Granada Pioneer, Vol III, No. 55

              Page  2
PIONEER
LI
by Roy Yoshida f
GI  CHALLEHGE
I FE OF A PERSON who
expresses his opinion
publicly in writing isn't
exactly rosy. In fact,
of tentimes, it's anextreme-
ly hazardous avocation.
But even a columnist's
dark clouds have a silver
lining.
Other day I received a
letter fromanisei soldier
convalescing at an army
general hospital at Hines,
111. Although he is an
Amachean, I've never met
the fellow personally,
which seems to be my loss,
but he wrote as If we were
old cronies. Yilhat's more,
he voted himself in as one
of the few who agreed with
the subject matters carried
in this column.
He has been chewing on
quite a chunk of this war
ever since he became a
casualty in France and had
time to think things over.
He certainly has no use for
race-baiters and self-interested politicians—particularly those along the
Coast.
He says, and I quote:
We, nisei must show these
race-baiters of America
what 'stuff nisei are made
of. Are we going to 'take
it' nonchalantly and do
nothing about it? Unquote.
Here is a question that
should perk us up and do a
little cogitating—if we
expect our future to be
brighter. And. while most
of us dilly-dally, this
fellow has his sight all
set* He says:
u7Tell,Roy, I for one am
r,ot going to let a pack of
rats feed me any of their
contaminated, unsound talk
of 'A Jap's a Jap, wherever
you find him,' 'Hick the
dirty Japs out of California,' etc., and gulp it
dowcx!!n
For us who have not had
the grim experience of war,,
his words seem harsh, but
they make sense. And, guys
and 'gals, sense is something we can use plenty of.
Furthermore, this fellow
shoots us civvies a challenge that just can't be
brushed aside:
"You nisei who are not
-„May 11, 1945
JtllH--,
Published \ Wednesdays . a nd Saturdays by the YiTRA
and distributed free to each apartment. Editorial
office: PIOHEER building,Amache, Colo. Telephone 63.
Editor: Roy Yoshida
Staff: Allan Asakawa, Mits Ikeda, John Ito, Asano
.Kasai, Henry Kusaba,.. Ben Miyahara, Audrey Nakabe,
Florence Okida-., Julia Shimosaka.
Japanese section . . . . . . Editor: Ichiro Konno
Staff: Yutaka Kubota, Mojiro Hamakawa, Takahiko
Eawamura.
EKIiCF "NO JAPS
t#4JAT€0" SIGNS'
ORANGE COVE (Fresno county), Calif.--"Ho Japs or
Pro-Germans Wanted Here"
signs have been put up here,
and in Cutler 'and Orosi.
'over there' can, and MUST,
fight just as fiercely,
just as courageously as the
boys of the...100th and the
442nd. It can be done in
school, at work, at play--
anywhere, by proving, by
your deeds,to the tolerant
people of America that we
are vrorthy of her, America.
It will, no doubt, be hard
to gulp prejudice and at
the same time give out the
best that is in you generously, but it's got to be
done sometime, and now's
the time just as good as
any. You know, they say
the harder you fight for
something, the dearer it
will be and you will covet
it more. HET'S ALL GIvE,
AHD GIVE ALL WE GOT!!"
That is a potent, timely
challenge. The boys who
have been " over there " know
what the ."score" is and
they are in no mood to let
a bunch of race-baiting
economic "super-patriots"
mulct them out of an equal
chance to earn a decent
1 i v in g—w h e r e v e r they
choose. They rightfully
feel that that is something
they have earned, but they
also know it will not come
easy.
Therefore, we must
"fight" at home with.them
if we are to make the principles of democracy work
for persons of Japanese
ancestry. We owe it to
"our buddies" overseas who
lie beneath the sod with
wooden crosses over them—
that they shall not have
died in vain. We must realize that we cannot live in
peace and content, unless
we keep faith with those
who died so that we may
live--asAmerican citizens.
TO THE EDITOR
TO THE FRESHO BEE:
Editor--S ir: I would
like to add a few statements
to the many already published in the Public Thinks
column about the Japanese
problem. It can be shown
readily that those who commit violence or attempt
violence against the returning Japanese are traitors
of a sort of fifth column
variety.
Our country can be described as a place where
men are given certain privileges and as a place where
Christian principles are
believed to be the best
rules to live by.
Anyone who acts in a
way which is contrary to
our fundamental belief
should not be a member of
our society—in fact he is
an enemy of ours. Some say
the Japanese are beasts
but we. know they are human.
Some may be human beasts
but that is true of any
race.
Let us hope for more intelligent action by our
so-called citizens.
Dinuba    Warren Carlson.
EDITOR—Sir: I -cannot
understand why the Japanese
should be allowed to come
back here and take up homes,
ranches, and places of
business after havingproved
themselves so untrustworthy.
Why send our boys over there
to fight the Japanese if we
are sympathetic toward them1?
"If they must be brought
back why not choose some
state for all the Japanese
to settle in, first evacuating all real Americans?
If necessary furnish them
with all farming equipment,
or, better still, m ake
them work for their equipment as wo Americans have
to do.
Merced,       MRS. D. E.