In the San Francisco Chronicle:

Japanese Americans Organize To Overcome Hardships of Resettlement in Wartime

(Ed. Note: The San Francisco Chronicle recently sent William Flynn, a staff writer, on a special tour of the intermountain area to report on the resettlement of west coast evacuees of Japanese ancestry. The following is one of Mr. Flynn's articles. It is reprinted in the "Pacific Citizen" by arrangement with the Chronicle.)

By WILLIAM FLYNN

TOPAZ RELOCATION CENTER, Delta, Utah, March 2 -- The Japanese Americans, removed from the Pacific Coast, today are organizing to overcome, by peaceful means, racial persecution hardships of their pioneering trek eastward to establish new permanent homes.

They realize they face opposition, inspired by war engendered hates and fears of economic competition. Their plan is:

1 -- Self-discipline of those pioneering to prevent them from congregating in so-called segregated districts because of social, business and blood ties.

2 -- Evidence of their loyalty to the United States through actions rather than words.

The program has the indorsement of individual leaders and the Japanese-American Citizens' League, one of the most powerful Americanization forces of the evacuated racial group. Caucasians aiding the Japanese-Americans in defense of their democratic rights as citizens also indorse the program.

The first part of the program would prevent the spotlighting of public attention on individuals by "scattering" the 112,000 throughout the Nation of more than 13,000,000 persons.

Evidence of loyalty is the most vital concern of the Japanese-Americans at the present time. They buy bonds, they donate to the blood banks -- and their men fight and die for the United States, in the Pacific and on the shores of Italy.

There is a unit of Japanese-American soldiers fighting with the Allied forces seeking to carve their way into the Continent through the "soft underbelly of Europe." They are members of the 100th Infantry Battalion of the Army of the United States, all volunteers. Their war record is reflected in War Department statements, headlined in the Pacific Citizen, publication of the Japanese-American Citizens' League, as follows:

"Fifty Members of Nisei unit Awarded Purple Heart for Wounds in Italy Campaign."

"Twenty Japanese-Americans Killed, 98 Wounded in Recent Action of 100th Infantry in Italy."

"Ninety-six Japanese-Americans Killed. 221 Wounded on Italy Front."

The headlines are followed by columns of names.

The Japanese-Americans believe that such blood payments on the total price demanded for establishment of the Four Freedoms throughout the world entitles them to some consideration as loyal citizens of the United States. Their belief is summed up by Joe Masaoka, an official of the league. He said:

"Americans of Japanese ancestry are Americans. They now feel that California isn't all of America. If they feel they can make their livelihood and fulfill their ambitions along the American way of living in other parts of the country which are more receptive, they are going to establish their homes there.

"Americans of Japanese ancestry have been assimilated into America. If fighting and dying isn't assimilation -- what is assimilation? Now that they have gone through the fire and proved themselves Americans on the battle front, I feel that their home is all America -- not just California.

Masaoka's five brothers are in the army.

The Japanese-American men have accepted the recent War Department decision they are eligible for induction through the processes of selective service with the same general attitude of any other racial group of assimilated citizens.

To some imminent induction was a blow. They had planned to leave the centers and establish homes so they could bring their families and relatives from the places of confinement that are ringed by barbed wire and guarded by military police.

Now they must postpone such plans of relocation.

Others greeted the order with enthusiasm. They saw the opportunity of receiving sufficient guaranteed income through allotments to permit their wives and children and mothers and fathers to live in reasonable security outside the centers.

All, however, resented the plan for "segregation" of the Japanese-American soldiers into special units. They claimed all branches of the service should be opened to them as to any citizen. None the less, like the Negro, they accept the opportunity to serve -- for by serving, they believe, they will prove their worthiness as citizens.

Whether the sacrifices of the Japanese-Americans in severing their social groups on the home front and on the battlefields will win them their full citizenship remains to be seen. The question is whether the United States is sufficiently tolerant, sufficiently sincere with its declaration that this Nation is one of "liberty and justice for all."

None living can peer into the future to read the answer objective historians of the era will note. But now it may be known to those Irish-Americans, those German-Americans, those English-Americans, those Chinese-Americans -- and those Japanese-Americans -- whose bodies sleep peacefully side by side in the only Italian soil Lieutenant General Mark Clark claimed for this Nation -- "enough to bury our dead."

Politicos...

West coast politicos expect the so-called "Japanese issue" to be raised if the going gets rough in the forthcoming election campaign. Nearly all of the race-baiting California Congressmen (Rolph, Anderson, Leroy Johnson, Costello, Hinshaw, Engle, etc.) face strong opposition. Japanese Americans in relocation camps are still legal residents of their west coast states and may vote in the coming elections by absentee ballot ... A high Chinese official was recently asked whether the Chinese government would object to the use of Japanese Americans in post-war reconstruction work. His answer was that there is no race prejudice in China.