West Coast Hate Nest?

T/5 Jack Hori Asks Apology for Hate Placards in Home Town

Editor, Kent News-Journal, Kent, Washington.

Dear Sir:

Let me extend my sincerest thanks for the weekly News-Journal I have been receiving ever since my induction in 1941.

...Here is one item from the weekly "Pacific Citizen" which I am sure you would like to hear about. They wrote:

"Kent's Honor Roll

The mayor and some of the leading citizens of the community of Kent, Wash., recently exhibited posters declaring, "We Don't Want Any Japs Back Here -- Ever." Last week Kent's newspaper, the News-Journal, published its "honor roll" of men from the Kent-Des Moines areas serving in the armed forces of the United States. On the list are the following names: Jack T. Tori, Charles Hiranaka, C.J. Hirabayashi, Mike Iseri, Shigeyoshi Iseri, Sanae G. Ikuta, Tadashi Kato, George N. Kadoyama, Ted T. Kamo, Mat Mikami, Rikio Nishimatsu, Jeiji Nakatsuka, Seigo Shimoyama, Harry Shimomura, George Y. Tamura, James J. Tamura, Minoru Tsubota and Henry Watanabe, all Americans of Japanese ancestry.

It is certainly an amazing contradiction to find that men who are fighting for their country are being honored by their community for their services on one hand and are being denied the right to return with their families to their homes on the other.

If the declarations by the mayor of Kent and by some of its "leading citizens" are not representative of the attitude of the entire community, that fact should be made known. Certainly apologies are in order to the men of Japanese ancestry from Kent who are serving in the armed forces.

T/5 JACK HORI.

Chief of Police R.E. Graham Answers Hori with Accusations

Jack Hori:

In answer to your letter to the Kent News-Journal as of January 25, 1944, from one of your so-called "leading citizens" and one of the majority who sincerely mean, "We Don't Want Any Japs Back here -- 'EVER'".

You seem to take offense of our placards. I'll tell you why and you plainly show it, as not being a true and loyal citizen of our United States of America, by your taking offense of our statements. And asking apologies, of all things, isn't that a typical Jap trait? So sorry, please, and we are sick of it.

If you are such a loyal American citizen as you claim, you would never had written such a letter to our local paper and never would you have taken offense when we said, JAPS, or does your conscience of your countrymen who were at OUR White House talking peace while your Navy pulled the sneak attack on our Pearl Harbor.

I often wonder just how many of you wearing the uniform of the United States Army would be wearing the uniform of the land of the Rising Sun (that is sinking) if you had only had the chance to do so. YOU know that is certain, and you will never tell. If you would have ever told, being a loyal American as you now claim, you would have explained all about the numerous meetings that told place in a certain Jap store that you are very familiar with, located on the corner of the West Valley Hiway and the corner of West Meeker Street, prior to and shortly after Pearl Harbor when your countrymen were holding meetings there en masse. DID YOU? NO!

You listed the names of the boys of Jap ancestry on the "Honor Roll" that are in the armed forces fighting for their country, but you forgot to state, what country, you didn't name the United States. And just how many of these boys are fighting in the South Pacific against the boys from Japan, NOT ANY? Why not? I'll tell you why not. Because the Commanding Officers in the good old United States Army won't trust SOME of you who are really Japs at heart in any South Pacific war area where your true colors would appear when you were up against your brothers, uncles, nephews and cousins who are fighting under the flag of the Rising Sun.

We mean exactly what we say, "We Don't Want Any JAPS Back here 'EVER'". We hope to keep this country as it always has been, a country for true and loyal American citizens, FOREVER.

ROBERT E. GRAHAM

CHIEF OF POLICE,

Kent, Washington