Fresno JACL News

              Further Chin and Abe should realize that anti-
orientalism was fomented, directed and financed in
the beginning by trade unions. Organizations,
such as, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign
Wars, Native Sons of the Golden West, the State
Grange, and the State Federation of Labor
supported the racists. Also involved against
orientals were politicians, which included Hiram W.
Johnson, U. S. Senator and former Governor,
Mayor James D. Phelan, later Governor and U S.
Senator, U. S. Webb, long time Attorney General of
California, the co-author of the 1913 Alien Land
Act, which prohibited orientals, ineligible for
citizenship, from purchasing agricultural lands and
leasing land for more than three years. Not only
were labor unions and politicians against orientals,
the media all - from the S. F. Chronicle, the S. F.
Examiner, and the Bee newspapers published
articles that earned the title, "Yellow Journalism." In
fact, V. S. McClatchy, publisher of the Bee
newspapers, convinced Congress and the state
legislators to pass the Alien Land Act and the
Exclusion Law of 1924. The orientals had no one
to champion their causes and no one succeeded in
getting the truth to the public. The racists
destroyed the confidence of the public in the nisei,
displaying him as being loyal to the Emperor. To
accomplish all this, the Joint Immigration
Committee, headed by VS McClatchy, the
publisher of the Bee Newspapers, spent a lifetime
publishing false and misrepresenting articles of the
Japanese, convincing Congress and the state
legislature.
The niseis have earned the respect of the nation by
displaying a conduct which put  a fie to the
efforts of the anti-oriental racists in California. Chin
and Abe are recipients of that respect and should
understand that the position they enjoy is due
considerably from the valorous efforts of the niseis
in combat. Filing law suits would have
accomplished nothing. Yasui, Hirabayashi,
Korematsu and the resistors proved that. When
loyalty was questioned, there was no alternative but
to join the army and serve the country in a valorous
way. I hate to think of the consequences ensuing,
had we alt resisted military service.
s/YRHiraoka
NATIONAL HONOR
In its annual meeting and reunion held this year
in San Diego April 30 - May 3, 1998, the Red
River Valley Fighter Pilots Association
(RRVFPA) named local JACL member Gerald
Horiuchi their River Rat of the Year. The
RRVFPA is a national organization of military
aircrew members both retired and active duty
who were originally linked by the common bond
of having flown combat missions into the Red
River Valley region of North Vietnam. The
members refer to themselves as River Rats and
annually select one of their own for national
recognition. This year the association diverted
from their usual practice and named two
recipients. Horiuchi shared the honor with
another member, the late Larry Beasly, an
association member from Las Vegas, Nevada.
Horiuchi was recognized for his continuing
association work to recruit new members,
especially from among former Air Force
personnel who flew the B-52 and KC-135
aircraft on missions in SEA. He was also
honored for his continuing fund raising efforts to
support the association scholarship fund which
to date has awarded over $1.2 million to
dependents of military service members lost in
combat since SEA or to dependents of aircrew
members lost in peacetime military aviation
accidents. Horiuchi, who retired from the Air
Force in 1979, flew a total of 368 combat
missions in SEA in F-4 and B-52 aircraft
between 1967 and 1973.
Locally, he has served on the chapter executive
board for the past three years and has been
chairman of the chapter scholarship committee
for the past two years.
Allag
Fl<zdg<
lanoz.....
jj