A sickness of fear and suspicion was taking hold of numerous people in Manzanar Relocation Center, a barbed wire compound a mile square, penning in 10,000 of us of Japanese ancestry. In April and May of 1942, when evacuees were crowded into the first relocation center, they sensed the presence of FBI informers among them.
Many aliens who were relieved because they had not been picked up by the FBI and separated from their families, feared that some stoolpigeon might be writing letters to the FBI that they had been active in Japanese churches, language schools, fencing and other organizations. And they expected FBI agents to reach into the barbed wire enclosure, pick them up and herd them away. The fear of the FBI was paralyzing to the aliens in the early week of our concentration. This was particularly so to those who had rushed into Manzanar, expecting that prolonged stay in Los Angeles would inevitably result in their arrest. Thus, they were extremely cautious.
Some of these men had been of some influence in the Japanese community in Los Angeles and by arriving at Manzanar as pioneers, they conveniently became instruments through which the Caucasian administrators dealt with evacuees. They thus occupied important positions in the new community. The Caucasian administrators apparently believed that in using the "pacifying" influence of these former leaders of the Japanese community, they would be able to run the camp smoothly.
While criticism was directed against people of Japanese ancestry as potentially subversive and "pro-Japan," it seemed more logical that Nisei would be put in positions of importance. It was not that the aliens were anti-U. S., but the mere fact that the Nisei were running the camp would have been proper in counteracting anti-evacuee propaganda of the press.
But as an assistant camp administrator told a few of us: "What the hell; you're all behind barbed wire anyway. It doesn't make any difference."
This person was a tail and husky lawyer who soon earned the reputation of being able to out-talk anyone in camp and he boasted and spread this information about himself. When the director, who formerly managed an Indian reservation, made a mistake or the camp administration had to go back on its promises to us, which it often did, this assistant director bullied, cajoled or argued 10,000 of us into accepting the administration's viewpoint. Lower down the echelon the administrator's Caucasian staff had healthier attitudes toward us.
Reign of Terror At Terminal Island
In Block 10 where I lived, the great majority of the residents were from Terminal Island. They were fishing people, i and the aliens had come from Wakayama in Japan, which is the native home of most of the immigrant fishermen on the West Coast and in Hawaii. Because Terminal Island was classed as strategic, the people of Japanese ancestry were given 30 days to evacuate the area not too long after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But one day the government issued an emergency order for them to clear out of their homes within 24 hours. Chaos followed, with families being forced to sell their possessions for almost nothing.
This forced removal followed a pre-dawn FBI raid on the Island's Japanese aliens, dramatized as almost all FBI raids are. This was indeed a reign of terror, and this is a mild statement.
If the FBI agents had walked up to the homes of people, knocked on doors gently and told aliens they were under arrest, the drama would have lacked headline and hysteria-creating qualities. The wee hours of the morning apparently lend to imagination, with FBI agents yelling and pounding on doors, and rushing into bedrooms, flashing badges and giving orders to frightened women and to crying and horrified children.
Precedents That Have Robbed People of Rights
This kind of behavior by G-men prevailed during the Palmer raids, and it still is a tactic of the FBI, particularly during periods of repression. Once done, it gets repeated by emboldened agents, until an aroused people put a stop to such conduct that flouts the constitutional rights of the people in their faces.
In like manner, when Indians, who are the native Americans— robbed of their land and pauperized—are kept in government custody in reservations, it is a step not far removed to put 110,000 people of common ancestry behind barbed wire.
These are precedents that have robbed people of their rights and make it easier to take other similar steps. Thus, in January 1950, the Justice Department revealed that it has a program to) put 21,105 people behind bars or in concentration camps—people who would be hailed into court for their thinking and tried for their ideas.
Same Kind of Repressive Conduct
Raymond P. Whearty, the acting assistant attorney general, said that the 21,105 includes "persons who are active members of the Communist Party and similar organizations, or who appear (emphasis is mine—K. A.) to be acting in concert with Russian interests ..." A sweeping and dangerous generalization, no different from the concentration of 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry in 1942, ostensibly for security reasons, alleging that we were! potential saboteurs.
In Manzanar of 1942, a person identified as an FBI stoolpigeon was despised as a lowly creature. There was one person who told confidants he was keeping the FBI informed. One day he was sitting on the porch of a block leader's office. At that time, some evacuee laborers were delivering rolls of linoleum to the earlier occupied barracks and they stopped to leave a few rolls at the block office. My longshoreman friend from San Francisco was the block leader there and he told me later that one of the men heaved a roll that crashed through the porch flooring, not quite reaching where the suspected FBI informer sat. My friend said this seemed deliberate but the suspected person pretended not to notice the intention of the delivery man.
Many People Were On Edge
Too often the temper and mood of large groupings of evacuees were ugly and unpredictable. A small incident would excite a whole barracks or even a block. We learned through letters from the Santa Anita assembly center that a riot took place there when evacuees became incensed at an FBI suspect.
Shortly after my arrival, I worked on the Manzanar Free Press. A large staff of aspiring writers produced a weekly of two mimeographed sheets. One became exhausted trying to get an item in the paper with so many writing for it. Later on it became a four-page tabloid but by then I had left the staff, worked as a laborer clearing sage brush, and as a policeman. The police station was the center of almost all complaints and we knew practically everything that went on in camp. Still later I became a police postal Inspector, examining packages that came in. The Threat of Being Mobilized Into Labor Battalions
One day a labor recruiter for the Amalgamated Sugar Co. of Idaho came to Manzanar, looking for several hundred laborers to work in the sugar beet fields. He said manpower shortage was ruining crops. The response was very poor and only a few volunteered. The evacuees distrusted the government and there was good reason for this attitude. So many promises had been broken.
Because of the poor response an Issei spokesman for the camp administration addressed a mass meeting at night, called specifically to urge volunteers to go to Idaho. He intimidated the evacuees that if volunteer procedure failed, the government would draft us for labor battalions. This was already common talk.
Look Back To Contract Labor Days
During the day the labor recruiter talked to evacuees and he promised ideal working and living conditions, wholesale prices for groceries and the camp administration promised freedom to evacuees while they were in Idaho.
"No guards with bayonets?" we asked.
He said "No," but that this might result if labor battalions became a reality through lack of cooperation on our part.
I was concerned that evacuees might be used as migratory laborers, transported from one farm area to another, without adequate protection, and exploited as farm laborers in California. With hysteria whipped up against us, we would be at the mercy of white farmers.
It was depressing for me when I looked back over a period of 45 years, to the time when my parents had come to Hawaiian plantations as contract laborers. All the gains made since then by our people seemed to have been wiped away, even for the time being.
The Barbed Wire Enclosure Seemed To Give Protection
I asked the assistant camp director whether the War Relocation Authority would protect us.
"Can we return to Manzanar when the season is over or when the deal does not work out well?" I asked.
Ironically, I was asking him whether I could come back into the barbed-wire confinement.
He said to me: "Why do you want to come back here? The WRA will protect evacuees everywhere and at all times!"
"If we are mistreated or abused, would we be brought back here?" I kept asking. "It is safe here."
He told me not to worry, that the ground had been prepared for a favorable reception in Idaho. He said we would be pioneers, paving the way for relocation of evacuees.
Only 129 Volunteered from Manzanar
I read a contract and signed up. Because I was a policeman, the chief of police asked me to help the company recruiter in handling affairs of our men. There were only 129 of us volunteers.
We rode a bus to Reno where we were herded together like cattle, into a restaurant through the back door. The company recruiter apologized, saying that he wanted to avoid any unpleasant incident. We ate heartily, of the good food, for "freedom," even on a leash, after being penned up was refreshing.
During the train trip from Reno to Rupert, Idaho, an AJA from Hawaii, who had been a seaman, and I talked to the volunteers on the need of organizing ourselves. We told the men we needed a council to handle labor grievances, committees to do public relations and look after our community mess and other problems. Men like George Shibuya and Ben Masaoka, and several Hawaii-born Nisei, thought this was an excellent idea. For hours we circulated among the laborers and talked to them. But most of them were too full of the spirit of freedom and looked to the enjoyment in Rupert and other Idaho towns.
"Something Terrible Has Happened"
Then the train pulled into Rupert. I began to help unload baggage when Meno-san, a tall Issei, came running to me.
"Something terrible has happened!" he told me.
"Please come quick," he said and rushed back to the head of the train.
I followed and there I saw a one-armed sheriff standing in front of the evacuee volunteers with a disdainful look on his face. There was a strong smell of liquor on his breath and he was driveling as he growled from twisted lips. His hand played with his pistol holster.
"All you Japs will stay in the tent camp. You go out when the farmers come for you with their trucks. When they bring you home, you'll stay inside the fence!" he said, and his narrow frame swayed. He said he would not be responsible for vigilante activities.
The Recruiter Had Given Us Empty Promises
I asked a white farmer if there were any sugar company officials around. He pointed to a tall, handsome man and I went directly to him. This person was greatly relieved to be able to talk to one of us. He said he was Harry Elcock, the manager of the company in Idaho. He cautioned me not to get alarmed.
"We were promised freedom," I told Mr. Elcock, and that we had looked forward to that. I also told him that we were promised good working and living conditions, not pup tents.
He told me that the recruiter had been sent from the home office in Utah and did not know local conditions in Rupert, about pup-tents and fields overgrown with weeds.
"Japs Live Like Rats, Breed Like Rats"
Although Mr. Elcock tried to minimize alarm, he showed deep concern. He spoke candidly from the very first. He told me that Governor Chase Clark of Idaho had said only a few days before that the "Japs live like rats, breed like rats and act like rats." The governor had said he did not want any "Japs" in Idaho. A U. S. Employment Service representative who was in charge of the farm labor tent camp said the governor had advocated dumping all "Japs" back on the islands of Japan to be drowned like rats when Americans bombed them!
Our men were uneasy. They sensed hostility and many spoke of returning to Manzanar.