March 1943 - Excerpts from Senate Report on Un-American Activities in California, Japanese Activities

SENATE
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE
FIFTY-FIFTH SESSION
1943

o

REPORT

JOINT FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE ON

UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES

IN CALIFORNIA

TO

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE

MEMBERS OF COMMITTEE
SENATORS	ASSEMBLYMEN
JACK B. TENNEY, CHAIRMAN	NELSON S. DILWORTH
HUGH M. BURNS	JESSE RANDOLPH KELLEMS, PH.D.
	JAMES H. PHILLIPS
O
HON. FREDERICK F. HOUSER LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE	SENATOR JERROLD L. SEAWELL PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE

HON. CHARLES W. LYON SPEAKER OF THE ASSEMBLY

REPORT OF THE JOINT FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE
ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES IN CALIFORNIA

INTRODUCTION

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, and members of the Legislature:

Your committee investigating un-American activities in California herewith submits its report on the investigations and public hearings held throughout the State.

AUTHORIZATION

The committee was created by Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13, filed with the Secretary of State January 27, 1941. This resolution created a Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California. The committee was instructed by Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13 to "investigate, ascertain, collate and appraise all facts causing or constituting interference with the National Defense Program in California or rendering the people of the State, as a part of the Nation, less fit physically, mentally, morally, economically or socially;" and to "investigate the activity of groups and organizations whose membership include persons who are members of the Communist Party, the Fascist Organizations, the German Nazi Bund, or any other organization known or suspected to be dominated or controlled by a foreign power, which activities affect the preparation of this State for National defense, the functioning of any State agency, unemployment relief and other forms of public assistance, educational institutions of this State supported in whole or in part by State funds, or any political program." Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13 provides that the committee should "act during this Session of the Legislature (1941), including any recess hereof, and after final adjournment hereof, until the commencement of the Fifty-fifth Legislature," and "to file a report with the Legislature during any Session of the Fifty-fourth Legislature and with the Legislature during the regular Session of the Fifty-fifth Legislature." Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13 appropriated the sum of $10,000 from the Contingent Fund of the Senate and the Assembly for the expenses of the committee.

Pursuant to the provisions of the resolution the Committee on Rules of the Senate appointed Senators T. H. DeLap, Chris N. Jespersen and Clarence C. Ward. The Speaker of the Assembly appointed Assemblymen Hugh M. Burns, Jesse Randolph Kellems, James H. Phillips and Jack B. Tenney. In compliance with the provisions of Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13 the committee, as appointed by the Rules Committee of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly, selected Assemblyman Jack B. Tenney as its chairman.

Before the final adjournment of the Legislature in 1941, the Rules Committee of the Senate declined to make a further appropriation for the use of the Joint Fact-Finding Committee created under the provisions of Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13. On June 13, 1941, Assemblyman Jack B. Tenney, the Chairman of the Joint Fact-Finding Committee created under Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13, offered House Resolution No. 277 to the Assembly. House Resolution No. 277 was adopted by the Assembly. This resolution contained nearly the same provisions as Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13, except that it created an Assembly Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California of five members of the Assembly to be appointed by the Speaker and appropriated the sum of $15,000 from the Contingent Fund of the Assembly for the expenses of the committee. The Speaker of the Assembly thereafter appointed Assemblymen Hugh M. Burns, Nelson S. Dilworth, Jesse Randolph Kellems, James H. Phillips and Jack B. Tenney to serve on the Assembly committee. Subsequently, the members appointed by the Speaker selected Assemblyman Jack B. Tenney as its chairman. Later in the year Senators T. H. DeLap, Chris N. Jespersen and Clarence C. Ward resigned from the Joint Fact-Finding Committee created by Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 13. Although the committee sat during the greater part of its existence as an Assembly interim committee, it nevertheless retained a majority of the members of the Joint Fact-Finding Committee.

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 8 was introduced by Senators Jack B. Tenney of Los Angeles County and Hugh M. Burns of Fresno County on January 8, 1943. It was unanimously approved by the Senate and was adopted by the Assembly with but five dissenting votes. Pursuant to its provisions the Rules Committee of the Senate appointed Senators Hugh M. Burns and Jack B. Tenney and the Speaker of the Assembly appointed Assemblymen Nelson S. Dilworth and Dr. Jesse Randolph Kellems. The committee in its first meeting elected Senator Jack B. Tenney its chairman.

The committee, therefore, acted at all times under joint authority of the Senate and the Assembly of the California Legislature. For this reason your committee makes its report to both houses of the California Legislature.

ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE

Between July 28, 1941, and March 1, 1943, the committee conducted 30 days of public hearings in the State of California. The dates and places of these hearings are as follows:

Los Angeles, July 28, 29,30, 31, and August 1, 1941.
Los Angeles, October 14, 15, 16, and 17, 1941.
San Francisco, December 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, 1941.
San Quentin, December 6, 1941.
San Diego, February 19, 20, and 21, 1942.
Los Angeles, February 23, and 24, 1942.
Los Angeles, March 24, 1942.
Fresno, May 22, 23, 1942.
San Francisco, May 25, 26, and 27, 1942.
Los Angeles, December 16, and 19, 1942.
Los Angeles, February 27, and March 1, 1943.

In addition to the above specified public hearings, the committee met in executive session on a number of occasions. During the two years existence of the committee it has taken 16 volumes of testimony-transcript numbering 3,980 pages. Hundreds of exhibits have been introduced in connection with the testimony of witnesses and are attached to the original transcripts of testimony. In addition to these records, the committee has gathered hundreds of pamphlets and circulars. Attaches of the committee have subscribed to subversive publications and have systematically checked them during the life of the committee. In addition, the committee has filed and indexed nearly 14,000 cards listing the activities of as many individuals in California. This part of the committee's work is incomplete due to the lack of funds for the employment or necessary attaches.

The committee has attempted to probe the activities of the groups enumerated in the resolutions creating the committee, such as the Communist Party, the Nazi-German Bund, the Fascist organizations and kindred groups.

The members of your committee unanimously selected Mr. R. E. Combs of Visalia as Chief Investigator. Investigators were hired from time to time in northern California and in southern California and in all cases these investigators did an outstanding patriotic work. Thomas L. Cavett did a great deal of work for the committee in the southern part of the State and Harry T. Machell did splendid work for the committee in the San Francisco area. The committee had a number of volunteer investigators who did extensive work without compensation and at their own expense. Among these your committee wishes especially to mention Mr. W. Bruce Pine of Los Angeles. Mr. Pine was attacked in San Francisco in a trap that had been laid for the committee's chief investigator, R. E. Combs, and had to be hospitalized. The American Legion and its committees assisted in every instance. Ben S. Beery, Chairman of the Americanism Committee of the Seventeenth District, American Legion, rendered your committee valuable services. The Veterans of Foreign War, the Anti-Defamation League and other similar groups assisted the committee in every possible manner. Many other patriotic and civic organizations who do not desire publicity, likewise rendered invaluable service.

Dr. John R. Lechner, executive director of the Americanism Educational League did especially fine work in the Japanese field, collecting many documents and statistics concerning Issei and Nisei Japanese. His report, Playing with Dynamite (from page 31 in above PDF), prepared by him in his capacity as chairman of the Americanism Commission of the 23d District of the American Legion, is well worth study in connection with the Japanese problem.

Particular mention must be made of the work of Mrs. Linnie Terry, committee secretary, who labored night and day preparing the material and typing the entire manuscript of this report.

To all of these patriotic individuals and groups, and the many others who are not named, but whose fine assistance is acknowledged, the members of the committee extend their sincere thanks.

>From the very inception of its work the members of the committee were cognizant of the fact that all subversive activities are tinged with sensationalism and that facts developed by investigations and public hearings necessarily lend themselves to publicity. The committee and its members, therefore, endeavored in every way to conduct the hearings with dignity and restraint, sometimes under most trying circumstances.

Before hearings on any phases of the committee's work were planned, an intensive study was made of the ideological background of the particular movement under investigation. Its literature was secured and read. Hearing briefs, covering all of the points concerning the organization, its leaders, members and activities, and the questions to be asked the witnesses and the exhibits to be introduced in connection with witnesses' testimony, were carefully prepared. The order and appearance of witnesses were carefully planned so that the committee's transcript would show a clear, systematic and chronological sequence. To preserve clarity and continuity throughout, the examination of witnesses was conducted by the committee's chief investigator, Mr. R. E. Combs. At the conclusion of the prepared questions from the hearing brief, the members of the committee asked such questions as occurred to them during the chief examination of the witness.

The committee, at all times, cooperated closely with the intelligence units of the armed forces and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Representatives of the committee have worked for weeks at a time with the agents of Federal departments. It was found the elastic powers of your committee were exceedingly helpful to other law enforcing agencies. The committee. empowered to subpoena witnesses and to examine them under oath, not being bound by the rules of evidence and armed with the power to punish for contempt through the initiation of proper criminal proceedings, and for perjury in the event that crime might be established, cuts through the technical restriction of other investigative units which are primarily law-enforcing in character rather than fact-finding.

The newspapers of the State of California played an important part in the work of the committee. Nearly every newspaper in the State carried concise and clear reports of the public hearings and contributed greatly in exposing the machinations and activities of subversive groups within our borders. Your committee wishes to state emphatically that subversive organizations wither and die under the penetrating search-light of publicity. The newspapers of California have contributed no small part in patriotically checking these termites in their efforts to undermine and sabotage our government.

AMERICANISM

The committee approached each separate subversive problem on the premise that any group that attacks the Flag, institutions, traditions, Democracy and Constitution of California and the United States is un-American per se. The members of the committee, at all times, kept in mind the Bill of Rights and its guarantees to the people of the United States. The committee has, at all times, carefully distinguished between criticism of our form of government and design for its destruction. We have been aware, at all times, of the right of every citizen to criticize, to discuss, and to propose changes in either our laws or our economics. We have never lost sight of the right of the individual, or of a group of individuals, to propose changes in our laws and in our government by constitutional methods. We have, therefore, concerned ourselves with those individuals and groups who are determined to sabotage and forcibly destroy the government under which we live and to which we owe our allegiance. The committee is happy to report that such individuals and groups are in the minority but wishes emphatically to state that because of this minority status, these groups have evolved techniques and tactics that more than offset the smallness in numbers of their adherents. They present a real and tangible threat to our institutions, our Democracy, our State and our Nation.

ISMS VERSUS DEMOCRACY

The members of the committee have been asked from time to time to define un-American and subversive groups. We believe that any organization, individual or group in California or in the United States, controlled, directed or subsidized by a foreign government or agency, either by direct instructions or sympathy with or adherence to foreign isms inimical to the Constitution and Democracy of the United States, and which have as their ultimate objective the changing of the policies of, or the government of, the United States in accordance with the wishes or directions or ultimate objectives of such foreign government, are un-American and subversive.

Considerable study of Communism, Fascism, and Naziism has been made by the committee and its representatives in contrast to American Democracy. We find, generally, that all of these isms are inimical to the most fundamental principles of Democracy under the Constitution of the United States. Communism, Naziism and Fascism differ one from the other only in minor technicalities. The committee finds that:

1. Communism, Naziism and Fascism are totalitarian dictatorships.

2. Communism, Naziism and Fascism abolish all respect for personal dignity and individual rights.

3. The individual under Communism, Naziism or Fascism is deprived of any legal protection whatever against acts of force or brutality by representatives of his respective government.

4. All three forms of government have in common a complete and thorough contempt for liberalism, parliamentarism, humanitarianism, majority opinion of democratic procedure. All three isms are founded on intolerance and are committed to attaining their ends by the application of ruthless force and brutality.

5. Under Communism, Naziism or Fascism the impositions of group interest over individual right differs only in respect to the group favored. Under Communism, it is the proletariat and under Naziism and Fascism, the lower middle classes of the people.

6. Communism, Naziism and Fascism are single party systems. Party members under all three systems are exalted over the remainder of the people and constitute a class under which new caste distinctions emerge. The National Socialist Party of Germany under Hitler at the outbreak of the war numbered about 3,000,000 people out of the total population of Germany, and the Communist Party of Russia had about the same numerical strength. Only party members in Germany or in Russia have anything to say whatsoever about the conduct of their respective governments.

7. Class warfare is the approved, accepted, desirable and legitimate means used by Communism, Naziism and Fascism for the attainment of their respective objectives.

8. Communism, Naziism and Fascism have a common history of terror and intimidation. The Blood Purges of 1934 in Germany are illustrative of the Nazi technique in overcoming opposition and have their counterpart in Soviet Russia in the physical mass liquidation of entire populations in the Ukraine and in the Communist trials and mass murders of 1937.

9. The Communist, Nazi and Fascist dictatorship share the doctrine of expansion by force beyond their own boundaries; not only conquest by the sword, but conquest by propaganda, and political penetration as well. The Fascist invasion of Ethiopia, the Nazi attacks upon Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway and Western Europe in general, and Soviet Russia's attack on Finland, Poland and Rumania before Hitler's invasion of Russia, are typical illustrations of conquest by the sword. Nazi propaganda and front organizations under direct supervision of Berlin, Communist propaganda, front organizations and activities throughout the United States under the direct supervision of Moscow and Fascist propaganda and organizations under the direction of Rome, are illustrations of the political penetrations of these three totalitarian states.

Constitutional democracies are best described today as being "in the middle." The end of the war, with its necessary dislocations and readjustments, will make this fact even more apparent. On the one side is Communism and on the other, Fascism. Regardless of the outcome of the war neither ideology will be destroyed. While there is little difference between them, each flourishes and grows strong in its antagonism against each other. Naziism, and its German-American Bund mouthpiece in America, recruits members and sympathizers on the basis of its race hatred and anti-Communism. Russia, through its mouthpiece, the Communist Party of the United States, recruits members on the basis of class hatred and anti-Fascism. Constitutional democracies are caught in this vicious "squeeze play." We have yet to see an anti-Nazi Communist League.

The successful adjustment of our economic life in the United States to industrial and agricultural mass production; the successful adjustment of the increasing use of machines to the decreasing use of labor within the framework of our Constitution and its Bill of Rights is the real problem facing American Democracy today. Many of our people, including public officials, appear to have lost sight of this real problem in the midst of the hullabaloo raised by the conflict between Fascism and Communism. American Democracy has been sitting idly by, quizzically watching the life and death struggle of two beasts of prey, little realizing that Democracy is the prize to be devoured by the victor of the contest. America must be made to realize that it is not just Fascism versus Communism, but, actually, Constitutional Democracy versus Totalitarianism.

SUBVERSIVE GROUPS ATTACK WEAKNESSES

The United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor! This attack was a practical demonstration of what can happen to a Nation unaware of enemies possessed with ideological passion for world domination. The United States has no territorial ambitions. The United States has no desire to govern the people of other lands. In fighting this war we do so because we are attacked. All that the United States hopes for in victory is that the world will rid itself of the madmen; of superiority ideologies and of the crusading isms continually challenging the right of other Nations to live at peace at home and with its neighbors.

This global conflict is a two front war. It is a war of ships and tanks, of bombers and guns. It is also a war of ideas. In the final analysis the conflict is not simply to determine the victorious nation or nations, but to determine what ideas will rule the world. The United States battle fronts are scattered throughout the world. We can trace the ebb and flow of desperate battle on the world's map. It is difficult, however, to trace the isms, the sneaking and disguised enemies of our democracy as they ebb and flow, pulsating within our own ranks at home. Our military leaders, our engineers and our scientists have developed military equipment; we have heard of "defense in depth"; of offensive strategy; of adequate arms, but we have developed little, if anything, for the battle of ideas. It should be remembered that we can win the war and lose our democracy through short sightedness. If we are to win the war and retain our democracy, then we must know not only the enemy we fight with guns but the enemy we fight with ideas; we must know his strategy and the weapons he uses against us. The fanatical fighting zeal of the subversive enemies within our midst must not only be met with equal zeal but must be surpassed in faith for our democracy and our form of government.

What kind of people are we fighting on the home front? Your committee is prepared to state that they are trained, iron-disciplined and inspired with a zeal and purpose to wipe out our way of life. Are we, as Americans, trained and disciplined and inspired with zeal to continue our way of life? Are we prepared for this war at home?

We are fighting a total war. We should demand nothing less than total victory. It is the responsibility of the Legislature to enact suitable laws for the protection of the community, the State and Nation from these subversive organizations, but laws are not enough. We need a fighting faith for our Democracy, our Constitution and our way of life.

PART VI

JAPANESE ACTIVITIES

On December 1, 1941, there were about 122,000 Japanese living on the Pacific Coast. About 96,000 of this number were citizens of the United States by virtue of the accident of birth. Alien Japanese are not eligible to citizenship under the Oriental Exclusion Act. The alien Japanese are known as Issei. Those born in the United States of Japanese alien parents are called Nisei, or second generation Japanese.

Subversive activities of the Japanese in California can not be understood, analyzed or combated without some knowledge of the Japanese religion and Japanese state philosophy. The result of the Japanese religion and state philosophy is a fanatic nationalism unknown anywhere else in the world.

Among the witnesses called and examined by the Committee on Japanese Activities in California were the following:

Roy Hampton					Carl Kazufumai Sato
Dr. Yu-Shan Han					Joseph Shinoda
Masao Kubose					Tokie Slocum
Dr. John Lechner					Togo Tanaka
P. D. Perkins					Fred Masaru Tayama
George Knox Roth					Edward L. Thrasher

KEBEIS
[KIBEI -- all subsequent spellings have been changed]

Every Nisei (second generation, American-born Japanese) who makes a voyage to Japan for the purpose of pursuing "cultural training" is known as a Kibei. There once were so many Nisei in Japan that local Japanese leaders on the Pacific Coast became embarrassed and an effort was made to bring them home in order to avoid suspicion against the Imperial Government of Japan. In this connection Dr. John Lechner quoted the Hawaiian Sentinel of January 27, 1938, as follows:

"As the result of the Manchurian incident and the spectacular performances of Japanese athletes in the recent Olympic Games, the love of Japan reached its boiling point among the second generation Japanese, who possess American citizenship rights. Things Japanese attract them so much that hundreds of these American-born youths are returning steadily to Japan for education. So great is this exodus of promising youths, that Japanese on the Pacific Coast are faced with a great catastrophe of losing their cherished rights which took them almost 50 years to gain.

"At a joint meeting, held recently by the Los Angeles Japanese Association and Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, it was unanimously moved to call back the second generation now in Japan. The Wakayama Prefectural Association in America formed an organization called 'Association of Calling Back Second Generation,' and sent Shiro Fukioka, 59, General Secretary of Los Angeles' Japanese Chamber of Commerce, as special envoy. The Foreign Office was so moved by Fukioka's plea, that it has sent out word to all immigration organizations in different prefectures to encourage a united drive, using this slogan, 'Second Generation Return Immediately to America!'

"Fukioka who has spent nearly 40 years in Pacific Coast States, says thus in part:

'There are roughly about 20,000 American born youths between the ages of 18 and 25 residing now in Japan. Being high school graduates, they are well versed with the conditions and things of Japanese and would make ideal immigrants to North America.'"

Among the affiliated Kibei organizations, Dr. Lechner lists the following:

Wakayama Seinen Kai
Hiroshima Seinen Kai
YMCA Wakagusha Kai
Shinykai
Kanagawa Deshikai
Kibei Division of YMCA
Kai Nippon Seinenkai
Kibei Seinenkai of Kinto Kyokai
Kibei Seinen of Buddhist Church
Kibei Division of Zenshu Zi

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DUAL CITIZENSHIP

Dual Citizenship among the Nisei, or American born Japanese, has been extensively practiced in California. Many Japanese-American organizations in California have vehemently denied the existence of dual citizenship among the Nisei but the evidence is quite overwhelming that it did exist up to Pearl Harbor.

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SHINTOISM

Many Japanese witnesses were examined as Shintoism, the State religion of the Japanese Empire, and the members of the committee and its representatives did considerable research on the subject. Many of the witnesses explained the traditional and deep-rooted traditions of the Japanese -- Emperor and ancestor worship and the mental and emotional forces which explain the religious fervor the Japanese carry into combat and the contempt in which they hold death in battle.

Every true Japanese believes that the first Emperor, Jinmu Tenno, who reigned in 660 B. C., was descended directly from the Goddess of the Sun and that the whole race, therefore, is descended from divine ancestors and consequently superior to any other race on the face of the earth. The Japanese are taught from the cradle to revere the Emperor as the son of the Sun Goddess. This same reverence is displayed toward the parents and grandparents and manifests itself in ancestor worship. These beliefs bind the Japanese together over the world creating a sense of nationalism unknown to any nation or race. These beliefs are so thoroughly indoctrinated into the minds and heart of the Japanese that few of them ever actually renounce their allegiance to the Emperor of Japan and when they actually become citizens of a foreign country they do so as a matter of form with their minds and hearts still in the Japanese Empire.

Dr. Yu-Shan Han was a visiting lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles in the History Department. (Volume IX, pp. 2692-2715.) Dr. Han is Chinese and was born in Peking, China. He had been in the United States since 1941. He had formerly lectured at the Peking University under Dr. J. Layton Stewart. He holds a Ph.D. from Boston University. He had been at the University of California at Los Angeles since September of 1941, taking the place of a Japanese "who could not get back." He once taught Dr. H. A. Kung, brother-in-law of Chiang Kai-Shek, who is now at Harvard University.

Dr. Han stated that he was familiar with the ideological background of the Japanese Empire. The early history of Japan is referred to as the Age of the Gods or the Age of Mythology. The Japanese people believe that the Emperor of Japan is a direct descendant of the Goddess of the Sun and the symbol, relating ideology to the Japanese is the mirror, the sword and the jewel. He stated that the sword represents force. He narrated the early history of the Japanese Government. A military family throughout Japanese history dominated the entire country by force -- there were many struggles in which the Shoguns secured control. He stated that Shogunate is a military class in Japan. A dual system of government resulted with the spiritual head in the Emperor and the actual leadership with the Shoguns. He stated that this situation existed for about 12 centuries. This long period of unbroken domination by the Shoguns, in Dr. Han's opinion, makes it very difficult to indoctrinate the Japanese with Western or Occidental ideas; a much more difficult task than to indoctrinate the Chinese people with Occidental ideas.

He narrated the planned system for the development of Japan laid out in the Nineteenth Century by Baron Okubo. He stated that this plan was worked out in decades, or 10-year periods. The first 10 years were devoted to internal development; the next 10 to educating Japanese in foreign schools so that they might learn and master foreign manners, languages, and ways; the third period to the development of economic intercourse with the outside world; the following 10 years to the building of a huge Army and Navy, and the final 10 years to the achievement and the ultimate goal which was designed to lead the yellow nations to conquest and victory against the white race. He stated that Baron Okubo was succeeded by Baron Tanaka who developed Okubo's plan. Baron Tanaka wrote a report and sent it to the Emperor and it became known as the Tanaka Memorial. Baron Tanaka proposed that Japan develop a foothold in Asia, Korea, Manchuria, North China, French Indo-China, China proper, Thailand, Burma and so on. [See the full text of the Tanaka Memorial in the document, Report on Japanese Activities.]

Dr. Han had been a victim of the Black Dragon terror when he attempted to introduce western ways into China in opposition to the Japanese Puppet Government. A friend of his was assassinated in April and in June he personally received "the threat." Realizing that the members of the Black Dragon Society were in deadly earnest, Dr. Han left China. He stated that he did not believe that the American public had paid much attention to the real facts concerning Japan. "You good Americans are too gullible," he said dejectedly.

He stated that Shinto doctrines are principally Emperor worship and the worship of military leadership. "Of all flowers, the cherry; of all men, the Samurai!" Japanese parents maintain a strict discipline over their children and the children are taught to be obedient.

Masao Kubose was a Japanese Buddhist minister in Los Angeles. (Volume X, pp. 2998-3002.) He stated that he had been in charge of the Buddhist church located at 118 North Mott Street in Los Angeles since October of 1941. He differentiated between the Buddhist and Shinto religions. He stated that there exist several sects of Shintoism and that one of these sects is a pure state religion, in which the worship of deities in the mythological history of Japan is a unique feature. All Shintoists believe that the Japanese are descendants of gods, created from a union of earthly and heavenly gods. They believe that the Emperor of Japan is a direct descendant in an unbroken line from the Goddess of the Sun and that he is the divine representative of the Sun Goddess on earth.

He explained that Yamato meant Japan or Nippon. Yama means mountain; to means gates -- Yamato, therefore, means, where many mountains are. When Chinese culture intruded, Yamato came to signify, "to put in great harmony," so that it now means "a great harmony." The word really has two meanings, one of which is geographical and the other ideological. The word finally became Yamado and the word domoshi was added so that the meaning became "the great soul of harmony." Hence, the Japanese, no matter where born, are proud of the blood of Yamado domoshi (or Yamato Damashii), the ideological "great soul of harmony" binding him to Japanese everywhere.

Kubose disclaimed any knowledge of Shinto temples or schools in the City of Los Angeles. He ventured the opinion that the Shinto sect should be permitted to function in the United States, saying, "Their full aim is to heal the sick and to do public service." He stated that some of the Shinto sects "promote good business, etc." These particular sects, Kubose stated, are not the sect of Japanese State religion. He agreed that the Shinto sect of Japanese state religion should be prohibited in the United States.

Dr. John Lechner testified (Volume XVI, page 3951) that Dr. Shunzo Sakamaki, Assistant Professor of History of the University of Hawaii, published an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for April 25, 1942, in reference to the details of the Shinto faith. He explained that in the beginning of 1941 the Japanese Imperial Government had issued an edict declaring that all Shinto priests in the United States and Hawaii and all Japanese language school teachers were from January of that year to be considered as officials of the Japanese Government. This edict, according to Dr. Lechner, amounted to actually removing the Shinto priests and the Japanese language schoolteachers from the field of religion and constituted them direct agents for the Japanese Government and all language schools as centers of Japanese espionage and propaganda. He quoted Dr. Sakamaki as follows:

"Why have Japanese officials for the past two generations been so eager to protect the special status of State Shinto? Why have they insisted that the State Shinto is not a religion but the embodiment of Japanese patriotism?

"Basically, the reason is that the Japanese Government has seen in Shinto a political tool of the greatest potency for keeping the fires of nationalism burning at white heat and making the doctrine of political absolutism in Japan virtually inviolable.

"* * * Japan's Constitution of 1890 guarantees freedom of religious worship, but the Government has taken the position that State Shinto is not a religion and that, therefore, all Japanese must participate in State Shinto ceremonies, as part of their patriotic duty to the State.

"* * * Operation of State Shinto here is inimical to American interests because it both directly and indirectly fosters Japanese nationalism, and arguments by Shinto champions that we can not infringe their right to free worship contradicts responsible pronouncement by Japanese officials denying the religious status of State Shinto.

"We are at war with Japan, and State Shinto is an arm of the Government of Japan. Amputation of that arm here in Hawaii is prerogative of our Government that can not consistently be protested by the Government of Japan."

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JAPANESE LANGUAGE SCHOOLS IN CALIFORNIA

It is estimated that there were more than 240 Japanese language schools in California alone. Some 19,000 Japanese boys and girls attended these schools before Pearl Harbor. It is estimated that nearly $400,000 was spent in 1941 for the Japanese educational program directed from Tokyo.

Many of these schools were found to be under the direction of Shinto priests. They taught the intense nationalism of Japan and the committee is in possession of information and evidence that many of the schools were centers of Japanese propaganda and espionage.

Dr. John Lechner, chairman of the Americanism Commission of the Twenty-third District of the American Legion, Department of California, testifying before the committee in February of 1943 presented a number of photostatic documents together with a report recently compiled by the Americanism Commission of which he is chairman. Among these documents is a translation by the United States Army Intelligence Department quoting the Rev. Shinryu Umehara, Japanese Buddhist priest, who had made a trip to the Pacific Coast and Hawaii for the purpose of inspecting the Japanese language schools. He stated March 27, 1934: "I felt while I was in America that the existence of Japanese schools and Buddhist organizations in the Japanese communities is grand, for they are the another-bodies for fostering the national conscience, Japan's civilization and Japan's spirit."

Dr. Lechner pointed out that the most powerful Japanese directed organization reaching across the Pacific to weld the Japanese student in America to the Imperial Empire is the Institute for the Education of Over-Sea Japanese. He stated that this organization was founded on November 25, 1933 with its headquarters in Tokyo. The purpose and objective of this organization was stated in Osaka Mainichi: "The Institute of Over-Sea People's Education is an organization for infusing the Japanese spirit into the second generation of Japanese abroad. In other words, leave the second generation in the land of their residence but don't let them forget the Japanese spirit. In buying, select Japanese goods; in voting, cast ballots for politicians friendly to Japanese." Dr. Lechner pointed out that this objective was meant particularly for the Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii where their vote is a decisive factor.

Dr. Lechner called the committee's attention to an article which appeared in the Rafu Shimpo, a Los Angeles Japanese daily newspaper, owned by an alien Japanese, under date of Monday, February 17, 1941, as follows:

"Re-educational Plan for the Promotion of the Fatherland"

"The Niseis who were born and raised in the foreign land are to come to the Fatherland far away to find the company of the other sex. But they are confronted with difficulty coming from the differences of their habits and customs with those of the Fatherland. Here comes the problem of 'Re-education of the Nisei.'

"Meantime, to make the abroad compatriots understand the position of the Fatherland under the new regime of Pan-Asiatic principles, and to unite them to act for the realization of 'Enlightened Asia,' re-education of Nisei is necessary. So, Imperial Education Association made a budget of yen 100,000 for the education of Nisei. For this purpose, the Committee on Over-Seas Education of the Association in cooperation with the Department of Education and the Department of Foreign Affairs of the government and the Goain (Institute for the Promotion of Asia), elected secretaries and established an office for educational guidance of the Nisei. The functions of the office at present are as follows:

"1. Investigation of the educational conditions of Nisei, and of the living conditions of the teachers abroad.
"2. Establishment of the fundamental plan for the education of Nisei.
"3. Assistance in sending good teachers.

"At present, among the teachers abroad who are teaching Nisei, a good number of them want to come to the Fatherland. Meantime, many of the teachers here in this country have the desire to go abroad to fulfill their ambitions. A proper disposal of this situation alone would make a new atmosphere in the educational field. So, this new project of the association will be successful in every way."

The Japanese language schools scattered throughout the State were strikingly similar to the Workers' Schools of the Communists, the summer camps of the German-American Bund and the Italian language schools. The ideologies were radically different, of course, but in each case a scheme for world domination was being taught youngsters: a racial superiority, along with a contempt and disrespect for America's "decaying democracy." There existed one significant difference, however, in that the German, Japanese and Italian language schools, taught children who were descended from parents of foreign extraction, whereas the Communist Workers' schools and the Young Peoples' Study Classes took on all comers of whatever nationality or race.

Dr. Yu-Shan Han testified at some length concerning the Japanese language schools in southern California. (Volume IX, pp. 2692-2715.) In the third lesson of the primer used in these schools, Dr. Han stated there appeared a phrase, "March forward, soldiers, march forward soldiers." He emphatically declared that Japanese children, even though born in the United States, were indoctrinated from birth with a deep reverence for the Samurai. The Japanese ambition to conquer and dominate the entire world is the basis of Japanese ideology and teaching. He stated that Japanese families abroad were held strictly responsible for the lack of courage of their sons on the battlefield and this responsibility caused all Japanese parents to instill a religious-warrior fervor in the Japanese male youth and accounts for the fanaticism of the Japanese in battle.

Dr. Han touched on the deep loyalty of the Japanese, both Nisei and Issei, to the Emperor of Japan and illustrated his point by stating that a Japanese teacher in Long Beach collected tinfoil and sent it back to Japan.

Masao Kubose was a Buddhist minister in charge of a church located at 118 North Mott Street in Los Angeles. (Volume X, pp. 2998-3002.) He stated that Buddhist priests had taught in some of the Japanese language schools in California. He stated that most Buddhist churches maintained Japanese language schools and that the Buddhist priests taught the Japanese children. He believed that the Japanese language schools promoted harmony between parents and their children. He said that there were no Shinto groups in Northern California but believed that they did exist in Southern California.

P. D. Perkins, former "Public Relations Advisor for the Japanese Consulate" in Japan, stated that he was somewhat familiar with the curricula of the Japanese language schools in the United States. (Volume IX, pp. 2716-2747.) "My first Japanese teacher," he stated, "was the teacher of a Japanese language school." He said that in many cases these instructors were Buddhists or Shinto priests. He disagreed with other witnesses by stating that instead of a high degree of parental discipline exercised by parents over children in Japan, that, to the contrary, "the child rules the father, not the father the child." He ventured the opinion that it depended wholly on the individual Japanese as to whether he grows up to become a good citizen or not and he believed that the fact that the individual was born of Japanese parents who happen to be fanatics in their devotion to Japan had no bearing on the matter. [See this Flickr site for a number of photos of Perkins, especially the Kyoto photo set.]

Carl Kazufumai Sato, American-born Japanese, stated that he was a produce salesman in a wholesale market until it was closed. (Volume X, pp. 3002-3004.) He stated that "now I am doing what I can to help the people in our church." He admitted having attended the Japanese language school "until it got too hard and I quit." He contended that he had never heard Japanese propaganda at the school he attended. He claimed to have no knowledge of Shinto priests teaching in the Japanese language schools and stated that he was connected with the Buddhist church. He stated that the Buddhist religion had nothing to do with Japan and he claimed that he had no knowledge of Shinto sects.

5

JAPANESE IMPERIALISM

The long planned and long range program of the Japanese to dominate the white races might have been clearly seen in the so-called Decade System of Baron Okubo, who, with his followers, believed that the Japanese Empire should adopt the method of the Occidental world in building a strong and economically sound nation. The intense belief in the divinity of the Emperor and the sense of racial superiority in the mind of the Japanese have led them to believe that they are destined for world domination. Baron Okubo divided the Empire's work into periods of 10 years each. His plan may be said to have been carried out in its entirety. Okubo, however, was not sufficiently war-minded to satisfy the military clique of Japan and he was assassinated in 1877. Another plan was formulated and added to the Okubo Plan; an aggressive program which has culminated in war against the white world. The Tanaka Memorial, written by a Japanese Premiere, declares unequivocally that America must first be crushed before Japan can expect permanently to dominate the Pacific.

Many critics of the Tanaka Memorial looked upon it as the fantastic dream of an unbalanced mind; the weird, imaginative excursion of a Japanese sadist. Dr. John Lechner stated that it was therefore regarded with skepticism and ridiculed by American leaders.

Dr. Lechner stated that it was not until an official document was discovered in the possession of two Japanese naval commanders visiting in "Little Tokio" at Los Angeles, written by one Kinoaki Matsuo, powerful Black Dragon, and key man in the Japanese Naval Intelligence Service, that interest in the Tanaka Memorial revived. He stated that Matsuo's analysis of the impending war, called "The War Between Japan and the United States," furnished an audacious blue-print of the various stages of the war. [See the book How Japan Plans to Win by Matsuo; November 27, 1942 article from Australian newspaper; How Japan Plans To Win: The Three Power Alliance and a U.S.-Japanese War (excerpt from book)]

He stated that Matsuo outlined each step in the plans of Japanese aggression. Matsuo outlined the Japanese plan to move northward into Alaska, striking simultaneously at Hawaii in the second stage of the war. He anticipates help from the Japanese in Hawaii when the Japanese Navy makes its bid for the islands. The third stage of the war, according to Dr. Lechner's interpretation of Matsuo's work, is an all out attack on California, Oregon and Washington, with the destruction of the Panama Canal. Dr. Lechner stated: "Matsuo does not hesitate to express with all the ego and fanaticism of the Japs that the Japanese forces will attempt large scale invasion of the coastal areas. Again, Matsuo expresses the conviction of the Japanese War Council that effective cooperation may be anticipated from the Issei and Nisei residing on the Pacific Coast. Particularly when Japan would begin to crush the 'impregnable fortresses' of the Allied nations in the South Pacific, Matsuo intimates, would increased significance be given to her expectation of help from her Fifth Column in the United States. Revelations of Japanese ruthlessness and plans for wholesale sabotage made a speedy, effective disposition of the Japanese problem on the Pacific Coast more imperative."

Dr. Lechner reported plans promulgated among the Japanese agents to spread bacteria germs in the event such a step proved advantageous in undermining the morale of the American people in the final stage of the war. He stated that this is to be accomplished by dropping vials containing germs to spread bubonic plague and typhoid from collapsible airplanes to be carried to the shores of the Pacific Coast by large Japanese destroyer-submarines. [Books: I-400 Japan's Secret Aircraft-Carrying Strike Submarine by Sakaida and Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II by Geoghegan. See also Japanese Balloon Bomb Documentary, Fugo: Japanese Balloon Bombs of WWII and 1945 Japanese Balloon Bombs to North America for possible means of spreading of bio-agents. The potential threat to the West Coast was especially great.]

P. D. Perkins declared that he had "never heard" of pressure being brought on Japanese residents in the United States by the agents of Japan and that he had never heard of threats made against the members of families in Japan if American residents failed to obey Japanese mandates. (Volume IX, pp. 2716-2747.) (Perkins evidently desired to evade this issue.) He stated that he did not believe that the Tanaka Memorial or the Okubo (Decade System) exerted much influence upon the Japanese people. He stated that there is too much conflict between the Japanese for anyone to agree on a central plan (p. 2728). (Perkins apparently evaded this issue also and would not be drawn out on the present dominant faction in Japan.) He admitted that the Emperor of Japan was a figurehead but that he exerts "personal power." He pointed out the the Emperor had put down an uprising on February 26, 1937, and likewise admitted that the leaders who had been demoted at that time are now back in power. He was willing to admit that the Okubo and the Tanaka plans exert some influence on the present Japan program, and a "partial influence on the younger element."

He explained the meaning of the term "Bushido," the moral code of Samurai. He stated that it is a military code and that it calls for frugal living, etc. He commented that he had never seen anyone who practiced Bushido very faithfully.

He claimed that part of his duties for the Japanese Government consisted in acting as a "liaison agent" (p. 2731). He declared that he did not represent the Japanese Government in the United States.

He caught the "last boat" back to the United States on October 30, 1941, the Tatsu Tamaru [Tatsuta Maru]. He did not return to the United States to stay; "I expected to go back to Japan; I had no way of knowing about the war." He had made a trip to the United States in 1940, arriving in Los Angeles in May. He registered with the United States Department of State July 10, 1940, and returned to Japan on August 23, 1940. He claimed that he had not received pay from Japan while in the United States, "during the time I was registered as an agent" (p. 2734). He denied having received money from Japan for the period between May 1, 1940, and August 1, 1940. He claimed that he had received no pay whatsoever from Japan prior to the time he registered as an agent of the Japanese Government with the United States State Department (p. 2734), but later (p. 2735) stated: "I was in New York from about July 1st to about the 4th or 5th of August * * * and they were paying my expenses; the men who were with the Consular General there * * *" He stated that while in New York he was advising the Japanese Consulate attaches "on what was happening back in Tokio." On being pressed for elaboration, he explained that he was merely relating the political gossip current in Japan.

He claimed that his translating work for the Japanese Government was confined to the American newspapers and that the Japanese Government employed Englishmen to translate the newspapers of the British Empire.

He ate in the same restaurant in Tokio where the German diplomats took their meals and stated that he did this because it was the "only place to eat." He claimed that he could not travel in the same class with the diplomatic corps because of the smallness of his salary, 500 yen a month. Sometimes, he admitted, he received extra money. He explained that 500 yen in Tokio had the buying power of about $450 in America. (Perkins testified at one point that his salary of 500 yen a month was sent to his home in South Pasadena, and at another point (p. 2737-8) he stated that he received it in Tokio.)

He stated that the Japanese were unable to understand the slang used in the American newspaper articles because their English teachers had been British or Canadian. He stated that his job in translating headings from American newspapers consisted largely in translating the meaning of American slang phrases for the Japanese. He said that the Japanese Government was only interested in articles which pertained to Japan "or references to American history." They were also interested in reports on relationship between Japan and the United States.

During his first four years in Japan, Perkins taught in the education department and served as an advisor to American companies in Japan, helping them secure "a correct sales approach." He also assisted with the writing of manuscripts on Japan.

He stated that he had been working for one faction of the Japanese Government and checking on whether or not other political factions were being set up against the others. He related the incidents of a strike in the State Department in Japan in which the younger men were pitted against the older men. He claimed that it was this type of news that he carried to the Japanese Consulate in New York. He denied that he had carried documents of any nature to the United States.

He admitted that his fare to and from Japan had been paid by the Japanese Government and explained that this arrangement was made for all teachers who go to Japan.

While in New York he had conveyed "inside" information to the Japanese Consulate of the relations between Japan, Germany, Italy and Russia "at the time Germany shook hands with Russia." He stated that factions had grown up in Japan over the issue of collaboration with Soviet Russia. Oshima and Shiratori were "very much" pro-Axis. "The consul in New York was not, unfortunately," Perkins added. When pressed to explain what he meant by "unfortunately," he stated that it was meant for the man and not as opinion on his part (p. 2743). The Japanese acting-Consul in New York at the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor was not pro-Axis, he explained.

He stated that he would have been interned had he remained in Japan.

He did not believe that the United States Government ought to take chances at this time, and stated that he believed that it would be better for the Japanese to be out of the coastal area, because some one might make trouble and "blame it on the Japanese"; they would be forced to "take the rap for it."

He had helped the American-born Japanese who were in Japan for educational purposes. He stated that many of them were homesick for America; missed Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. In this connection he declared that the training of American-born Japanese in Japan depended on the financial ability of the parents and claimed the Japanese Government did not finance Nisei training. "They don't want the Nisei back there, especially the girls. Men, yes; they have use for men, but a girl, under the Japanese code gets married when she's 21 * * * so they are a nuisance."

He admitted that he had contact with the Japanese Consul in Los Angeles since returning to Japan. He denied having made any report to the Consul and stated that he called on him merely because he knew his son in Japan.

6

JAPANESE PROPAGANDA

Togo Tanaka is an American-born Japanese. (Volume X, pp. 2843-2889.) He was born in Portland, Oregon, and was brought to southern California when he was three months old and has resided in the City of Los Angeles since that time. He attended the Los Feliz Elementary School and the Thomas Starr King High School, the Hollywood High School and the University of Southern California, where he graduated in 1936. He majored in Political Science. He stated that he was no relation, as far as he knew, to Baron Tanaka, after whom the Japanese Tanaka Memorial is named.

Since graduating from the University of Southern California, Tanaka has been employed on the staff of the English section of Rafu Shimpo, a Japanese daily newspaper published in the City of Los Angeles. The newspaper was dual in character, containing both an English and a Japanese language section. He stated that these two sections were edited by different staffs. Tanaka was the editor of the English section. He became the English editor of Rafu Shimpo about six months after he had associated with the newspaper. The paper had its circulation principally in southern California among the Japanese, some State-wide circulation and a small circulation in Hawaii. Hiroshi Kosaki? was the managing editor of the Japanese language section of the Rafu Shimpo. The English editors had voice on the policy of the paper only in the English language section. He had never expressed himself in reference to the policy of the Japanese section. His knowledge of the Japanese language was very limited, according to his testimony.

"The last issue of the Los Angeles Daily news has been run off the press in preparation of the forthcoming evacuation. 'Geo. Waki... Louise Suski... Togo Tanaka'" (04/11/1942)

He admitted that after Pearl Harbor he had come to realize that the Japanese section of the Rafu Shimpo was subversive. He also admitted that many articles and much of the material printed in Rafu Shimpo had been sent from Japan and had appeared in the paper in its original form. The paper made considerable use of reprints because of its limited staff. He admitted, under examination, that much of this material was pro-Axis in flavor.

He stated that there were three Japanese daily newspapers in the City of Los Angeles before Pearl Harbor and contended that Rafu Shimpo was the oldest and the largest. He branded the other Japanese language newspapers as pro-Axis.

He had been the publicity manager of the Japanese-American Citizens' League and had handled publicity for this organization on the Rafu Shimpo. This was the largest Nisei organization in southern California and the most active. It was composed of 20 or 21 chapters. The organization had a Coordinating Committee known as the United Citizens' Federation which was composed of delegates from about 30 different organizations, including fruit-stand workers' unions, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A. and Buddhist groups.

He placed the average age of the Nisei at around 21 years and the average age of the Issei at 59 to 60.

He admitted that most of the existing Japanese organizations were dominated by the Issei because of their more mature years. He stated that as the Issei passed away and the Nisei came into adulthood they more and more were taking over the organizations and, because of this situation, the Issei influence was waning. The influence of the Issei, or alien older generation, it was explained, was partly due to the fact that the older Japanese held the purse-strings of the community. Because the Japanese Nisei showed great respect and reverence for the Issei parents and obeyed them, they did not attempt to change the pro-Japan attitude of their parents.

He stated without equivocation that the 1940-41 Directory of Rafu Shimpo, published by the older generation group on the paper, was about nine-tenths subversive.

The older generation, or pro-Japan group, influenced the thinking of the younger Nisei generation on the matter of the Sino-Japanese War. This accounted for the Nisei's activity in propagandizing the Japanese cause against China. The Issei influence was very strong in this connection. The Nisei had been taught that the Japanese were embarking on a great missionary crusade in China and building a New Order in the Far East. He stated that the non-Japanese, Caucasian American propagandists who were hired by Japan, did the same sort of propagandizing and he named "Wiggie" Williams one of the hired propagandists for Japan. ("Wiggie" Williams was subsequently indicted for failing to register as a Japanese agent with the United States Department of State.) Tanaka believed that the Nisei had been drawn into this ideological position because of emotional ties and that the younger generation of American-born Japanese found it impossible to become objective in face of their parents' prejudice.

He stated that the agencies that had been set up by the Japanese Consulate on the West Coast had disseminated much of the pro-Japan propaganda in relation to the Sino-Japanese war. He admitted that funds had been collected in the Japanese and Japanese-American societies for the prosecution of the Japanese war in the Far East and that this drive had started back in 1937 at the outbreak of hostilities in China and had continued through 1940 when the feeling had grown tense between the United States and Japan. He admitted that Rafu Shimpo had aided and had advertised these collections for the Japanese war effort in China, but added that the Rafu Shimpo had also engaged in "very good American activities."

He declared that there was considerable reluctance on the part of the Nisei to admit subversive activities on the part of themselves or their parents, which was quite natural because of dual loyalties and partly because they were confused. He stated that they tried to "gloss over" these things.

He was familiar in a general way with the Japanese language schools in southern California. The Rafu Shimpo Year Book listed these schools in its issues. He believed that Shintoism is worship of the Japanese Emperor and stated that the Shintoists were rabid militarists and very imperialistic. He claimed that he did not know the exact meaning of the term "Yamato Domoshi" but believed that it referred to the Japanese race and culture. He admitted that "one reads in the legends" about the three Japanese symbols, the mirror, the jewel and the sword. The fanatic teachings of the Japanese "under the military clique" demanded that the Japanese people believe that they were actually descended from the Sun Goddess. It was his opinion that the Nisei in the United States did not generally believe this fiction and he stated that pro-Japanese consider Japan their homeland and believe that is is their God-given mission to do something for her. It was his opinion that the American-born Japanese who were educated in the United States were not generally pro-Japan; that only about 3 or 4 per cent of the Nisei were in the pro-Japan column.

Because he believed that Shintoism is not a religion in the strictest sense of the term, but an ideology subversive and dangerous to the Government of the United States, he stated that Shintoism has no place in this Country.

Like most Americans born of alien parents, he believed the language schools contribute considerably to bridging the gap between the Issei and the Nisei in that these schools give the children and understanding of their parents and the beliefs and language of their parents. He stated that he believed the American-born Japanese have benefited considerably from the Japanese language schools and that this education had helped many of them to secure jobs where knowledge of the Japanese language was essential. He ventured the opinion that these schools could be separated from subversive indoctrination. He suggested that such schools be brought under the supervision of boards of education. He was willing to admit that there had been, perhaps, "too much indoctrination going on" in the Japanese language schools in California. He admitted, under examination, that those persons who spoke and thought in Japanese, were the type who would be most apt to be loyal to Japan and Hirohito, while those who spoke and thought in English were more apt to be loyal to the American ideology and the United States.

He stated that the Japanese Consular offices in Los Angeles contacted Japanese-American students in the universities and schools for the purpose of obtaining personnel for Japanese Government work.

He claimed to know nothing of the rumor that the Nisei had received threats for their lack of cooperation with Japanese Consular agents. Generally, he stated, the Nisei, who have relatives living in Japan, avoid answering questions concerning subversive activities on the part of the Japanese in the United States. He knew of Issei who feared retaliation by the Japanese Government on relatives in Japan, but stated that this fear was greatly diminished by the growing fact of permanent Japanese residence in the United States . He said that there were very few Japanese in the United States who desired to return to Japan since 1924 when immigration from Japan was stopped. He stated that the ties between Japanese residing in the United States and relatives in Japan was not as close as their relationship between persons recently arrived from Europe and their relatives across the water.

He admitted that the majority of Issei are Japanese in their views and more or less thoroughly indoctrinated. He stated that this was not true in all cases. Many Japanese who came to the United States when they were very young, although counted as aliens, are American in their viewpoint. He ventured the hope that this group would receive special recognition.

Prior to December 7, 1941, the Nisei generally regarded the Japanese Imperial Veterans' Association as "simply a society of old men." (The members of the Japanese Imperial Veterans' Association are Japanese who served in the Russo-Japanese war.) He admitted that, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation roundup of these veterans, that the Nisei learned that these members of the Imperial Veterans' Association had been doing more than getting together for the purpose of drinking saki[sake]. He admitted that the meetings of the Imperial Veterans' Association had been the centers of Japanese subversive activities in California.

He had heard "everything" concerning the activities of the Japanese fishing fleet off of California. He stated that the truth was "somewhere in between" the two extremes that had been brought to his attention; that not all of the fishing boats harbored spies, but that undoubtedly some of them were engaged in this practice. He had heard of the Japanese fishing boats hoisting Japanese flags when out to sea and he had heard of the "fishermen" taking soundings and photographs. He had no personal knowledge of any of these things.

He stated that many of the volunteer evacuees to Manzanar were entering into the situation in a spirit of adventure. He stated that some were bitter about it and that others were "taking it with a shrug." He felt that Manzanar should not be referred to as a "concentration camp."

Questioned regarding the Rafu Shimpo Directory for 1940-41, he admitted that the picture plates in the book showed Shinto priests, Shinto altars, pictures of the Emperor and Empress and other pictures, illustrating the pro-Japan leanings of the book. He stated that "we have always ripped" the pages containing the pictures of the Japanese Emperor and Empress out of the directory because the Nisei felt that it had no place in an American book. He identified a Japanese character on a page at the beginning of the book and explained that it meant "Khakko Ichiu"[Hakko Ichiu] and, translated, it signified the Japanese "New Order" in the Far East. He stated that this was another page that was ripped out by the Nisei before the book was passed out. Characters appearing beside the names of certain Japanese listed in the directory, according to Tanaka's testimony, referred to the individual's "Ken" or Japanese "clan" or "state." It indicated where the roots of the family of the individual were.

He admitted that the directory had always been printed in Japan and stated that this was because the rates for printing were cheaper, even when the cost of transportation was included. It was distributed free of charge to advertisers and subscribers to the Rafu Shimpo and used as a circulation builder. It listed everyone as Japanese descent of whom information could be obtained.

He explained that an illustration showing a map of the Pacific with secret American battleship information was an illustration to a story in a Japanese magazine, "King" (Ken); that it was pro-Axis and was the work of pro-Axis authors. He stated that this was typical of all magazines which came over from Japan. Japanese editorial writers on the Rafu Shimpo had to overcome and work against such material coming out of Japan.

The editorial policy of the Rafu Shimpo after December 7, 1941, was in support of the United States against Japan. Tanaka filed a number of copies of the issues of the Rafu Shimpo with the Committee in proof of this assertion.

He contended that community hysteria constituted a serious problem for the loyal Nisei. He hoped that the Americans could help the situation by attempting to secure a balanced picture of Nisei activities.

He admitted that Rafu Shimpo had maintained a Tokio Bureau for news and business arrangements. Around 10,000 copies of the directory had been printed and most of them had been distributed in southern California. A few were left in Japan and the State Department of Japan and the United States had received copies.

Tanaka concluded his testimony by stating that he believed that many of the Japanese, and especially the younger Japanese-Americans, had been merely "misdirected" in their so-called subversive activities. He begged the Americans to give the Japanese and the Japanese-Americans credit for the things they had done in developing and furthering community interest and welfare.

7

JAPANESE SUBVERSIVE ORGANIZATIONS

Dr. John Lechner testified that as late as April 15, 1941, the Japanese Nisei in the Los Angeles area were challenged to indicate their loyalty to the United States Government by conducting a house-cleaning of subversive elements within the Japanese colony and cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in routing subversive individuals and groups. To this end, Dr. Lechner stated, a conference was held at a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles and plans were laid for a mass demonstration on May 10, 1941. He stated that more than 1,000 Nisei gathered at the Hollywood Legion Club House in Los Angeles where the meeting was held. He stated that both Fred Tayama and Togo Tanaka, the most active leaders among the local Nisei, ignored the challenge for cooperation against un-American activities existing in the Japanese colony. Both Tayama and Tanaka vehemently denied the existence of subversive groups and individuals among the Japanese and Tayama angrily refused to organize any effort for the cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Nothing was done to indicate that these American leaders of Japanese ancestry were disposed to cooperate in counteracting Japanese espionage in California. Dr. Lechner listed the Japanese representatives who attended the April 15th meeting as Bob Sato, Executive Secretary of the Japanese Retail Clerks' Union, A. F. of L., Robbin Keneko, President, Junior Produce Union, Fred Tayama, President, Los Angeles Chapter Japanese-American Citizens' League, Shigemi Aratania, Vice President, Los Angeles Chapter, Japanese-American Citizens' League, Togo Tanaka, Editor, English section, Rafu Shimpo, H. Hori, President, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, S. Nagata, Vice President, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Ted Akahoshi, Executive Secretary, Japanese Produce Merchants' Association. Shuji Fuji, a Communist, writing in the September 1, 1941 issue of the Doho Sha, a Japanese publication in Los Angeles, urged "immediate action to rout out by public denunciation, every sign of organization, activity, policy and propaganda that inclines to promote the pro-Nazi element in Japan among us, such as the Japanese Military Service Men's League." Shuji Fuji branded the Japanese Military Service Men's League as a dangerous fifth column structure among the local Japanese.

The Japanese Military Service Men's League is reported to be the work of Tadasiki Iizuka.

The Imperial Comradeship Society is allegedly the American arm of the Imperial Black Dragon Society, the most powerful and most feared secret organization in the Japanese Empire. The Imperial Black Dragon Society is said to have been organized over 50 years ago for the purpose of eradicating Occidental influence in the Far East. The Dragon leaders have fostered an intensified and deep hatred for the British and the Americans. Tadasiki Iizuka reorganized and strengthened the Imperial Comradeship Society and Dr. Lechner estimated its strength at the end of 1941 as 4,800. The ostensible leadership of the society was in the hands of Sakugaro Kubota, a retired Japanese officer, whose son, stated Dr. Lechner, is Takaki Kubota, an American-born citizen and an active leader in the "patriotic" Japanese-American Citizens' League of Los Angeles. The Imperial Comradeship Society and the Japanese Military Service Men's League, stated Dr. Lechner, had 74 branches in 65 localities and exerted a powerful influence on the entire Japanese-American population on behalf of Japan.

The Japanese-American Citizens' League under the leadership of Takaki Kubota collaborated with the Imperial Comradeship Society and the Japanese Military Service Men's League in a campaign to sell Japanese war bonds on the Pacific Coast. The Japanese Minister of Finance, Seinen Ikeda, requested the Japanese-American Citizens' League to raise 1,000,000 yen to be deposited in the Yokohama Specie Bank in San Francisco.

Representatives of the committee, in preparing for public hearings on Japanese activities, inspected maps of the interior valleys of the State, whereon were depicted with the greatest fidelity highways, country lanes, bridges, police, fire and radio stations, hospitals, airports, and the detailed topography of the area. These representatives obtained considerable evidence of Japanese "Vegetable" Associations spotted throughout the agricultural regions of California soliciting funds from their members for the purchase of Japanese war bonds from the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco.

The committee's representatives also inspected photographs of the San Pedro fishing boats far out at sea, flying the Japanese flag. Japanese-Americans told committee representatives that Americans should no longer laugh at the industrious little Jap fishermen because they were "foolishly" taking soundings along the coast when they could easily buy Geodetic Survey maps which contained the information that they apparently desired. The Japanese fishermen knew that. What they were actually doing was finding whether or not the ocean floor at designated localities was soft and level and sandy, or whether it was rough and rocky to such an extent that it might injure the belly of a submarine, such as the one which lobbed its shells off the coast of Santa Barbara at American oil installations.

Dr. Yu-Shan Han, Chinese lecturer and educator, stated that the Japanese Black Dragon Society is both a military and "underhanded" organization. (Volume IX, pp. 2692-2715.) He stated that the members of the organization perpetrated vengeances on the enemies of Japanese plans in China. The Black Dragon Society indulges in sabotage, blackmail and assassination.

He testified concerning Japanese Fifth Column activities in China. He related incidents of sabotage and espionage in China by the Japanese. He told of Japanese disguised as Buddhist priests who measured the distances in the interior of China for future marches of the Japanese armies. He stated that agents of Hirohito tabulated the metals in the Chinese temples and other places for future Japanese confiscation.

Dr. Han related instances of Black Dragon kidnappings and Black Dragon terror in China. He said that the Society maintains an extremely efficient espionage system in China. The members of the Society had detected his return to China and had been bold enough to publish the fact in the newspapers. Dr. Han smiled and said that he "beat it." He stated that the Black Dragon Society sows seeds of discord and is efficient in disseminating sugar-coated propaganda. He stated that the Japanese are highly trained in sabotage and expressed the opinion that it would be very foolish for the people of the United States to trust any of them during this time, whether they were born in the United States or not.

Japan had been an admirer of Germany for a considerable length of time and this admiration has been manifested by the Japanese in China. All German Nationals had been treated well in the Far East by the Japanese. He stated that the Japanese do no feel friendly to the Americans in the Orient. It was his opinion that the German Nazis have been putting pressure on the Japanese in China to compel them to follow policies beneficial to Germany's war aims.

He declared that the Japanese troops had been very brutal to Chinese captives and that they had been particularly vicious and cruel in torturing Chinese women. Chinese books were destroyed and the Japanese invaders took whatever caught their fancy in occupied territories. He had watched the Japanese load the property of civilians into steam launches on Soochow Creek across from the university where he had taught. He saw a Japanese Colonel take a valuable painting at the point of a gun in Hanchow.

Although he believed the Japanese people had been suffering severely because of heavy war expenditures over the past several years, that, because of their training, they would not complain. The Chinese people will resist to the very end, Dr. Han declared, because they were convinced life would not be worth living if they were conquered by the Japanese.

P. D. Perkins was teaching the Japanese language at the University of Southern California when he testified February 24, 1942. (Volume IX, pp. 2716-2747.) He stated that he had taken the place of a Japanese on leave in the Department of Asiatic Studies under Dr. Chaening. Perkins was born in Windsor, Vermont. He had resided in Japan since 1935 and had taught English in a school in Kyoto, Japan, from 1935 to 1939. In 1939 he went to Tokio as a "Shokutabu," or a "specialist." He stated that he visited in the United States in 1940 and returned again to Tokio and remained there until October 30, 1941 when he returned to the United States. He established residence and a bookstore in South Pasadena in 1940 and his wife remained there to sell books which were sent from Japan. He was acquainted with Ralph Townsend and a Mr. Williams, both of whom were convicted as agents of Japan, because, stated Perkins, "they were in the United States and I was in Japan." (p. 2718.)

On July 10, 1940, Perkins registered with the United States Department of State as an agent of the Japanese Government. He claimed that he had been released from this registration on January 9, 1942. He registered, he claimed, because he had been notified by the State Department that it would be necessary for him to do so. He had listed himself as a "public relations" counsel for the Japanese Consulate in New York. He stated that his duties were "a little bit technical," and explained that they were actually "not duties," but financial arrangements with the Japanese Government. He contended that the Japanese Government refused to allow any foreigner to send more than 100 yen out of Japan and that this amount was not sufficient for the living expenses of his family in the United States. One hundred yen, he explained, amounted to about $23.50 in American money.

After the Matsuoka Ministry came into power in Japan, Perkins stated, pro-American friends asked him to resign from his position there. "Friends and former students" arranged for him to transfer out of the State Department in Tokio so that he would be "beyond their control," and thus enabled him to get funds out of Japan. Perkins had registered with the United States Department of State as "Public Relations Advisor for the Japanese Consulate" and this also was his title in the Personnel Office in Tokio.

Being closely examined in reference to his duties, Perkins explained that about 90 per cent of his work consisted in translating American newspaper headlines and by-lines into the Japanese language or "the Japanese equivalent." These translations, he admitted, were then turned over to the Japanese State Department in Tokio. It is to be noted that Perkins did not turn the translations over to the department for which he was supposed to be working, the Japanese Consulate. His salary for this work from 1930 until 1940 amounted to 500 yen a month.

He stated that he "thought very highly of Yoshida Kuno," now deceased. Yoshida Kuno once taught the Japanese language and culture at the University of California at Berkeley and also at Stanford University. Perkins stated that he had taken courses under Kuno at Stanford.

He had a "very general" knowledge of the Okubo Decade System. He stated that the Okubo family was "one of the main families" of Japan and that the Okubo program was a plan for the expansion of Japan as a world power. He also was familiar with the Tanaka Memorial in a general way.

He claimed that the literature sold in his bookstore in South Pasadena was neither pro- nor anti-Japanese and described it as consisting merely of "language books" used in the university and in the Army and Navy Academy. He emphatically stated that these books did not contain propaganda and that the books he had given away were "only review copies." He admitted that he had once distributed a book comprised of the addresses on the Sino-Japanese conflict given in America by Yakachuro Suma, a Japanese. He admitted that Suma was Director of the Information Bureau of the Foreign Office in Japan and that he had formerly been attached to the Embassy in Washington. "He was my superior, after Mr. Obai." (p. 2723.) He had brought the book of addresses with him from Japan. (The Director of the Information Bureau of the Foreign Office in Japan is similar to the German Propaganda position held by Dr. Goebbels in the Nazi Ministry of Education and Enlightenment.) Under further questioning Perkins admitted that Yakachuro Suma had published the book in question for him. He had "less than 50" of the books on hand at the time of testifying and stated that he had received "either $2 or $2.50 apiece for them." (p. 2724.) Perkins offered in evidence the Customs slip listing the books he had brought with him from Japan. He stated that he had also submitted this list to the United States Consular Office in Tokio.

Joseph Shinoda, a wholesale florist, testified that he was born in Oakland and lived in Southern California for about 20 years. (Volume X, pp. 3120-3126.)

He stated that he had known George Knox Roth for about a month and a half at the time of testifying. He denied that he had contributed money to Roth though he admitted having offered to "help him on some other expenses, but he refused." These "expenses" were explained as expenses they would necessarily arise out of trying to "help us" -- the Japanese-American citizens. "We felt * * * we had something to contribute and we didn't think the things that were being thrust upon us were to our best interests * * *." He stated that the offer of assistance to George Knox Roth was made at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. He had become acquainted with Roth while he (Shinoda) was "temporarily in the produce business" at the Seventh Street Terminal. Roth came there and he had seen him several times in Little Tokio.

Tokie Slocum is a Japanese member of the American Legion. (Volume X, pp. 3038-3048.) He had been active for several weeks before testifying in assisting Federal and State investigating groups concerned with the Japanese problem. He admitted having known George Knox Roth for about two months.

He was chairman of the Anti-Axis Committee, succeeding to the chairmanship after Fred Tayama had vacated it. He stated that the Issei looked upon the Anti-Axis Committee as a "policing group." A lack of discipline existed in the committee and there was much dissensions and he believed that the disruption was possibly due to pressure from the Issei. (Alien Japanese.) He was also the chairman of the Intelligence Unit of the Anti-Axis Committee. The membership of this group was drawn from various organizations and was representative of the Japanese community. He claimed that the Anti-Axis Committee had investigated the Japanese language schools and that the committee had clamped down on them when the schools tried to reopen. He had heard of large sums of money being collected through the Japanese vegetable associations for Japan and that the money was reported being sent to Japan through the Japanese Consuls to help the war effort of Nippon. He branded the Japanese Veterans' Association as a pro-Japanese patriotic organization. He stated that there were a large number of alien vegetable growers in Southern California and because of the money they had invested in their ventures, it would necessarily be expeditious for them to attempt to prevent evacuation.

Joe Shinoda had invited George Knox Roth to appear before the Anti-Axis Committee and Slocum had seen Roth a half a dozen times since then. It was possible, he believed, that Shinoda had given Roth money for his radio broadcasts. He stated that Shinoda owned the San Lorenz Nursery which is the largest Japanese nursery in Southern California. He had overheard Shinoda tell Roth that he (Shinoda) would underwrite something. This conversation took place in the Biltmore Hotel.

Tokie Slocum denied having given George Knox Roth money in Simon's Restaurant as had been alleged.

He stated that he was a naturalized citizen of the United States by a special Act of Congress in honor of his services in World War I. He served in France with Sergeant York.

He declared that he had been "sandwiched between two political feuds" and felt that city councilman Roy Hampton had been careless in his statements. He emphatically denied that he had been a "go-between" giving money to Roth raised by the Japanese.

City Councilman Edward L. Thrasher stated that shortly after the declaration of war, 39 or 40 Japanese employees under Los Angeles city civil service were informed that they would be forced to retire. (Volume X, pp. 3126-3129.) He stated that George Knox Roth appeared before the Civil Service Commission of the City of Los Angeles and demanded of the Commission that the Japanese be retained in their jobs. Councilman Thrasher placed the date of Roth's appearance before the Commission as around March 1, 1942.

Thrasher was later informed by a representative of the Mayor's office that Roth had appeared before the Mayor and had insisted that the Japs be kept on the pay roll.

Thrasher later observed a number of Japanese congregating in Councilman Norris E. Nelson's office in the City Hall. He learned that Roth was appearing in Nelson's office with the Japanese, attempting to induce Nelson to intercede for them to retain them on the city pay roll. According to Thrasher, Roth offered Nelson large insurance contracts from the Japanese if Nelson would intercede in their behalf. Thrasher testified that he received this information from one of the Japanese who had attended the meeting in Councilman Nelson's office. He concluded his testimony by stating that Councilman Norris E. Nelson was in the insurance business.

George Knox Roth first testified October 15, 1941. (Volume III, pp. 845-861.) He had been subpenaed in connection with the testimony of Tom Kirk regarding alleged wire-tapping activities in connection with Los Angeles city politics and elections. At that time, Knox testified, he had been working as a stenographer in the Department of Agriculture for the State of California and that this employment had ceased about a week before his appearance before the committee. He had been connected with the Clifford E. Clinton organization up to January 1, 1940. He offered the committee a book entitled Los Angeles County Government: Departmental Services, 1934, and read portions from it by Dr. Samuel C. May from the University of California outlining Dr. May's political philosophy.

After Pearl Harbor, Roth started a series of radio broadcasts over Radio Station KMTR in Los Angeles. The theme of these broadcasts, generally, opposed the evacuation of the Japanese from California's coastal area. The broadcasts were alleged to be under the auspices of the Public Affairs Committee of Los Angeles. The committee's representatives obtained transcripts of Roth's broadcasts and he was subpenaed March 24, 1942, for examination concerning them. (Volume X, pp. 2908-2966; 2973-2987.)

He stated that he was the secretary of the Public Affairs Committee of Los Angeles. He was extremely vague and evasive as to just what the Public Affairs Committee of Los Angeles was, who its organizers were, the identity of its members and when it came into being. He stated that "Late in 1940 a group of former college students * * * felt that something ought to be done * * * to improve conditions in local affairs." Acting on this "feeling" of his friends, Roth stated that he mailed out about 200 letters addressed to persons whom he knew to be interested in municipal and county affairs, and thus a Public Affairs Committee was "organized." It apparently had no constitution, by-laws or regulations and did not have a president, a board of directors or officers other than Roth himself. He stated that the organization met from time to time with "different ones." He claimed that he had held these meetings "for the past three months"; the last one having been held two weeks previous. He stated that the policies of the organization were the policies of the persons who contributed funds to it.

He stated that he was born in Denver, Colorado, and had resided there until 1920 when he came to Los Angeles. He did special research work under Samuel May at the University of California and attended Claremont College and the University of Southern California, where he graduated with a Masters' Degree in June of 1934. He stated that he became interested in politics about that time and had worked in Upton Sinclair's Epic campaign. Later he was engaged in the Unemployed Cooperatives. He stated that he headed the Department of Rehabilitation under the Los Angeles County board of supervisors and functioned in this capacity until June 1, 1936, when it was abandoned.

He became investigator for Clifford E. Clinton in October of 1938 and continued in this position until March of 1939. He was again employed in this capacity in June of 1939 and continued until January of 1940. He then served with the Citizens' Independent Vice Investigating Committee (CIVIC). later her was employed in the State Department of Agriculture as a stenographer and severed his connection with this department on February 28, 1942. He stated that his actual duties with the Department of Agriculture were those of a "bench chemist." He claimed that it was his job to analyze the "sprays." He was not allowed to go to those places where vegetables were displayed except when picking up samples offered by commission merchants. He stated that Japanese aliens and citizens came to his laboratory "in response to a summons" or "came in for information which was given by the chief chemist."

Agriculture, Mr. Cramer, had notified the Tolan Investigating Committee He claimed that the administrative assistant of the State Department of (investigating the Tolan investigator, San Jose, 1942

Japanese situation in California) that he had not been employed in the State Department of Agriculture since February 28, 1942, and that this accounted for the discrepancy in his testimony before the Tolan Committee. He explained this by stating that a vacation period had been extended to him from February 28 to March 8, 1942. He added, "I didn't realize I was severed from the pay roll." [PHOTO: "John W. Abbott, chief field investigator for the Tolan Congressional Defense Committee on Migration, is shown speaking to a young celery grower, on March 27, 1942, who has just completed arrangements for leasing his farm during evacuation. He holds the lease document in his hand. He and his sisters were evacuated on May 9, 1942 to Tanforan Assembly center." (San Jose)]

He admitted that his radio broadcasts discussed the effect of the evacuation of the Japanese from southern California. The first broadcast in the name of the Public Affairs Committee was on the evening of February 28 or March 1, 1942. He broadcast six times a week following the first broadcast, from 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. over Radio Station KMTR. He contended that he did not have a list of the names of the members of the Public Affairs Committee but stated that there were some 25 people on the committee. It was these people, Roth explained, who contributed the money to him out of which he paid for the broadcasts. The members of the Public Affairs Committee did not have membership cards and the organization did not maintain a bank account in the name of the committee. He stated that he did not keep books but estimated that he had received $625 or $635 altogether.

He admitted having stated over the radio that he hoped the Army would listen to reason and that the Japanese citizen-farmers would be permitted to remain in the coastal areas to produce vegetables. He stated that he had given statistics to indicate how vegetable production in California would suffer if the Japanese were evacuated and estimated that $60,000,000 worth of produce would not be produced if the Japanese were sent away. He stated that this figure was based on statistics given to the Tolan Committee and predicted on public records. He contended that Caucasians are unable to produce vegetables as efficiently or as inexpensively as the Japanese. He stated that his radio broadcasts pertained to Los Angeles County conditions. (Transcriptions of his broadcasts indicated strong pro-Japanese feeling and contained such allegations as "the Japanese have been and are our friends," etc.)

He denied the allegations of Los Angeles city councilman Roy Hampton that he had received money from a Japanese in Simon's Restaurant in downtown Los Angeles on March 11th or 12th of 1942.

Under close questioning he finally admitted that he had received some money from persons of Japanese descent for his Public Affairs Committee broadcasts and finally estimated that the amount was "something like $510." He said that the money had been given to him by close personal friends and he refused to name these persons. He first contended that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would object if he gave the committee the names of the Japanese who had contributed funds to him for the broadcasts. He was excused while the chairman of the committee telephoned the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The bureau not only denied Roth's statement but sent two representatives to the Assembly Chambers in the State Building where the hearing was being held. Roth conferred with them in the corridor of the building and was told that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had no objection to him testifying. He was recalled to the stand and the questions were put in many ways and he still refused to name the Japanese. Charges were preferred against Roth and he was tried and convicted for violation of Penal Code Section 87 in the Municipal Court of Los Angeles.

Fred Masaru Tayama was a former restaurant operator, insurance broker and, at the time of testifying, an evacuee at Manzanar. (Volume X, pp. 2961-2965 -- 2968-2972 -- 2988-2990.) He was born in Honolulu and had received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the A. R. Muir Institute of Technology of Chicago. He stated that he had resided in southern California since 1929.

He was familiar with the Japanese-American Citizens' League with headquarters located at 2031 Bush Street in the City of San Francisco. He stated that there were 66 chapters and approximately 20,000 members with about 7,000 of them in southern California. He stated that to be eligible for membership in this organization, the applicant must be an American citizen of Japanese parentage, 18 years of age or over. He stated that the organization checked up on the birth certificates of applicants for membership and that applicants were compelled to sign an oath of the truth of the statements contained in their application. He stated that he was, at the time of testifying, the chairman of the Southern California District Council of the Japanese-American Citizens' League and that he had held this position since September of 1941. He stated that the chairman heads 20 chapters in the Southern District Council, which covers San Luis Obispo south with one chapter in Phoenix, Arizona.

After December 7, 1941, the Japanese-American Citizens' League had created an Anti-Axis Committee. It had been formed voluntarily and Tayama had called the Nisei leaders together in Los Angeles immediately upon receipt of the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He stated that by 5 p.m. on the day of December 7, 1941, the Anti-Axis Committee had been organized in the office of the Rafu Shimpo. An Intelligence Unit was set up in the Anti-Axis Committee to assist Federal officials with problems pertaining to Japanese-Americans and aliens and to report on subversive activities.

He was also member of the Japanese Y. M. C. A. and served on its Board of Directors. He was a member of the Japanese Union Church (Christian). In support of his contention that he had been expatriated from Japanese dual citizenship, he offered the committee a letter from the Japanese Consul General for military extension or exemption and learned, at that time, that he was considered a citizen of Japan and subject to military duty. He investigated and learned the details and found that he had been registered by relatives in Japan. With this knowledge he took steps to expatriate himself.

He contended that he had been "too busy with other affairs" to learn of subversive activities on the part of the Japanese-Americans in Los Angeles prior to December 7, 1941.

He placed the average age of the Nisei at around 19½ or 20 years. Because they were mostly minors, he stated that, therefore, they do not control the business organizations of the Japanese and do not have much influence. He believed that the Issei had endeavored at all times to maintain the traditions of Japan in the United States. It was his opinion that if the war had been deferred for five or six years until the Niseis would have had the opportunity to have taken over the Japanese organizations and the operation of the businesses; had become heads of families, etc., the situation would have been far different from what it was at the time of testifying. He stated that the Issei expected to be placed in detention camps in the event of war with Japan and said that the Nisei were willing to go.

He had heard of the Black Dragon Society as an organization headed by an elderly man, Mitsuru Toyama, who lived in Japan.

He presented the committee with a copy of a radiogram purported to have originated in Honolulu and signed by the Chamber of Commerce there, denying rumors of Japanese Fifth Column activities in Honolulu on December 7, 1941.

He believed that the majority of the Issei are loyal to Japan and that the majority of the Nisei are loyal to the United States. He believed that this was because the Issei had been refused United States citizenship, and felt that if they had been permitted to become citizens, they might have been loyal.

He had known Tomo Kasurui, Consul of Japan who had been located in Los Angeles. He stated that Kasurui was the spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Office in Japan, at the time of Tayama's testifying. He stated that Kasurui had confided to him in 1935 that there was apt to be a conflict between the United States and Japan.

8

ACTIVITIES OF JAPANESE EVACUEES

Dr. John Lechner stated that a tremendous movement is on foot to soften up the American people in reference to the Japanese in the relocation centers. He stated that the Japanese in the centers are taking advantage of this situation. (Volume XVI, pp. 3933-3980.) In this connection he offered the committee a sheaf of notes that were made by a Japanese-American at one of the camps. He stated that the notes were in the Japanese-American's own handwriting. He explained that the Government had decreed that Japanese-American citizens and other Japanese in the evacuation centers were not permitted to listen to radio broadcasts, but that the Government had given permission to small groups to act as committees to listen to radio news broadcasts of the day and then, in turn, to rebroadcast over a camp radio-broadcasting system, the news as compiled by the Japanese committee for the benefit of the evacuees. These broadcasts were, of course, in the Japanese language. He stated that the notes taken by his Japanese informant are significant in that they prove that all of the information rebroadcast to the Japanese evacuees was pro-Jap. The Japanese losses were never rebroadcast. The following translations from some of the broadcasts are typical:

"France might as well fly the swastika."
"Tokio is waiting for a complete collapse of the Soviet."
"When the Japanese attack Siberia it will be sudden and decisive."
"Japanese Russian propaganda is very active against the Communists and the Communist United States."
"When Russia is beaten she will become like China."
"Britain, after losing Singapore and Hong Kong, can not expect to get them back in British hands again."
"Why should India remain under British rule to make India a British sphere which will eventually turn India into future British frontier?"
"Unless Britain can influence Jinnah and Nehru against Gandhi's idea, which is too late, Britain can not turn India's tide to British satisfaction."
"Big, important meeting in Moscow is another development of Allies' discord."
"Nazi blitz speed is astonishing."
"All of the Pacific will be blacked out and Japanese may attack the Pacific Coast with submarines."
"Japanese air force is wiping out the United States - Chinese air force."
"Japanese activities in Australia are on the increase. The Australians say the air strength is not sufficient to check the Japanese assault."
"Japanese planes attack Queensland for the first time."
"Four Japanese planes bomb Tourinville. Japanese also bomb Darwin. Japanese threat via Buna also serious."
"One-twentieth of the United States population is in Australia. Japanese secretly landed in Australia a month ago when Japanese landed in New Guinea. Japanese again landed at Buna. Allies have not checked their threat. New United States plane, Mustang, 1,400 horsepower, may out-do Japanese Zero. Burma Japanese may invade in China or India."

All of these excerpts are from the rebroadcast of August 5, 1942. On August 4, 1942 similar broadcasts were made. The following are typical:

"Japanese destroy 55,000 tons of Allied shipping in last week. Japanese sent more reinforcements. Allies are advancing Guna-Gona area. Japanese submarine sinks British ship. Another large naval engagement coming. British attack Burma force and lose."
"Big quake in north of New Zealand. Japanese cruiser was bombed for second time, but Japanese established an air field in Cocoda. Gandhi says: 'Unless Allies give complete independence India may welcome Japs.' The Japanese at Burma are preparing to start fresh movement into India. Next Friday is the deadline for India's independence. Two hundred and nineteen Japanese planes attack United States air base."

Dr. Lechner stated that no censorship whatever is exercised on the part of the War Relocation authorities.

On July 28, 1942:

"Japanese landed in Australia in submarines. In New Guinea Japanese set up at Cocoda, 50 miles from Moresby. Japanese attack Darwin and Tourinville. In New Guinea the Japanese are advancing by bicycle troops."

On July 27, 1942:

"Allies attack Buna. More Japanese landed at Buna; more at Gona, 160 miles north of Buna. Japanese attack British force near Moresby. Tojo said: 'Japan holds the initiative in the Western Aleutians; Japan will go the limit to crush the United States and Britain.'"

On the same date the Japanese announcer stated:

"United States is losing this war because they can not fill orders for spare parts. Nazis using transport planes. United States is trying to convert bombers into cargo planes. C. I. O. Auto Workers' Union demands double pay for Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. During the first six months of the war 4,000 seamen's lives were lost. India's situation is more critical. Gandhi demands negotiation with British to grant India complete and immediate independence or India will become turmoil of trouble. Our (United States) June production is behind schedule. Gandhi says: 'Britain is India's friend. India neither sides with nor reject the United States or the Axis countries. India asks the United States, China and Stalin to induce Britain to accept India's independence plea, but no one acts.' Gandhi has political power but not military power -- naturally India relies on Japanese aid. Britain today ordered all essential commodity dealers closed. What next?"

On July 21, 1942:

"Japanese attack Fort Moresby with 41 planes. 'Don't neglect Australia for Japanese pilots are darn good and are a good match for United States fliers.'"

Under date of July 19, 1942:

"Japanese carried out their plans. India will become yoke of Japan after this Friday."

On August 7, 1942:

"Only 1 per cent of United States production, or three days production in Australia. How can Australia stop the Japanese? United States is losing this war unless it can produce more war material, and the United States can make this a total war. Only a trickle of supplies come into Australia. Japanese are undoubtedly occupying many important coastal regions on the continent of Australia. We are beaten in India, Turkey and losing in Siberia and Australia. If Russia gives in the United States must lose China and Australian interests. There may be a negotiated peace."

Dr. Lechner testified that it was his opinion that the United States Government is making a big mistake in the civilian administration of the Japanese relocation centers. He stated emphatically that he agreed with the American Legion that the administration of the camps should be under the supervision of the Army and not in civilian hands. He told of a Mr. Myers, who had had no experience before his association with the War Relocation Board or Authority, and who knew nothing of the Japanese, being sent to the West Coast as an expert in charge of the Japanese relocation centers. He stated that Mr. Myers had delivered an address on the Fourth of July, 1942, in which he apologized to the 12,000 Japanese at Manzanar for the big mistake that the United States Government had made in evacuating them in the first place. Dr. Lechner rendered the opinion that every able-bodied Japanese male should be put to work in agricultural centers under strict Army control.

He related incidents occurring at Manzanar in which groups of 10, 12 and 15 Japanese were allowed to travel through Inyo County in trucks without any restriction whatsoever.

He related an incident which occurred at Camp Lordsburg, New Mexico. He stated that a number of Japanese prisoners captured during the Solomon Islands campaign were brought to the relocation center at Lordsburg and interned there with the Japanese evacuees. He stated the civilian administration of the camp permitted the Japanese prisoners to mingle and talk with the evacuees in the Japanese language. On October 29, 1942, Camp Bulletin Number 56 was issued in mimeographed form by the evacuees. It was in the Japanese language. The bulletin described the number of Japanese prisoners who had been brought into the camp a day or two before and gave minute details as to where they had come from and named the boat that brought them to the United States; information, Dr. Lechner contended, withheld from our own metropolitan newspapers. He stated that the Japanese prisoners from the Solomon Islands painted an encouraging picture of Japanese victories for the Japanese-Americans in the camp, and as a result, the camp was "all fired up." The following morning saw a big demonstration staged by both the Japanese-American evacuees and the Japanese prisoners. He stated that there were several thousand Japanese participating in the demonstration, marching up and down through the camp, singing and having a "great time." A loyal Japanese, placed in the camp by the Federal Government, and whose name was withheld, reported that two or three officials in charge of the camp felt quite happy concerning the demonstration. One of them said: "Our policy for the relocation board is pretty good; we are giving them all the leeway possible; look how happy they are!" The Japanese informant turned to the official and said: "Do you know what they are singing?" The official answered, "It doesn't make any difference. They are happy." The Japanese informant then told the official that "They are singing the Japanese National Anthem." The official became alarmed and said, "They can't do that here!" the Japanese informant then stated: "If you will look at the flag-pole you will see what they can do!" The official looked at the flag-pole and saw a home-made Japanese Flag flying from it. During the night the Japanese had run up the Japanese Flag. Dr. Lechner stated that his report revealed that it took the threat of Army machine-guns to enable a man to take down the Japanese Flag.

Dr. John Lechner testified that on August 8, 1942, nearly 500 Kibei, Issei and Nisei gathered in Mess Hall 15, at Manzanar, under the chairmanship of Ben Kishi. (Volume XVI, pp. 3933-3980.) The meeting, Dr. Lechner stated, was conducted in the Japanese language by the consent of the center administration and was purportedly called for the purpose of discussing living conditions. He stated that the meeting developed into a bitter denunciation of Manzanar policy. He stated that one of the scheduled speakers, Kujohi Hashimoto, calling himself a Kibei-Nisei, hinted that he dared not say how the Kibei-Nisei felt regarding this country. Joe Kurihara, born in Hawaii, sprang to his feet and demanded the floor. Kurihara is reported to have said:

"I have never been in Japan, but in my veins flows Japanese blood; the blood of Yamato damashii. We citizens have been denied our citizenship rights; we have no United States citizenship; we are 100 per cent Japanese."

Dr. Lechner stated that a roaring applause and stamping of feet echoed this declaration on the part of Joe Kurihara. When Carl Yoneda, another scheduled speaker and the chairman of the War Participation Committee, attempted to speak on the need for cooperation with the Government of the United States in winning the war. Dr. Lechner stated that he was "booed" and "jeered," so that only a portion of his speech could be heard. Masajo Tanaka spoke next, and said:

"I am a Kibei-Nisei, but the Kibei-Niseeis are not American; they are Japanese. (Loud applause.) The Kibeis are not loyal to the United States and they might as well know it! But the Kibeis should use their citizenship rights for their own benefit. I can not understand why there are a few Nisei who still talk about their citizenship rights, and about American democracy."

Dr. Lechner stated that, realizing the temper of the meeting would be revealed to the authorities at Manzanar and that such meetings in the future might be banned, some of the Issei were heard to remark that "The Japanese soldiers will soon be here to liberate us."

He stated that some time before the meeting in question, at a private conference between Ted Akahoshi, Issei Chairman of Block leaders at Manzanar, and two other individuals, Akahoshi made the following statement in the heat of an argument concerning certain government orders:

"I want to say this, and I want this to be kept just among us three. If one of you should happen to tell it to someone else, I am going to deny it. If Japan loses this war, we -- and I include you citizens too -- will all become slaves of this country. If Japan wins, we will then tell them how to run this country."

9

PRO-JAPANESE SYMPATHIES IN THE UNITED STATES

Dr. John Lechner contended that there now exists in the United States a nationally organized movement to soften the American public against the time when the Japanese-Americans will be released from internment centers. (Volume XVI, pp. 3933-3980.) He described this effort as "a tremendously powerful movement." He stated that there are several organizations now engaged in a campaign to discredit the United States Army's policy of evacuating the Japanese and the policy of the Government in holding the Japanese in concentration or restricted areas. Beginning at page 3963 of Volume XVI, Dr. Lechner states:

"This group is comprised largely of church and educational leaders.

"Here is an article which was written by Norman Thomas, head of the Socialist Party, and distributed by the Post-War Council.

"I understand that several hundred thousand (copies) were sent out. This is a scathing indictment against the United States policy employed so far as the Japanese are concerned, and he (Norman Thomas) advocates the immediate release of all Japanese-Americans. Two months ago Dr. Palmer announced that he had over 1,600 leading ministers in this country who had signed up as active members. (Churchmen's Committee for Christian Peace; Dr. Albert Palmer, chairman and head of the Chicago Seminary.) Palmer's statement on the unconditional surrender of Japan is this, as is described. In such things as we these we are getting the first announcement of a very carefully worked out plan of all of these groups I am going to mention, for a negotiated peace with Japan. Speaking of unconditional surrender he said, 'This goal is not likely to be reached by any method of total military victory; some kind of negotiated peace is a desirable alternative.' This statement was made in December, 1942.

"They claim to have 12,000 or more active members throughout the United States. The principal theory is that war is not compatible with the teachings of Christ. In addition to that there is the National Committee for Prevention of Wars. This organization held its National convention in Philadelphia, November 11, 12, and 13, 1942. One of the aggressively active leaders is Theodore Walser, an American missionary to Japan for twenty-three years.

"He spoke before the members of the Pilgrim Church, one of the large churches in Washington, D. C. This was his statement: 'Japan was justified in her attack on Pearl Harbor.' He gave for his reason, first, that America had no right to interfere with Japan's 'Asia for the Asiatics' policy in the Far East. Secondly, Japan is only doing what America did to Mexico and to Central and South American Republics.'

"The National Committee for Prevention of Wars in its convention adopted the following aims for 1943, and I list five or six points. First, is a negotiated peace with the Axis powers, following Dr. Palmer's idea. Second, to give financial and moral aid to conscientious objectors; three, to give financial aid and scholarships to Japanese-Americans so that they may complete their university education; four, to release the Japanese from the relocation camps and give the relocation civilian authorities power to act, because they were, apparently, from their statements, already conscious of the fact that they were wielding a great deal of influence over these civilian authorities. Five, give favorable publicity to the Japanese-Americans and the Japanese point of view in the public press, and particularly stress that point of view in church publications throughout America; set up an employment agency to aid the Japanese as fast as they are released from the relocation camps.

"Incidentally, one point here about the church publications. From our information it is very apparent that a definite policy is being employed to create a favorable attitude toward Japanese-Americans in this country, and so favorable that naturally we will build up a sympathetic attitude for Japan. That is what we call the 'softening-up process' so that these various organizations can put across with full speed, by the end of 1943, a terrific campaign for a negotiated peace with Japan, and it is a very clearly worked out scheme.

"As an indication of how far they will go * * * from December 4th to December 14th in Quebec, Canada, the Institute of Pacific Relations, which has a very powerful branch here, held what they called a 'Pacific conference' for the purpose of discussing post-war problems in the Pacific area. At that conference the leaders refused admission of a Korean participant, although they claimed that they were interested in establishing the Atlantic Charter of the Four Freedoms in all of the subjugated nations in the world. Finally after a threat was made to expose the Pacific Conference held by the Institute of Pacific Relations, they agreed to allow a Korean as an observer. The opposition came from some of the missionaries who came from Japan, representing the Far East.

"Underneath that whole conference was this underlying motive, to build there at that Pacific Conference in Quebec the structure for the cooperation of the Institute of Pacific Relations for a negotiated peace and the leaders in that conference were former missionaries and educators of Japan. Why they had this antipathy for the Korean was because they felt that if he were a part of the conference he would expose the things that were going on inside. That is a matter of fact that Mr. Haan testified to.

"The purpose of these groups, as I stated, is to soften American public opinion against Japanese and pave the way for a negotiated peace with Japan."

Dr. John Lechner, it should be stated, is an ordained minister.

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