WHAT OF THE JAPANESE WHO ARE AMERICANS?

When Miller Freeman, Seattle magazine publisher, last spring told the Tolan committee he felt Japanese-Americans, as well as Japanese aliens, should be evacuated to the interior for the duration, we didn't agree with him. We argued strenuously for the citizenship rights of the Japanese-Americans ... and lost.

We still feel we had a solid argument, but we now are ready to agree that the evacuation was a good thing for, loyal as they could try to be, Japanese-Americans never in the world could have convinced some fanatics that their hearts weren't in Tokyo.

We now are ready to credit Mr. Freeman with being a forthright thinker on the subject of "What of the Japanese who are also Americans?" Under that heading it one of his magazines, Mr. Freeman recently wrote a challenging editorial.

He made several allegations with which we don't agree at all. One of them was a charge of disloyalty among Japanese-Americans. Perhaps, to cite only one example, Mr. Freeman isn't aware that J. Edgar Hoover, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told Congress, relative to Pearl Harbor and Hawaii, tat "there was no sabotage committed there prior to December 7, on December 7 or subsequent to that time."

But Mr. Freeman's point that Japanese-Americans must prove their loyalty is a good one, regardless of his reasoning. His editorial conclusion is a thought-provoking challenge to the nisei. He says:

"Let Japanese who would enjoy American citizenship denounce the Japanese program for the enslavement of East Asia. Let there be an end to the Japanese-language schools, dedicated to the training of American citizens in allegiance to Japan. Let the loyal drive out those who bring shame upon them by traitorous activities. Let every Japanese repudiate the doctrine of the divinity of the Emperor of Japan and denounce as the dishonored foe of civilized mankind."

We think Mr. Freeman has something there and commend him for a courageous discussion of a most delicate subject.

His thoughtful attitude certainly is far more intelligent than the bull-like approach taken by Senator Rufus C. Holman of Oregon, whose proposed constitutional amendment would permit Congress to deprive American-born individuals of Japanese, German or Italian ancestry of their citizenship rights.

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