mittee of experts. No attempt has been made to account for possible European Only Palestine now administered by Great Britain under terms of the mandate. 6 Now a trust territory under New Zealand. 7 Now trust territory of the Pacific islands under United States. Editorials attached are as follows: Lewistown, Mont.: Lewistown Democrat-News, September 12, 1947. New York City: New York Post and Home News, March 29, 1948. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Pacific Citizen, April 10, 1948. Forty-seven years ago a young Japanese came to Montana from Japan, and he lost no time becoming a good American. This week, after 47 years with one company, he is retiring, and will spend the rest of his days at his home here in Lewistown. During Akiyama's 47 years with the Great Northern, he has done much to see that that company's freight and passenger trains move over smooth and safe tracks: In fact, for the past 17 years he has served as section foreman for the line, working out of the Key City. When Akiyama went to work for the Great Northern, section hands got $1.05 for a 10-hour day; today they get a dollar an hour. Also, when the Japanese-American's boyhood country attacked his adopted country at Pearl Harbor, Akiyama continued to serve his new Nation in a job that was vital to defense, and to winning the war. He was loyal to the United States. Akiyama-good American-has earned his retirement and he has proven his right to citizenship in the United States. * [Editorial in The Courier-Journal, January 14, 1948] INJUSTICE TO JAPANESE WHO PREFERRED AMERICA Most of the discriminations which still barnacle our democratic processes exist despite Federal law. While the Constitution guarantees equality of opportunity and equality of citizenship, there are areas where these equalities have been unfulfilled. They will be fulfilled. Each time a case is taken to the Supreme Court, concerning, say, the right of Negroes to vote in Southern State primaries, the fulfillment comes closer. There is positive protection in the Federal law, and today the injustices are melting fast. But there is one strange example of Federal law establishing an unjust discrimination. It is the prohibition against a Japanese or Korean ever becoming a citizen of the United States. It is to protest this discrimination that Samuel Ishikawa has just visited Louisville on his one-man good-will tour. Children born of Japanese parents in the United States are citizens. Some 33,000 of them fought for the United States in World War II, establishing a record of heroism unsurpassed. Yet the Federal law harbors an exclusion by which their parents never may enjoy United States citizenship. Chinese are eligible for citizenship. So are Filipinos, natives of India, Eskimos, and Virgin Islanders. But no matter how long a Japanese has lived in the United States he remains "ineligible." There are about 47,305 Japanese in the United States in this category, and 37,353 in Hawaii. Twelve Our national attitude toward the American Japanese has been harsh. Western States have laws prohibiting Japanese from owning land. The wartime removal of all Japanese and Americans of Japanese descent from the west-coast States was an extraordinarily rough operation. It was not done until after the Battle of Midway, when it may be supposed any potential danger had passed. And there is cause to suspect that pressure groups deliberately used the emergency to dispossess the west-coast Japanese of everything they owned. Senator John S. Cooper will have an opportunity to help erase a part of the hurt we inflicted on these people-citizens and their "ineligible" parents alike. The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which the Kentucky Senator is a member, has before it now a bill which will help settle claims for losses resulting from the enforced evacuation. It will not restore everything. But it will help. Last month Representative Walter H. Judd, of Minnesota, introduced a bill to erase the citizenship discrimination. Like the restituion bill, it should pass. And, as Mr. Judd remarked, "the essential thing is that we perform as early as possible this act of justice and wisdom." [Editorial in the Washington Post, January 29, 1948] EQUALITY FOR ALIENS The immigration and naturalization laws of the United States still contain a considerable element of racial discrimination which is at once an irritant to our relations in the Far East and a denial of our own vital principle that all men are created equal. The exclusionary features of the Immigration Act of 1924, directed against persons of oriental origin, were modified with respect to the Chinese in 1943 and with respect to the Filipinos and East Indians in 1946. However, persons from Burma, Japan, Siam, Indonesia, Korea, Indochina, the Malay States, and the Pacific Islands are still barred from becoming naturalized as citizens of the United States and are, therefore, in general ineligible even to enter this country as immigrants. Representative Walter H. Judd has introduced a bill designed to cure this inequity. Its effect would be to do for other orientals what has already been done for Chinese, Filipinos, and East Indians-that is, to erase from our nationality and immigration policy any discrimination on racial grounds and treat them as we treat Europeans seeking to enter the United States. In practice, because stringent quotas are applicable to the peoples in question, no more than a few hundred Asiatics now ineligible to enter the United States would be granted admittance. Mr. Judd's proposal would not change the quota law in any respect; it would merely extend it. The most important effect of his bill would be to make eligible for naturalization an estimated 88,000 persons now in the United States and Hawaii who are barred from becoming citizens because of racial origin. The President's Committee on Civil Rights urged that this be done. Most of those who would be affected are Japanese whose loyalty to their adopted country was amply demonstrated during the war; they produced, among other things, the One-hundreth Battalion and the Four hundred and Forty-second Infantry combat team, which, as the late Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell put it, "bought an awful big hunk of America with their blood." Their present status makes them the victims of discriminatory land laws in some Western States prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from buying, selling, or conveying land. In the Oyama case, the Supreme Court pointed out the other day the invidiousness of this kind of discrimination. Congress rather than the court can furnish the most effective remedy. Americans of Japanese ancestry deserve fair play. [From the Palo Alto (Calif.) Times, February 17, 1948] RACIAL BARS There is strange inconsistency in our laws regarding rights of racial groups. The Federal Constitution provides that when once a person becomes a citizen of the United States, no State shall make or enforce any laws which shall abridge his privileges or immunities, and reinforces that provisions with accent on racial aspects, by the amendment, declaring "The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged * * on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Yet, it is estimated, that there are no less than 500 laws passed by various States that exclude persons of certain races or nationalities from chance to work at certain occupations unless they have taken out citizenship papers. In some instances citizenship itself is denied to the excluded group. A Korean cannot become a chauffeur in New York State, an Indonesian is not allowed to be an architect in Ohio; California long has had its Asiatic exclusion The laws. New York State has 47 laws against employment of noncitizens. professions, too, close their ranks in some States to all but citizens-even though the excluded ones may be educationally and technically qualified, but chance to belong to a race or nationality ineligible for citizenship. Much is expected to be heard in ensuing months on proposals in Congress to permit aliens of good character and of proven loyalty to become citizens, regardless of race. [Editorial from the Milwaukee Journal, March 29, 1948] END THIS DISQUALIFICATION There is in this country a mother who had five sons in service. Every one volunteered. Every one was in combat. Every one was wounded and one was killed. The other four veterans have more than 30 individual decorations and medals among them. Yet the mother of these five sons is not allowed to become an American citizen. In another instance, the mother of a soldier who won the Congressional Medal of Honor is not allowed to become a citizen. Why? Because these mothers were born in Japan. If they had been born in China or India or the Philippines they could be naturalized, provided, of course, they qualified as all other applicants for citizenship must qualify. About 33,000 Americans of Japanese descent fought side by side with other Americans. They stormed the heights at Cassino. They rescued the lost "Texas" battalion in the Vosges Mountains. As the late Gen. Joseph Stilwell said, "They bought an awful big hunk of America with their blood." But their mothers and fathers, unless born in the United States, cannot become full Americans. All of these persons have lived in this country at least 24 years, because the Japanese Exclusion Act was passed in 1924. Most have lived here longer. All told, there are about 88,000 "Americans" of oriental ancestry who are still not allowed to become citizens, no matter what they have contributed to the country or how loyal their lives have been. American citizenship has been extended many times. In 1790, eligibility included only free white persons; in 1870, it was extended to persons of African nativity or descent; in 1900, to inhabitants of Hawaii; in 1917, to inhabitants of Puerto Rico; in 1924, to American Indians (big hearted of us, wasn't it?); in 1927, to inhabitants of the Virgin Islands; in 1940, to races indigenous to North or South America; in 1943, to Chinese; in 1946, to Filipinos and natives of India. Citizenship Let's finish the job in 1948. Immigration controls are one thing. is another. All qualified permanent residents of the United States should be eligible for citizenship. It is the only consistent democratic policy. [From the New York Post and Home News, Daily Magazine Section, March 29, 1948] (By Dr. Daniel A. Poling) No ship flving the America flag bears a braver name than the Sadao S. Munemori. The only Japanese-American Congressional Medal man has been worthily honored, but this native land for which he died is equally honored in the award. Sadao, a squad leader in the famed Japanese-American Four Hundred and Forty-second Regiment combat team, died near Seravezza, Italy, at the head of his men. Single-handed, he destroyed two enemy gun nests. Then, to save his comrades, he flung himself on an exploding grenade. That is a particularly glorious way to die saving life rather than taking it. At the ceremony on the bridge of the Army transport, Sadao's brother, Robert, presented a portrait plaque of the hero to the ship's master. Famous combat officers were aboard to witness the ceremony. And with them stood JapaneseAmerican friends of the lad they honored. The Four Hundred and Forty-second Regiment is one of the most distinguished in all the wartime history of America. Already it is a tradition of American freedom, and the boys who fought and died to brighten its glory have written their names high on the defense rolls of liberty. I am unusually sensitive to any story of Nisei gallantry and sacrifice, for I saw these Japanese-Americans when they were gathered together in those first camps on the Pacific coast and as they went out to relocation centers throughout the Middle West and as far east as Arkansas. I shall never forget the deep hurt in their eyes, and I shall always remember the understanding submission with which they accepted what was to them a tragic injustice. Only a few were ever disloyal. Certainly the percentage was lower than that of any other racial group among us. The vast number accepted the judgment of their country's defense leaders, left their work and homes behind them, went out in patriotic silence to "places they knew not of," while their sons on a hundred flaming fronts of war redeemed them from even the question raised against their loyalty. Now the name of Pvt. Sadao Munemori will move through the seven seas to tell of Nisei loyalty and to remind us of the war's injustice that, under all the circumstances, was perhaps inevitable, but that, please God, must never happen again [Editorial from the Denver Post, April 10, 1948] REMOVING A STIGMA As its term of life dwindles, this session of Congress could serve the cause of justice no better than by reaching deep into its jam-packed hopper and acting quickly on a measure known as H. R. 5004. The bill, introduced by Representative Walter H. Judd, of Minnesota, a Republican, has as its objectives the end of discrimination in naturalization and immigration laws. These laws, unfortunately, still embrace a racist concept alien to the American philosophy. Under present provisions, for instance, the several hundred Gold Star parents of Japanese-American servicemen are denied the privilege of becoming citizens of the Nation to which they gave their sons. Likewise, a number of Asiatic peoples, including the Japanese, are not permitted to enter the United States as immigrants. Under wartime stress certain allies, notably the Chinese, Filipinos, and natives of India, were removed from the stigma of "undesirables" by special legislation. The justice of revising naturalization procedure to remove race as a qualification for citizenship is obvious. The President's Committee on Civil Rights observed: "Since it is a purpose of government in a democracy to regulate the activity of each man in the interest of all men, it follows that every mature and responsible person must be able to enjoy full citizenship and have an equal voice in his government. Because the right to participate in the political process is customarily limited to citizens there can be no denial of access to citizenship based upon race, color, creed, or national origin." There is no valid argument against this action to clear our record, and to secure the friendship of far-eastern peoples who, with justification, have looked askance at our democracy when we continue to treat them as biologically inferior beings. [From the Pacific Citizen. April 10, 1948] PERMANENT LEVY ON JAPANESE ALIENS The Wiley alien registration bill, introduced in the Senate last week with the support of the Justice Department, emphasizes the unfair burden placed on resident aliens of Japanese ancestry and other aliens not eligible to citizenship under the present naturalization law. Although the bill has been introduced as a security measure and is not aimed at Japanese aliens, the ineligibility of the Japanese group to naturalization places them in a peculiarly disadvantageous status. The bill, and others which have been suggested in the name of national security, are ramifications of the heightening of international tensions. The Wiley bill may be considered routine legislation and Assistant Attorney General Peyton Ford has expressed the belief that it will encourage many of the 3,500,000 aliens in the United States to seek naturalization rather than be forced to register their whereabouts annually if the proposal becomes law. There can be little argument against legislation which affects persons because of their alien status, as long as these persons may avoid being subjected to the restrictions by becoming citizens. For the 85,000 resident Japanese aliens, however, and the |