ROLE PRIOR TO FEBRUARY 16, 1944. Interior's primary involvement io the WRA program was in making available public land used for the establishment of five of the ten relocation centers. These were the:

-Colorado River Center in Arizona

-Gila River Center in Arizona

-Heart Mountain Center in Wyoming

-Minidoka Center in Idaho

-Tule Lake Center in California

Land for the two centers in Arizona was secured from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the land for the other three centers was secured from the Bureau of Reclamation.

With the exception of the Colorado River center, Interior's only role was to supervise construction by the evacuees of additional

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irrigation facilities. Army Engineers were responsible for the construction of housing and community facilities. The War Relocation Authority itself operated the centers. Consideration was given to the employment of Japanese evacuees on construction work of Reclamation projects in place of Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees and Work Projects Administration workers. Difficulties in obtaining critical materials and equipment, however, made it necessary to limit activities to the completion of irrigation facilities for an area considered adequate for the subsistance of the occupants of each center.

The Colorado River center, the second largest in terms of detained evacuees, was actually operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs under an agreement with the WRA. The Department of War, under contract, built the communities within the center, but upon completion, moved out leaving the operation of the center to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Many of the Indians of both the Colorado and Gila River Reservations were employed on community construction at the two Arizona centers.

As I previously mentioned, Interior's current records pertaining to activities during this period are very sketchy. This is especially true of the Aleut experience. We have determined that after the 1942 Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands, a decision was made by the Department of War, after consultation with officials of the Interior Department, that the native inhabitants (i.e. Aleuts) of the islands west of Dutch Harbor should be evacuated to the Alaskan mainland. We have very little information on this evacuation but it appears that Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and Fish and Wildlife Service had direct responsibility for the operation and support of the camps. These camps were established in Southeastern Alaska in such places as abandoned gold mines and canneries.

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The Aleuts, numbering approximately 800-1,000 were housed in such camps until mid-1944 when they were repatriated.

In researching material for this statement, we have learned that the Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association, the legally recognized representative of the Aleut people, have obtained extensive documentation regarding the Aleutian evacuation and subsequent activities. This would appear, along with records available from the National Archives, to be a very good source of information for further investigation by the Commission concerning the Aleuts.

INTERIOR'S ROLE AFTER FEBRUARY 16, 1944. As I mentioned earlier, President Roosevelt, by Executive Order 9423 signed in February 16, 1944, transferred the War Relocation Authority from the Executive Office of the President to the Department of the Interior. This action itself does not appear to have significantly changed the basic policies or operation of the WRA program.

The WRA came into Interior as an established organization. It appears to have retained its identity intact within Interior as we have found nothing suggesting any organizational changes being made as a result of its transfer.

By the end of 1944, a dramatic change had taken place regarding the operation of the WRA program. Public and official sentiment concerning the need for continued internment of the Japanese American citizens; aliens, and Aleutian civilians was rapidly dissolving. This was due to a variety of factors including activities by organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the high degree of loyalty to the United States exhibited by the evacuees, and many instances of exemplary military performance by Japanese American citizens serving in the U.S. armed forces. In December, the Department of War announced the revocation (effective January 2, 1945) of the West coast mass exclusion

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orders which had been in effect against the people of Japanese descent since the winter of 1942. Also in December, the Supreme Court ruled that the West coast evacuation was constitutional and that the WRA had no authority to detain "concededly loyal" American citizens.

These actions led to a December 18 announcement by WRA that all relocation centers would be closed before the end of 1945 and that the entire WRA program would be terminated on June 30, 1946.

It should be noted that during the period from February through December of 1944 when the above-decribed actions were taken, Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes, with full support by WRA Director Myer, strongly recommended that the exclusion orders be revoked.

Once the announcement was made that the relocation centers would be closed, the direction of the WRA was very quickly shifted to the orderly re-entry of the interned evacuees into the mainstream of American society. The WRA appears to have then directed a well-run program for the resettlement of the evacuees to various parts of the United States. A foremost concern of the WRA was that the returning evacuees would not encounter hostilities. Much was done by the WRA and through many groups, individuals, and the press to make this transition as smooth as possible for the evacuees. I believe it is fair to say that this effort was very successful although there certainly were problems and ugly situations encountered by the returning people.

The actual return of most of the evacuees took place during 1945. All of the centers except Tule Lake were closed by December 1. The final group of evacuees left the Tule Lake center in February 1946. On May 15, 1946, the last of the WRA field offices was closed, and on June 30, the War Relocation Authority was officially terminated by the signing of Executive Order 9742 by President Truman on June 25, 1946.

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There are two items which I would like to leave with the Commission and have included as appendices to my statement. The first is a column by Secretary Ickes which appeared in the Washington Evening Star on September 23, 1946 and the second is an editorial by Alan Barth which appeared in the Washington Post on March 28, 1946. These items provide an excellent perspective of the events which occurred during the WRA era and an assessment of the job performed by the WRA.

Conclusion. As I mentioned earlier, my remarks concerning the Department of the Interior's role in the War Relocation Authority program would be very brief. We have obtained, and I will provide a copy for the record, a comprehensive inventory listing of the records of the WRA which are in the custody of NARS. These records, consisting of slightly over 3,800 linear feet of files, are available at the NARS offices in Washington or at the Records Center in nearby Suitland, Maryland. Also included as appendices are a chronology of 1941-1946 events which led to the establishment and operation of the WRA and a table reflecting information on the War Relocation centers.

In conclusion, I would like to say that our recent review of the WRA program has been extremely informative and we welcome the opportunity to provide further assistance to the Commission in the future.

Madam Chairwoman, We will be pleased to answer any questions which you or other commission members may have. Such questions should be directed to Mr. Gerald Watkins who has been designated as the liaison person between the Commission and the Department of the Interior. Mr. Watkins may be reached at _______.