UNIVERSITY OF SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE BERKELEY

June 29, 1943 Dear Mr. McCloy,

Herewith some further comments by Californians who

do not regard Japanese-American citizens as enemies which may not have

come to your attention.kind and Alsoappreciative my thanks note of for June your 16th. Please do not feel that these clippings need

- they are simply an addendum to my letter of the 7th. If I find

others I should to feel that I can send

them along to you without burdening you

to dictate acknowledgments.

Yours sincerely, Howard Moise life HF

Hon. John J. McCloy Asst.

Sec. of War

Washington, D.C. REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL'-ARCHIVES

Reverting to the personal views commended recently expressed this column supporting the position of the by C olonel Will iam P. Scobey, War Department General Staff; Colonel Kendall J. Fielder, Assistant Chief of Staff for Military Intel- ligence, Hawaiian Deparment and Ambassador Grew. "We support these Government policies," says the committee. Finally, "The committee has taken no position on any suggest- ion that persons of Japanese ancestry be returned to the Pacific Coast at this time. We have confidence in the present policies of our War Department . Our primary concern is to ---the applicationof the following principles to the solution -- these problems. '(1_ Attack upon the rights of any minority tends to undermine the rights fo the majority (2) attempts to deprive any law-abiding citizen of his citizenship because of racial descent are contrary to fundamental American principles and jeopardize the citizenship of others; (30 legislation to deprive Americans of Japanese descent of any of their legal rights would set a precedent for depriving other racial groups of their rights and would weaken the confidence of our allies particularly those in Asia and Latin America, to penalize persons of Japanese descent in the solely for the crimes of the government and military caste of Japan." Government on Japanese-Ameri- can problems to which there has B. Gaines of been such violent dissent in Cali- fornia political, journalistic and Berkeley. Among thsoe of political signifi- cance are Maurice Harrison, already mentioned; Bartley C. Crum, prominent attorney, and Mrs. Nina Bancroft, pressur--. CaliforniansIt is interesting whoalso to agree -- -- otherwith not the in considerableGovernment

and this writer, together with what they have said about it. wife of Philip Bancroft, Republican nominee for United States Senator in 1938 andlong prominent in the Associated Farmers, a decidedly representative

The Pacific Coast Committee The honorary chairman is President Robert Gordon Sproul of the University of California and the active chairman is Maurice E. Harrison, former chairman of the Democratic State Committee.

of partisan groups. There are also some reasonably well-known private citizens, including Barkley Cruym, already mentioned, Mr.s Alfred McLaughlin,

Mrs. Robert Mc- Williams, wife of Judge McWilliams, and this writer. This is by no menas the whole list, but it is a sample of the sort of people they are. The committee announces that it "was formed to support and defend the con- stitutional rights of law-abiding persons of Oriental descent in the United Sates and particularly of the Japanese Amer ican evacuees," and that it "vigorously endorses the followingthaties. government It polic-isthese our conviction , Among Dr. Sproul's colleagues are most of the university presidents of Califonia: David Barrows, former president, and Monroe E. Deutsch, vice president of the University of Califonia; Ray Lyman Wilbut, cancel- •policies strengthen the war effort and are in line, with our democratictraditions. ” lor of Stanford University; Robert Millikan, of the California In- stitute of Technology; Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Mills College, and Tully C. Knoles of the College of the Among these Government poli-, cies are (1) "segreation of all disloyal persons of Japanese an- - Pacific--surely an eminentlyres p e c tab le grou p of dis tin g u isa hn ed da ccre d ite d in te llig e n ce, lo yalto th e in te res ts o fCa lifo rnia Am. o n g th e c le rg y a re Ra bE bd isg a rE .Ma g n in a n d Irvin gR H.e iche rt;W B e rtra n d S te ven s,E p iscop a lb isho p o fL o sA n gJ e ale mes; s C. Ba k e r;Me th o d is tb isF h ao thp e; rsJosep h P .Mu lkern aE n d w a rd J.Wh e la n ,C a th o lics,aothers. n d A m o n g p re sen ta n d fo rmeo rp fficu iab lslic a re He n ry F. Grad y ,fo rme rA s s is ta n tSe c re ta ry o fStaA teu ;g u s tVo llme r,Be rk e le y 's fa moauthority onpoliceadministration; u s fo rme rGo vern o rC .C .Y o u n gformer ,a n d Ma y o rFran k cestry ” as recommended by the- Costello committee of California ftthigtoed\#ndr accredited lntel- Representatives and by Senator ' ^e ?n^reats Albert B. Chandler to the Senate Military Affairs Committee; (2) the right of, loyal Japanese Amer- icans to serve in the armed forces, 5 -«r» *«*m«un4 •jrMrwaiS, as recommended.; by Secretary You don’t have to agree with ; ^isc-opal fciebdp cf lxx .Angeles ; Stimson and Ambassador . Grew;' any of this, of couse.r It is your u Jaasaea £L 3£&$r, Me thpdlst bishop; '(3) the opportunity of loyal Japa­ American democratic, right to £ Fathepir Joeeph/..p. Mulkern and nese- Americans to resettle in the have your own opinion. It Is also X Edward J, Whelan, Catholics, and manner in which,- in the Judg- the equal democratic right of I' others. ' t- , »; . ment of the.Government, will best those who have Issued this state­ «> Among present and former pub- meet the manpower shortage,as ment, to hold and to advocate the ? lie officials are Henry . P, Grady, recommended by President Roose­ positions expressed therein, espe­ • former Assistant Secretary of velt, Secretary Wickard and Direc­ cially as they are also the policy ; State; August Vollmer, Berkeley’s tor Dillon S. Meyer of the War of the Government of the United t famous authority on police admin- Relocation Authority; (4) ‘"fair States. « istration; former Governor C. C. play to Americans of Japanese - This is merely to inform you I Yohng, and former Mayor Prank ancestry' who are loyal,” as rec- who they are and what they say. REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Holds Jap Internment Is Unconstitutional

PULSE OF THE PUBLIO

EDITOR: Would i t n ot be well for th eeditor of Th e News to take a d ay off some time to acqu ain t some of th e contrib u tors o f th e Pul se thathere t is a q uaint and curious d ocumentk n own as th e Constitu tion of th e United S tatesprohib iti ng with in th e b ounds of our countryslavery or involuntary servitude except for crime? I a m mov ed to mak e th is su sgg estionbecause I read i n th e colu m ns othe f Pu lse tha t th o se within o ur b oders, r- born eith er in Japan, or of Japanese parents in th e United States and edu cated i no ur schoo ls a nd colleges sho uld fo rthwithsent b e to la bo r o n the streets of S a n Fran ciscowith out p ay save a bare su bsistence and th at thus th ey will be sufficiently compensated for th e p rivilege of living in a land of freedom (to others). It is said th at you could d o muchwith a S cotchman i f you captu re h im early eno ug h. Bu t p erha ps th e S cot wh o wroteletter th e h a s y et to read o ur Co nstitutio n. Speakin g of American citizens of Japanese ancestry, let me refer to a recent speech whi ch you reported made b y a Government official of presumed standin g. He stated with out crack- in g a sm ile th a t it wa s a g o o d po licy to suchsend citizens to camps in d esolate regions where th ey were in constant association with alien J a pa nese who i nflu enced th em a g a inAmerican st d emocracy which h ad p ermitted their incarceratio n. It did n o t o ccur to thofficial e th at th e p rime error was against th e Constitu tion in confin in g these men u nderdangerous conditions with out any charge against th em. Penologists and most of u s h ave come to believe th at even i n matters of crime the first offender should n ot be confin ed withhardened crimin al. How much more would th is be th e case confi ni ng to g ether the J a pa nese-American who wa s im bib ed m uch o f oAmericanism ur with th e a lien J a pa nese who mnot a yhave shed h is l oyalty to his mother country. I am among those who feel that by our hasty action toward th e Japanese we have violated th e Constitu tion and th at this violation is nowreacting u p on our n ation. Illustrating th e a bsurdity o f th e course takenin California, may I recommend a readin g in th e J un e Harpers of a n a rticle entitled, " TheJ a pa nese Americans in Hawaii." - Jackson H. Ralston, Palo Alto

iggeet^ feoata»>i readin col­ umn* &■## Pufte that those within Paragraph 1: ----- About two thirds i *3w aS5ted | Sent .t6vWxiP on. tiie street**^ San of the people of the Japanese race in the United States and the Hawaiian win i be sumeieuUjr compensated; for the £ privilege of Jiving to a land of free- 5 .dothXtaJjKhers)- It la said that you Islands

are American

citizens. As such they have been gladly and faith- fully --- the American Army and the con- fidence of Army men in them is witnessed to by the fact that a special combat unit of Japanese Americans is now being organized. Army, FBI, and civil authorities all agree in sccur to tiie official th^t tbs theretestifying was thatno sabotage or other subversive activity on the part of local residents of Japanese race in the Hawaiian

Islands either rrar was against the Con- in confining these men un- ■ HHV igerow conditions without any charge' against them. Penologists before fjand most at us have Crime txr&elieve that even in matters » of crime the, or Ifirst offender 6hotdd^not during or after Pearl \ Harbor. Good Citizens This -----when it comes to the -- pf tease confining together the Japa- ; German---record of Japanese---.---- fUeae-American who has "imbibed EDITOR: These days, lots of have been self-reliant enough to keep -much of oar Americanism with the people talk of certain citizens who off our relief rolls until forced to enter Fallen Japanese who may not have may be from parentage of “recent" relocation centers. Their intellectual attainments shed his f loyalty ’ to his mother foreign extraction as though an ex- have been high and they have an excellent record .country. - when it comes to assimilation of American i I am among those who feel that ception may be made under the cultural institutions. As the committee on f by our hasty and inconsiderate ac- United States Constitution, favoring American principles and fair play has 1 tion toward the Japanese we have those who« parentage may be traced well said: "Attacks upon the rights of any : violated the Constitution and that a little further back in history. minority tend to undermine the rights of the I this violation is now reacting upon There is no possibility of such ex- majority... Attempts to deprive any law-abid- I our nation. ception in a republic which grants ing citizen of his citizenship because of Illustrating the absurdity of the full citizenship to all “American, racial descenet are contrary to fundamental course taken in California, may I bom" of age! ' American principles and jeopardize the recommend a reading in the June As an American teacher under citizenship of others...Legislation to deprive Harpers of an article entitled, “The Americans of Japanese descent of Japanese Americans in Hawaii.” u civil service mentyears in the somea go,Philippine lhad a depart-chancetoforeignly.theninstandardand Westgood--Frank I observethecanThey Government andfellows,citizens. Coast Westname born-shall H.may now,of several Phillips Coast,countrywhat some goodbe asany said Ihopethe classesofItoofChristianshave sayand thesefairlytheirmeasureteachers, for, patriotical- servedthey oflegal bytoas these arehavename Iand up collegesrightsthemsee to it.been infull would the set a precedent —Jackson H. Ralston, Palo Alto, y for depriving other racial groups of their rights, and would weaken the confidence of our Allies, particularly those in Asia, in the sincerity of our professions to be fighting for the rights of all peoples...It is thus un-American to penalize persons of Japanese descent in the United Statels solely for the crime of the Government and military caste of Japan." It is to be sincerely hoped that N.S.G.W. will give their energies to the battle for democracy and refrain from agitation for legislation which is undemocratic and un-American. --Gordon K. Chapman ASW 8 1 . 2 4 3 16 June 1943 Moise, Howard JA Comments

Dear Mr. Moise: Thank you for your letter of June 7and the attached copies of your letters to Senator Reynolds and General DeWitt. From most of the correspondence we receive here on this subject the impression is gained that any attempt to deal with the Japanese descended people of the West Coast on any basis other than as outright enemies is deeply resented. It is a relief to get an occasional letter such as yours which indicates that this is not the case.

Sincerely,

(SIGNED) JOHN J. McCLOY Moise, Howard Comments Remarks -- Leave

Mr. Howard Moise Professor of Architecture University of California Berkeley, California

OASW:JJMc; meg REPRODUCED AT-THE RATIONAL ARCHIVES

E. GEOFFREY BANGS AND HOWARD MOISE AIA ■ ARCHITECTS ASSOCIATED FOR WAR HOUSING PROJECT CAL.-4670. SAN FRANCISCO

605 Market Street • San Francisco Telephone EXbrook 8949

Hon. John J. Mc Cloy June 7, 1943 Assistant Secretary of War War Department , D.C. • z Dear Mr. Mc Cloy: Encouraged by what I heard last evening from my colleague Paul Taylor of the correspondence he has recently had with you in regard to the problem presented by the Japanese Relocation Centers and their inmates I am writing to express to you my warm approval of the present policy of the War Department regarding this difficult matter. I believe whole­ heartedly in what the War Department is trying to do, and particularly in its program to utilize the services of those American citizens of Japanese ancestry whose loyalty can be established. I should like fur­ ther to state that it is my belief that a majority of Californians - perhaps a large majority - feel as Mr. Taylor and I do, and that the group which is opposing the War Department’s policy although vocifer­ ous is relatively small. It is composed almost exclusively of individu­ als who are motivated by myopic self-interest. Since they may not have come to your attention, and since they will give you a broader view of California thinking on this subject than I can present in this letter, I am venturing to enclose copies of a let­ ter which I addressed to Senator Robert Reynolds on February 16th last and a letter signed by twenty representative citizens of this state which was sent to General De Witt a year earlier. You will note that in my letter to Senator Reynolds I urged the adoption of a policy which parallels very closely the policy which the War Department is now following.

Yours most respectfully,

Howard Moise Professor of Architecture University of California REPRODUCED AT THE RATIONAL ARCHIVES!

March 24, 1942

Lieutenant General John DeWitt Headquarters 9th Army Corps Salt Lake City, Utah

Dear General DeWitt:

We, as citizens of California, are addressing this letter to you in support of your efforts to meet the Japanese problem with efficiency and fairness, on the basis of a realistic acceptance of practical fact. We feel that much can be gained for the future by wise action now in handling the Japanese situation here. We look forward to a post-war world where all people of good will may live in mutual re- spect and unity, and we are concerned that the necessary measures for our present safety should not in any way jeopardize this ulti­ mate aim. If the task of protecting our interests against actions of possible saboteurs is done with efficiency, and yet with consider- ation, it will be one of the finest demonstrations ever staged of the working of democratic processes.

In view of the report from the Chief of Police of Honolulu, Mr W. A. Gabrielson, that no acts of sabotage were committed in Honolulu or Pearl Harbor on December 7th, and that none have been committed since that time, the wisdom or necessity of the segregation of all Japanese residents of the State may certainly be questioned. Moreover, the doubtful constitutionality of the internment of citizens without due process of law presents a problem in civil liberties which might prove embarrassing.

Whatever our attitude toward the Japanese at the present time may be, all of the American-born Japanese must eventually be absorbed into American life as citizens. It would, therefore, be most un­ fortunate if our present treatment of them — through unfairness or lack of consideration — should build up psychological reactions which would make their reabsorption into normal peace-time life as citizens more difficult. We also recognize that for all of these people, many of whom we believe to be deeply opposed to the policies of the military regime in Japan, the situation in which they are placed by the war is at best one of terrific psychological stress and that, therefore, far from making the situation more difficult, we should do everything in our power to minimize its effect upon their characters.

From the point of view of winning the war, a very important con­ sideration would be to stress the fairness with which the Japanese, REPRODUCED AT THE RATIONAL ARCHIVES

Lieutenant General John DeWitt -2- 3-24-42

and especially the American Japanese, were treated, and thus drive a wedge between the civil and military groups in Japan. Any unfairness , would, of oourse, be a powerful weapon of propaganda in the hands of the Axis. Considerations of reciprocity in the treatment of American nationals in Japan bring a high degree of self-interest to bear on this particular issue. We cannot expect our citizens to be treated any better than the treatment we give to those of other nations who are under our jurisdiction.

The problem facing California in regard to Japanese farmers is particularly difficult, not only because this group contributes substantially to our food supply, but because the removal of their families involves costly dislocations of doubtful defense value. If American-born Japanese farmers of recognized loyalty were allowed to remain on their land, any surveil­ lance of these families deemed necessary would be relatively simple, since their identity is so clearly marked.

The specific object of this letter, however, is to bring to your attention a concrete plan, which has recently been formulated, whereby the housing at present needed for evacuees would be so planned and constructed as to be of value at the end of the war for another purpose. This purpose is the provision of sanitoria or rehabilitation centers for disabled members of our armed forces. It would enable such Japanese nationals as must be in­ terned, together with any Japanese Americans who might care to cooperate, to have a major part in the planning and construction of communities in which they would themselves live for the duration, and in whloh suoh work and skills as they had contributed would continue to be enjoyed and appre­ ciated during the "cooling off period" which many feel should precede final peace settlements*

The Plan calls for the location of four or five villages planned and built on the most efficient modern lines in such a way as to provide easily for medical care, but without the institutional atmosphere associated with large and congested hospital units. It is possible also that other types of villages could be built in areas where post-war expansion is anticipated. These villages would be ready for use by ex-service men and by those now engaged in war activities in congested areas. The planning and construction could be placed under the supervision of some existing agency, such as the architectural division of the Farm Security Administration.

Would it not be possible to select sites for four or five such villages in the interior valleys of California where the safety factor would be adequate, where climate, soil, water, and other physical conditions are favorable, and which would be appropriate for the post-war uses mentioned? If such sections could be located, mobile camps could be set up on the pattern employed by the Farm Security Administration in handling migrant REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Lieutenant General John DeWitt -3- 3-24-42

workers in farming areas of short season demand. The men from families to be relocated could be moved into these camps with the least delay, to be followed by their families as fast as accommodations can be provided. The new settlements would be organized on a cooperative basis, and all those desiring employment assigned to tasks for which they are trained. Medical cooperatives could be organized to take care of all health needs. Schools could be established with teachers selected, in large part, from the group itself. Recreation could be organized for young and old, and all utility services could be run on the basis of municipal ownership and control.

A group of Japanese architects who are graduates of the University of California have already expressed their desire to be of service in any undertaking where their skills can he utilized, Engineers, carpenters, masons, plumbers, and others experienced in construction could be employed in building houses, health and recreational centers, hospital units, and all other buildings which go to make up such a community. Gardeners could be employed in landscaping the villages and in the care of parks and other public grounds. The skills and energy of the group would be utilized in every way possible in preparing for a better post-war period. This volun- tary employment would provide income for their support and would release other labor for needed work in defense activities.

When the war is over, the families occupying these villages could return to their former homes, or relocate as conditions permitted, while the villages planned on the best modem design would become valuable and permanent assets.

Respectuflly yours,

Signed: Ray Lyman Wilbur (President, Stanford University) Edgar Eugene Robinson Jessie Knight Jordan (Mrs David Starr Jordan) Edith Jordan Gardner Edward S. Heller Josephine W. Duveneck Frank Duveneck Gerde Isenberg R. F. Isenberg Emily Olga Joseph Walter E. Packard Howard Moise Allen C. Blaisdell Max Radin Monroe E. Deutsoh (Vice President and Provost Copies to: University of California) President of the United States Paul S. Taylor Vice President Catherine Bauer Secretary of War Alexander Watchman (AFL) Governor of California George Wilson (CIO) United States Attorney General Edward Howden REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Department of Architecture Berkeley, California

February 16, 1945

I

Senator Robert Reynolds Chairman, Comittee on Military Affairs Senate Office Building Washington, D. C,

Dear Senator Reynolds:

I learn that the Comitteem on Military Affairs is conducting, or is about to conduct, hearings to determine whether or not the permanent Japanese Relocation Centers here in the West should be removed from the jurisdiction of the War Relocation Authority and placed under the control of the United States Army. It is my belief that such a change is not only wholly unwarranted but that it would be a tragic and deplorable mistake.

Very few citizens in this part of the world have taken the trouble to inform themselves as to the conduct of the War Relocation Centers, the conditions which prevail in them, or the character of the colonists — citizens and non-citiensz — who have been sequestered in them. It is be­ cause I am one of the few who have so informed themselves that I feel an obligation to trespass on your time with this letter. In my work as Professor of Architecture at the University of California, I have had many students of Japanese ancestry. Because a school of arch­ itecture is a small and highly integrated affair and its teaching very personal, I have gotten to know these boys extremely well. Many of them as they graduated have remained among my friends and I have followed their careers with interest. Since the evacuation I have corresponded with many of them, and recently it has been my duty and privilege to write to Mr. Dillon S, Myer letters of recommendationfor some ten or twelve of them who have applied for permission to leave the Relocation Centers. May I quote from one of the letters which I wrote to Dr. Myer:

"From what I have already said you will have correctly inferred that I am greatly interested in these boys of Japanese ancestry and deeply concerned about their treatment and about the effect that this treatment may have on their lives and character. I be­ lieve not only that almost all of them are good American citisens but that they have much to contribute to American culture as the founders of strains of future American stock. It is, I feel, of the utmost importance therefore that everything possible be done to mitigate the effects of their unfortunate (and in my belief unnecessary) segregation.

” In this connection may I take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation of the fine job which the WRA has done in handling REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

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its difficult assignment. I have not been able to visit all or many of the Relocation Centers but I spent a day at the Tule Lake Center and this visit together with reports of other centers impressed me with the remarkably high calibre of the personnel of the administrative staffs which the WRA has been able to assemble." ••• .-V” That the favorable impression which I got during my visit at the Tule Lake Center would have been repeated had I been able to visit other Centers is borne out by statements made to me by my colleague Allan Blaisdell, Director of the International House at the University, who has visited all the centers. Mr. Blaisdell informs me that it is to him almost incredible that a govern­ ment agency faced with a task of this magnitude could have achieved such - a consistently high level in the type of men and women chosen to staff the several centers, but that it is nevertheless the fact. • 4

In opposition to these findings your committee is undoubtedly being bombardedby statements that the colonists are being "coddledn by the WRA, that dangerous internecine conflicts among the colonists are fre­ quent, etc. I believe that I am justified in categorically branding such statements as untrue and as emanating from the uninformed, the misinformed, and those special-interest groups on the West Coast which are deliberately misrepresenting the facts to further their own selfish interests. The charge of coddling is, I believe, important enough to merit consideration in some detail. It raises immediately two questions. First, what do you mean by coddling? And, second, who is being coddled?

As regards the first question! In addition to my own first-hand know­ ledge of physical conditions and administrative policy in the Relocation Centers I have before me a letter from one of my older and more mature friends among the evacuees who describes with candor and an admirable objectivity the conditions under which he is living at one of the Centers. I wish you and the members of your committee could read this letter — and indeed many of the other letters which I have received and -which are touching and convincing human documents. But since the letter is long and much of it personal and irrelevant, I shall content myself with quoting two pertinent excerpts:

"With the rush of repacking and crating at Tanforan and the re­ building of a home here was merged all the uncertainties, worries, hardships, and excitements of a great adventure foisted upon us. Everything else was thrown out of our minds for some time. I think the people took it remarkably well. There were tears on leaving the Bay Region and all that was familiar to them — but no hysteria. No general outbursts when they got here and found that the barracks were but half finished and the chill autumn nights of this high altitude fast approaching. Or that the hospital was less than a third finished and the nearest hospital (inadequate REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVESE

3 surgery) was some 16 miles away over rough roads. Or that there were no school buildings yet for the several thousand school-age children. These were some of the more vital things that were lacking - some of which are still missing. The schools, for instance, are still in inadequate converted barracks. Thank God it wasn't apathy on the part of the people which led them to - accept these things, and more, so peacefully. Most of them have worked like dogs since then trying to make this settlement livable, and are still doing so. Creating a home once again out of what was nothing --the second time within a year. How do you go about providing a home for a family when given only a bare single room and no lumber or wall boards for partitions, let alone mouldings, paints, hardware, chairs, tables, or the necessary tools? Time and again I was approached by friends who’d beg me to design them an apartment with the use of a minimum of materials, and to provide a semblance of privacy for them. Then they’d go and try to scrape together some materials somehow but find that they couldn’t even get a single piece of stick through the WRA."

My correspondent then touches on the hearings being held by your committee and on the efforts to seek justification for the proposed change in jur­ isdiction. He writes,

"One of the reasons given for such a step is that the Japanese- Americans are being pampored in the centers. Wild tales of com­ fortably furnished apartments, tiled bathrooms and food over and above rationing on the outside seem to be flying about. Well, I certainly wish the Senators could come into our camp for about a week and sleep in an apartment which is nothing more than a single unparti- tioned room often shared by six persons, shower in our common wash room (untiled), walking about a city block to get to it from our room (there is no plumbing at all in our barracks) through the slush and snow; and eat in our mess hall standing in line cafeteria fashion with other men, women and children for our admittedly ample but ex­ tremely simple food, and see if this notion of pampering could be borne out!"

Last March a letter signed by the President of Stanford University, the Vice-President of the University of California, and other representative citizens of this state, was addressed to General DeWitt urging the use of a better-planned, better-built, and more livable type of community than the dreary and unfuctional rows of army barracks which had then been determined upon, and which have since been constructed by the Army engin­ eers. I enclose a copy of this letter as evidence of the fact that the conditions actually existing in the centers under WRA administration far from constituting "coddling" of the colonists, fall far short of the standard advocated at the time they were being built by a responsible body of public opinion. REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

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The second question, who is being coddled, or pampered, if these terms can be thought to apply to the standards of minimum decency maintained by the WRA: -- Here we are confronted with what I believe to be a very wide-spread misconception as to the nature of the problem - - the failure to realize that the inhabitants of the Relocation Centers are not iden- tical replicas of a single pattern, but individuals differing in view - point and character just as other individuals differ in viewpoint and character, and who fall into three very definitely marked groups. These groups, as you know, are the , those who were born in Japan and hence are aliens, the , who are the children of aliens, born in this ooun- try and educated in American schools, and the Kibei who were also born in - this country but were sent to Japan to be educated. Among the members of the first and third groups we should expect to find many individuals - - perhaps a large majority — whose loyalties are toward Japan rather than toward the United States. But of the second group, the Nisei, the re- verse is true. It is estimated that at least 75% of the Nisei are loyal Americans. My own experience would indicate a much larger percentage. In any event there are among them thousands of individuals who are in fact and at heart loyal American citizens, to whom a great injustice has been done, and for whom we should feel the greatest sympathy. They have accepted the hardships and injustices to which they have been subjected with surprisingly good grace. Almost to a man, my friends among them said to me on bidding me good-by, "Well, it’s our contribution toward winning the war.” But they certainly have reason to have become disheartened by the callous and shameful efforts recently made to deprive them of citi- tenship — a procedure which would effectively reduce each one of them to a man without a country.

It is this group which should be our chief concern at the present time. In common decency and fairness, and in justification of the democratic ideals for which the war is being fought we should immediately begin to redress — insofar as they can be redressed — the wrongs which have been done these innocent American citizens. To place the Relocation Centers under the control of the Army at this juncture would be a strange way to reward the War Relocation Authority for doing a difficult job exception­ ally well. It would also needlessly add an additional burden to the tremendous task which the Army already has to do. But most regrettable of all it would add a wholly unwarranted affront to the many injuries which have already been heaped on an unfortunate group of loyal Americans whose behavior under the most distressing circumstances has been most ex­ emplary.

That friction between the Nisei and the members of the other groups has occasionally flared into open conflict no one conversant with events would deny. In view of the fact that individuals of widely differing ideologies and loyalties have been herded together in cramped and inadequate quarters it is remarkable that internal disorder in the Centers have not been more frequent and more serious than has been the case. Where open conflicts have occurred, they have emphasized all the more strongly the difference in viewpoint between the Nisei and the Kibei, who, reports would indicate, have generally been the trouble makers. REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

All fo this points to the urgent need not of turning over the Relocation Centers as they are- to Army control but of setting up hearing boards through which loyal Japanese-Americans could be freed from the stimag of disloyalty and restored to the enjoyment of the normal privileges of citi- zenship guaranteed by the bill of rights while the disloyal and those who marearked un sforuited int toern Amerentic anin ccitizoncentratenshipi oncould cam pbes. defiWniere thtelyose cstlaessipsf takenied and there would then exist in the control of the concentration camps, a job which the Army might appropriately undertake, although even here it wouldseemfreeing wise for to consider whether the WRA could not carry on the work, there by

more essential duties the troops which would be required if the Army took over.

I believe that this program would have the endorsement of the Tolan Com- ittee whose extensive studies have necessarily included the effect of the evacuation on the manpower available for agriculture in California. It is the procedure reocmmended by the author of an article published in the October number of Harper’s Magazine ("The Japanese in America, The Problem and the Solution", by An Intelligence Office). This article is by far the best analysis of the problem which has came to my attention, and its testimony and recommendations should be given careful considera- tion in the hearings* . In bringing this letter to a close, may I say in extenuation of its in- ordinate length that it has been written at considerable sacrifice of time needed for other duties, because of a deep fee ling of moral obligation to present to the committee the somewhat personal and intimate evidence which I happen to be in a position to offer. I would request that if possible it be made a part of the record of the hearings.

Yours most respectfully,

Howard Moise Professor of Architecture, University of California

President, California Housing & Planning Association Copies to: Hon. John H. Tolan Member, (1941 and 1942) Sub-Committee on Mr, Dillon S. Myer Housing, California State Council of Defense