Labor force and employment.-In 1940 there were 46,935 aliens of Japanese ancestry in the United States who were 14 years of age or over. About 34,000 or 72 percent were in the labor force. There were 32,774 Japanese employed in nonemergency work in 1940.

Relocation employment data are meager.

It is known that farming and business enterprise has fallen off materially, while the range and general level of employment has been improved. In this latter respect, at least, the effects of the evacuation have not been unbeneficial.

Relief and unemployment.-In 1940, less than 0.08 percent of the alien Japanese labor force were on emergency relief work, compared with 4.79 percent of the general population. Only 2.8 percent were unemployed, compared with 9.6 percent of the total population. In view of the advanced age of many of these people, this is a remarkable record.

Education. Both aliens and citizens of Japanese ancestry are on the average well educated. Because our schools contribute so largely to the Americanization of all immigrant groups, this is of particular importance.

Religion. Religion is a very personal matter. Traditionally, we in America feel that profession of religion is a mark of good citizenship, even though we consider it a man's own business what church he goes to, or if he goes to none. It is of interest, therefore, that a sample taken by the War Relocation Authority of those residing in relocation centers, shows that only 13.2 percent gave no religious preference. Of those giving preference, nearly half were Buddhists, a third were Protestants, and 2 percent were Catholics.

Crime. Our analysis treats this subject in considerable detail; the data being taken directly from the FBI uniform crime reports. The number of arrests per 100,000 population on the basis of a 5-year average, 1935-39, is 245.1 for all persons of Japanese descent compared with 519.3 for the general population. The rate per 100,000 for major crimes, such as criminal homicide, robbery, assault and the like, is 88.0 for the Japanese compared with 209.6 for the total population. In 5 years, the annual average for women of Japanese descent was 2.8 per 100,000.

Mental illness.-In proportion to their number in the population, persons of Japanese ancestry were underrepresented by about one-third in mental hospitals in California in 1938, the only year for which comprehensive data are available.

WARTIME RECORD

After the war was precipitated by the Japanese military by the attack on Pearl Harbor, those of Japanese ancestry in the United States-two-thirds of them citizens by birth-were placed under the most severe tests of loyalty ever to be undergone by a segment of the American population. Whether the evacuation was our "most serious wartime mistake" or whether it is definable as a matter of military necessity, which only the military authorities could decide, is a question which never can be decided satisfactorily. For present purposes, the important consideration is the reaction of the evacuated people. While some evacuees not unexpectedly faltered, the great majority came through with unimpeachable loyalty and attachment to the land of their adoption or birth.

The very highest civil and military authority has testified that no resident of Japanese ancestry committed any act of sabotage or espionage, either before, during, or after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Except for a small number who were brought to the mainland, persons of Japanese ancestry were not evacuated from Hawaii, but continued at their normal occupations and in their regular habitations throughout the war.

Hawaii and continental United States contributed more than 33,000 men and women of Japanese ancestry to the American Army where they served in all theaters of war.

In Europe, the Four Hundred and Forty-second Combat Team, composed almost entirely of Japanese-Americans, gained renown for its courage and daring. Its 13,000 members won over 9,000 combat medals; military observers have referred to the Four Hundred and Forty-second as "probably the most decorated unit in United States military history." Gen. Mark Clark, commanding general of the Fifth Army, in conferring the first of seven distinguished unit citations won by the Four Hundred and Forty-second said:

"You are always thinking of your country before yourselves. You have never complained through your long priod in the line. You have written a brilliant chapter in the history of the fighting men of America. You are always ready to

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close with the enemy, and you have always defeated him. The Thirty-fourth Division is proud of you; and the whole United States is proud of you.'

Less known, but of strategic importance, were the contributions of those Japanese-Americans stationed in the Pacific. In a series of articles appearing in the Saturday Evening Post, during March and April 1948, Col. Sidney F. Mashbir, wartime Chief of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section of General MacArthur's headquarters, wrote of the nisei in his command:

"A majority of our translators were American nisei. Had it not been for the loyalty, bravery, and ability of these Japanese-Americans, many phases of intelligence work in the Pacific would have fallen flat. I know that their faithful service to the United States saved many thousands of American lives and shortened the war by months. It must be relized that this group of men had more to lose than any others participating in the war. Had any of them been captured, their torture would have been indescribable. To each nisei outfit reporting for duty, I said, 'I won't lie to you. You're in as difficult a position as Jews in Germany. The vast majority of you are volunteers. You know what war hysteria has done to your families in the States. They have been put in concentration camps, some with good reason, others simply because of race. Undoubtedly, some of you are bitter. But you are good Americans. You have decided to serve your country where you will be most useful, nevertheless. I give you my promise that, if I live, I will make every effort within my power to see that your achievements are recognized by the American public.'

"Every word was taken to heart. Throughout the war, we never had to take any disciplinary measures where our nisei were concerned. When the nisei got into combat zones, they often were fired on by both sides. The Japs complicated this by infiltrating our lines with men garbed in American and Australian uniforms stripped off our dead. Finally we issued orders that every nisei going to the front had to be accompanied by an American or Australian noncom or officer. "None of them ever showed the white feather, although ATIS nisei accompanied assault units on every landing from Papua to the Philippines. More than 150 were finally given direct commissions. The rest were promoted several grades. An exceptionally high percentage were decorated or cited for valor."

At home, several hundred Japanese aliens served the Government as civilian language teachers, translators, and mappers. It is understood that the basic data for all American bombing of Japan were transcribed in the first instance by persons of Japanese ancestry. These persons were required to take an American oath of office in wartime, and made themselves men without a country.

By 1944, many thousands who moved to relocation centers were again returning to the mainstream of American life.

Internment of alien enemies. From the Japanese alien population of about 47,000, about 3,000 were ordered interned, not because of any crime, but solely as a wartime precaution always taken against any alien enemy class even remotely suspected of the possibility of hostile sympathies because of any statements or associations with suspected organizations. All but less than 1,000 of these internees were paroled or released before the end of the war. About 4,500 (including family members) were repatriated to Japan at their own request. As Director of the Alien Enemy Control Unit of the Department of Justice, I was directly in charge of internment and parole of Japanese aliens. All the evidence disclosed that the Japanese, compared to the relatively militant German aliens who were interned, and who are eligible for citizenship, were much less of a threat to our internal security. As a whole, we had little difficulty with the Japanese internees. The evacuation.-About 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were evacuated from the west coast at the time of fear of a possible invasion of the west coast. The Federal authorities were entirely willing for these people to resettle freely in the interior, but the inability to obtain living quarters required the establishment of the relocation camps. It is true that about one-sixth of this group (one-third of them aliens), uprooted from their homes and crowded into camps came to the ill-advised, but understandable conclusion that they would not be acceptable to other Americans in the postwar period. One-third of this latter group were Japanese aliens who asked to be repatriated to Japan. The remainder were American citizens who wanted to become renunciants or expatriates. Of the total group desiring to repatriate or expatriate themselves about 32 percent were children under 20 who wanted to remain with their parents; about 20 percent were wives who wanted to remain with husbands either repatriating or expatriating. Thus more than half were in this position because of their desire to avoid splitting of families.

Records kept by the Department of Justice indicate that one-third of those requesting repatriation or expatriation actually went to Japan. The others have remained in the United States after Justice and War Department clearance.

On the whole, it may be said that neither the internment program nor the evacuation and segregation program provided any facts adverse to persons of Japanese ancestry as a group, warranting the continuation of their present blanket exclusion from naturalization. It should be emphasized that even with the proposed legislation, each applicant for naturalization must establish his attachment to the Constitution for the past 5 years.

CONCLUSION

Fears unfounded. When the phrase "aliens ineligible to citizenship" was originally contemplated by Congress 25 years ago, there was a feeling in some quarters that the brown- and yellow-skinned peoples had designs on the eventual control of the United States. There was a concern that oriental and Pacific peoples would not participate in American life and at the same time would so rapidly increase their numbers that eventually they would overrun the United States.

How out-dated these reasons for racial discrimination in citizenship have become is attested to by events of the past few decades, and especially the war period. The law-abiding manner with which the Japanese aliens comported themselves despite the humility of being treated as an enemy people, and the war record of Japanese aliens and American citizens of Japanese descent in our armed forces are proof enough that further employment of the phrase "ineligible to citizenship" is out-dated.

Some of the most vehement past defenders of the phrase "ineligible to citizenship" and its numerous implications have since admitted they were in error. Former Congressman Albert Johnson, of Washington, the acknowledged father of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the phrase "ineligible to citizenship," said publicly in 1930 that his action against Pacific and Far Eastern peoples was a mistake. He announced his desire to repeal the exclusion provisions of the act and to permit immigration quotas to orientals. Important segments of labor and veterans' organizations approve removal of such racial discrimination.

Public opinion. Public reaction favors a reversal of our historic stand toward these people. A poll taken in 1946 by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Denver revealed that twice as many favored granting naturalization privileges to Japanese aliens as were opposed. The State of California, where most of the antioriental sentiment has centered in the past, voted 3 to 2 to defeat proposition 15 in 1945, "Validation of legislative amendments to alien land laws." In the words of its proponents, proposition 15 was designed to "close loopholes in the legislative enactment of the alien land law." The vote was 1,143,780 against to 797,067 for.

Official opinion. Indication of official opinion regarding those "ineligible to citizenship" was the recent action of the Utah Legislature in repealing that State's alien property law. The upper chamber of Utah voted unanimously for repeal. The executive branch of the United States Government has also expressed its desire to eliminate the phrase "ineligible to citizenship" from our statutes. In his special civil-rights message to Congress on February 2, 1948, President Truman urged "the Congress to remove the remaining barriers which stand in the way of citizenship for some residents in our country."

Congress has in recent sessions taken an interest in revising further our immigration and naturalization laws to eliminate various elements of racial discrimination. An amendment to the Soldier's Bride Act was passed which permitted the entry of alien spouses who were inadmissible previously because of race. Bills have also been introduced to provide for the naturalization of the parents of soldiers killed or wounded in action during the war; to provide for the naturalization of "aliens ineligible to citizenship," who were legally in the United States before January 1, 1925, to suspend the deportation of aliens racially ineligible to naturalization. These measures with the Chinese, East Indian and Philippine Acts, are to the credit of their congressional sponsors, but they do not go far enough. The determination of the eligibility to citizenship is fixed by Congress in the naturalization laws. The people, various State legislatures, the executive branch of the Federal Government, and the Supreme Court in the Oyama case have taken a liberal stand. The country is receptive to the removal of all remaining racial discrimination in immigration and naturalization. What has been done for some should be done for all. The remaining step is up to Congress.

Length of residence

STATISTICAL APPENDIX

One of the most important characteristics of "immigrants having a legal right to permanent residence," who are affected by H. R. 5004, is their length of residence in the United States.

Without opportunity to gain citizenship, three-fourths have lived here for 30 years; nearly half for 40 years or more.

Number of persons ineligible to citizenship

There are in the United States and Hawaii about 90,000 persons who are ineligible to citizenship because of racial discrimination in our naturalization laws. According to the census of 1940, Japanese and Korean aliens represented 99.83 percent of the total; the Japanese accounting for 96.26 percent and the Koreans for 3.57 percent. The remaining_0.17 percent were representatives of other national groups in the Pacific and Far East.

According to the Sixteenth Census of the United States taken in 1940, only 48,158, or about 55 percent of the aliens ineligible to citizenship, resided in continental United States. In Hawaii, there resided 37,353 Japanese aliens and 2,390 Korean aliens.

TABLE 1.-Aliens ineligible to citzenship by origin, continental United States and Hawaii, 1940

These census figures may be compared with those of the alien registration made by the Department of Justice in 1940. The total number of aliens ineligible to citizenship was 100,243 in 1940, according to the Department of Justice. TABLE 2.-Aliens ineligible to citzenship, registered with United States Department of Justice, Dec. 26, 1940

Because the Department of Justice registration included temporary visitors, students, nonimmigrant merchants and other nonquota immigrants, these figures include many who are not permanent residents. The census figures are more indicative of the numbers who would become eligible to naturalization if the present law is changed. In both the census and the alien registration totals, the numbers involved are considerably less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the total population.

Age and sex of ineligibles

Because the Immigration Act of 1924 barred further immigration of those ineligible to citizenship, the composition of this group in the United States consists

almost entirely of adults. Of the 47,305 Japanese aliens in the United States in 1940, only 1,194, or 2.5 percent, were under 25 years of age.

The median age of the Japanese aliens was 49.7, compared with 29.0, the median age of the general population of the United States. Only 4.1 percent of the foreign-born Japanese were under 30 years of age. The largest number of Japanese aliens was in the 50-to-54-year group. About 61 percent of the foreign-born Japanese males were 50 years of age or older, compared with 29 percent of the females. A statistical analysis of the Japanese aliens in the United States in 1940 follows:

TABLE 3.-Age of Japanese aliens in continental United States, 1940

While the white and Negro population show an increase in numbers in each decade, the Japanese alien group dropped sharply from 1930 to 1940. The general population increased by 8,894,229, or by 7.2 percent from 1930 to 1940. During this decade, the Japanese alien population decreased by one-third, from 70,477 to 47,305. This decline is chiefly attributable to the advanced age of the latter group.

TABLE 4.-Population changes for white, Negro, and Japanese aliens, 1930 and 1940

Of the 47,305 foreign-born Japanese in the United States in 1940, 29,651, or 62.6 percent, were male and 17,654, or 37.4 percent, were female. The number of males to every 100 females was 167.9 compared with 101.2 for whites and 95.0 for Negroes. This heavy preponderance of males to females among the foreign-born Japanese is a result of the normal immigration pattern of males immigrating first and government curtailment of further immigration before a like number of females arrived.

Numbers, age, and sex of American citizens of Japanese descent

There were almost twice as many American citizens of Japanese descent as there were Japanese aliens in the United States in 1940. Census data show 79,642 citizens to 47,305 aliens for a total of 126,947, compared with 68,357 citizens to 70,477 aliens in 1930. The percentage of those of Japanese descent who were American-born citizens was 62.7 in 1940, compared with 49.2 in 1930.

1 Further statistical characteristics of aliens ineligible to citizenship will be restricted to the Japanese because adequate data for the others are not available. Some data concerning the second and third generations born in America will be presented to complete this analysis.