KILL, KILL, KILL

This is straight from the feed box. The Marine Corps officer (an Islander whose name it isn't fair to disclose here) was speaking:

"How will our boys out in the Pacific act when they come back here and meet up with 'Japs' living in this country? Will they appreciate that most of them are loyal American citizens?

"Well... the Marines won't understand. Not the way they're taught. They've got hatred of the yellow rats trained into them. The Marines are the fightingest outfit we've got out there. They simply delight in wading in and killing Japs.

Those yellow guys stand for everything we've been taught to hate. You've got to think that way to fight the way a Marine does."

We, who have pointed out repeatedly that there is a difference between a Tokyo "Jap" and an American citizen of Japanese descent, didn't argue. We just asked one question:

"What are you going to do when this is all over and you come up against one of those Japanese-Americans who are fighting for America right now in the front lines in Italy?"

"Well," the officer paused. "I'll have to admit he was on our team and I'll have to accept him as such, but I won't want to let him get behind me ... still, the attitude of the majority of the people probably will change. In another three years, maybe things will be different. The returning Pacific veterans will be swallowed up in the crowd..."

Therein, we think, lies the real postwar problem of our Japanese-Americans. Most of them who are loyal have been badly treated so far. They have been uprooted from their homes and have been made the brunt, generally speaking, of a suspicion and hatred which an unreasoning public has conjured from rumor and gossip.

But the worst still could come for those Japanese-Americans. They and we who argue for fair consideration of their American citizenship must be prepared for the hatred of the returning American Pacific war veteran. We need not--we must not--yield our firmness in standing for the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, yet we must be quick to understand that hatred, for those are brave, loyal Americans who are out there killing the "Japs" we all hate.