Granada Pioneer, Vol. I, No. 72

              June   9,   1943________________PIONEER_______________Page 3	
COMMONWEAL
Boosts  Resettlement  Program
   Implying that the pro-
gress made by the Japanese
in California during the
past 30 years "must have
been a thorn in the flesh
for the Native Sons of the
Golden West,"and champion-
ing the present resettle-
ment program, an editorial
entitled"Plough Deep While
Sluggards Sleep" appeared
in a recent issue of the
Commonweal, national Cath-
olic weekly published in
New York City.
   "After Pearl Harbor,"
said the editorial, "the
FBI rounded up a couple of
thousand of them (Japanese)
...suspected of a dangerous
loyalty to the mother coun-
try.   The rest kept quietly
about their business.   But
the American Legion and the
Native Sons and (not of-
ficially, of course) the
Associated farmers could
not let so happy an oppor-
tunity slip through their
fingers.
   "A few of them were
beaten up. There were
threats that more of them
would be beaten up.   What
to do?   Let them weather
the storm...? Or appease
the people who found the
competition too stiff, who
would like themselves to
make a little money out of
tomatoes and lettuce?
   "Appeasement won, and
every man...woman and child
...was herded into...the
far fastnesses of the West,
where they were safe against
race prejudice...."
   But now “a kindly gov-
Ernment…would like to have
them resettle in communi-
ties not blessed with local
chapters of the Native Sons
of the Golden West...lots
of people are looking around
wildly to find men and women
with skills.   Well, you can
get them...They would like
to come; they have always
been known to be good work-
ers…”
   This editorial was re-
printed in The Tidings,
Los Angeles Catholic weekly.
PRESlDENT   WOULD
PRESERVE RIGHTS
   WASHINGTON,May 28--Pres-
ident Roosevelt tossed
overboard an old Commit-
tee on Fair Employment prac-
tice and set up another
designed to insure that
persons of every race,
creed, color, and national
origin shall have an op-
portunity in the war ef-
fort without discrimination.
   The President declared
that successful conduct
of the war demands the
maximum emp1oyment of  all
available workers and "the
democratic way of life
within the nation can be
defended successfully only
with the help and support
of all groups within its
borders."
MAY ALLOW RETURN
TO  PACIFIC  COAST
   WASHINGTON, May 26-As-
sistant Secretary of War
John J. McCloy in a let-
ter, released by Rep. Ward
Johnson, (R-Ca1if.), said
that the War department may
allow a few Japanese Amer-
icans married to Caucasians
to return to the Pacific
Coast zone from which they
are at present banned.
   He said that such ex-
ceptions to the general
order would be considered
only if the department had
no doubt of the loyalty of
the individuals concerned.
‘Japs Clean, Well-Behaved’
   Wellsville, Kan., a town
of 816 population, is
learning to live with Jap-
anese, wrote Helen Jo
Crissman, a Kansas Citian,
in a recent issue of the
Kansas City Times.
  One hundred and twenty-
nine Japanese, housed in
boxcars,  are now building
new tracks for the Santa Fe
railroad, four blocks from
the center of the town's 35
business establishments.
   "Japanese are on the
streets, in the stores,
in the pool hall, in the
picture show; and eight of
them on the minister's in-
vitation, attended the
Baptist church one Sunday
evening,"wrote the author.
   "A few persons in town
openly will be 'glad to
let some other town have
them,’ but the large ma-
jority is willing to coop -
erate in the matter.   Wells-
ville is taking 'the Japs '
with well-bred equanimity,"
Miss Crissrnan stated.
   "The main'impression,"
continued the author, "is
that the Japanese are clean,
well-behaved, and would be
friendly, if they were not
'scared to death' of doing
the wrong thing...."
"TIMES' PICTURES
NlSEI SOLDIERS
   Pictured in the June 4
issue of the Kansas City
Times was a group of 13
nisei soldiers from the
Minidoka relocation center,
Hunt, Ida., headed by Pvt.
Tadashi Fujioka, formerly
of Seattle, Wash. 
   The caption read: "These
Japanese will fight for
Uncle Sam.    They are 13 of
the 15 American-born Japa-
nese who stopped here (Kan-
sas City) on their way
from their induction center
at Ft. Douglas, Utah, to
their training station at
Camp Shelby, Miss…."
   The story under the pic-
ture described the group
leader, Private Fujioka,
as a "serious and uncom-
municative private who had
all the earmarks of a first
class fighting man.   Fuji-
oka explained the long in-
terval between the time the
boys volunteered and their
induction by saying, "We
had to be checked over by
the FBI.    All that kind of
stuff,  you know.  We had
to be ok.”
OPPOSE RELEASE
OE   JAPANESE 
   LOS ANGELES, June 3-
Vigorous opposition to the
action  of  the WRA in re-
leasing the Japanese evac-
uees and permitting them
to return to the West Coast
was voiced in a resolution
adopted by delegates to the
24th annual convention of
American War Mothers in
Long Beach.
   Mayor Bowron stated that
he was "actually amazed"
at the tone of many of the
letters he received after
a broadcast in which he
expressed hope that some
legal way might be found
to deprive Japs of their
American citizenship.   He
said that apparently many
persons interpreted this
to mean that persons of
Italian and German extrac-
tion might also be so treated .
   "The Japs are in a class
by themselves," he said.