Honolulu Record, August 26, 1948, vol. 1 no. 4, p. 8
Editor, Honolulu Record:
Of the many nice American children I know, those of a Japanese workingman of my acquaintance are the most delightful. They range in age from four to thirteen years, are bright-eyed, well-mannered and self-reliant far beyond their years. And yet they have no mother, no real mother at least. Their mother lost her life when the last of her six children was born. The father could not find it in his heart to marry again. So the job of keeping the younger keikis fed, and scrubbed, and neatly dressed, fell upon the shoulders of the oldest girl who was barely eight years old.
She did wonderfully well, considering. But she would never have managed if it had not been for her brother's schoolteacher, a lady who has taught school in Hawaii twenty years.
That American school-marm, tiny of body but great of soul, gave them a mother's love and guidance. It was she who wangled summerschool thrills and free school lunches for some of them. It was she who, together with their hardworking father, fashioned them into the charming, healthy and happy American kids they are today…
The name of that little school-marm? MRS AIKO REINECKE, currently tried for "not being possessed of the ideals of democracy.
" THANK GOD FOR ALL AMERICANS WHO, LIKE SCHOOL-MISTRESS REINECKE, ARE "NOT POSSESSED"!
Honolulu, August 17, 1948
Respectfully,
GOTTFRIED SEITZ
3816 Kaimuki Avenue
Editor, Honolulu Record:
Your treatment of the story about the "Absolute Victory Association” was very disturbing. To me, as a progressive person and as one interested in the Record, it was hard to find any difference between the story as you wrote it and as Hearst would have done it. The Record cannot out-Hearst Hearst and should not ape his inflamable [sic] headlines and emotional catchwords. By the treatment given the story the Record has played into the hands of the anti-statehood forces.
Look for a reprint of your article to be entered as evidence of Japanese disloyalty in the coming statehood hearings in November. As an independent paper the Record could have stressed the fact that loyalty does not exist in a vacuum. The Japanese who make up the Victory Association are aliens who have not been permitted to become assimilated as citizens. The un-American immigration policies of the U. S. have resulted in the rejection of these people. A national group cannot be rejected by a country without danger anymore than a child can be rejected by its parents without the danger of delinquency. Sincerely, Stephen Murin
(Editor's Note: Statehood will not be helped a bit by covering up or by justifying the activities of such an organization as the Absolute Victory Club. Rather, the condemnation of the Club's activities by the people of Hawaii will enhance statehood. This will not play into the hands of anti-statehood forces who would love to catch AJAs and their friends of non-Japanese descent completely silent on this issue. The Record feels extremely gratified by the great contributions of the AJAs during the last, war. Their record will stand the test of future statehood hearings, particularly if the AJAs are firm enough to expose a small minority who thrive on the myth that Japan has won the war — either on a racketeering or blindly patriotic basis. The difference between the Record and the Hearst papers is this: the Hearst papers attack and condemn a whole people strictly on racial grounds while the Record differentiates good from bad organizations, good from bad leaders and the misleaders from the misled. The Record does not labor-bait nor race-bait. There are many causes which made it possible for the racketeers and fanatics to mislead a small portion of the Japanese residents. The Record feels that its first duty is to expose and condemn the activities of the Absolute Victory Club — not to seek justifiable explanation for them.)
As far as Ichiro Izuka, who is on the witness stand for cross examination this week, is concerned, Attorney Gladstein should be arrested for extreme cruelty.
Innocent Bystander
There is no dispute about the Reinecke hearing receiving tremendous public interest.
A glance at the attendance will show that a wide cross section of the public is following the case very closely. There are professional people including teachers and lawyers, white collar workers and laborers, all equally interested.
To call these 300-400 people Communists is something out of this world. No clear-thinking person would do so.
Therefore it comes as a shock when local officials of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., say that "only Communists would go to the Reinecke hearing. No one could take such an interest who is not a Communist."
They have gone further. They have discharged one of their salesman for attending the Reinecke hearing. And mind you, this salesman does most of his work in the evenings. His attending the hearing a few hours a day did not interfere with his work. This his superiors admitted.
The manager of the local firm told the discharged salesman that he did not want anyone in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., who was a Communist, who associates with Communists or sympathized with Communists.
What would happen to the rest of the 300-400 if their employers applied the same rule because they had packed the same public hearing? One thing is certain. We will be short of teachers a few weeks from now. And what of the employers who are equally interested, not missing a session? What of those who avidly follow newspapers accounts, much more interested because they could not attend the hearings?
There was a previous "aggravating reason" which possibly led to the discharge. This salesman had recently written two letters to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on the question of the Japanese "race." The editor of the Star-Bulletin answered his letter.
For expressing his views this salesman was reproached by his superior at a salesmen's meeting. He defended himself by stating that he believed in the constitutional right to say what he pleased.
One of his colleagues then said," [sic] I think you are a Communist. Your thinking is communistically inclined. Talk of civil rights is a Communist line."
Imagine an Encyclopaedia Britannica salesman saying this!
It is time to arrest the spread of this contagious witch hunting, "The move by the Governor to wreck the trade unions through the Reinecke hearing must not take its toll of innocent bystanders.