3-20-44
Mr. Herbert Little
Philleo Nash
Attached Report

Assistant Secretary of Interior Chapman may not have seen this material on Japanese propaganda use of the transfer of WRA to the Interior Department. The WRA people themselves have already seen it.

Attachment

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(From Daily Report, FBIS, February, 28, 1944, page 01)


JAPS AROUSED BY TULE LAKE CONDITIONS

In a Batavia commentary entitled "American Internment Officials Get the Facts," broadcast in English, the following statements included: "Scandalous conditions at the Tule Lake, Calif., Internment Center, where unfortunate Japanese nationals have been herded into imprisonment, are tacitly admitted by the Governmental shake-up which has been given to the War Relocation Authority. This War Relocation Authority is the American department charged with the care of civilian internees, and recent U. S. news dispatches reveal that it has been under Congressional fire since the shocking incident when machine guns were used to intimidate those Japanese who protested against the conditions under which they were housed and employed.

Request for Investigation -- "It will be remembered that the Japanese Government asked the Spanish Embassy authorities in the U. S. and also the International Red Cross to make a thorough investigation of the happenings at Tule Lake. So far no report of the investigations has been published but the American administration has (three words missing) and pleaded guilty by effecting a complete reorganization of the W. R. A.

Transfer of W. R. A. -- "It is reported that the War Relocation Authority has been transferred by Presidential edict to the Department of the Interior under Secretary Ickes. Its director, a gentleman with a Jewish name, Dillon Myer, has been suspended in answer to the protests of numerous Congressmen who have been campaigning for his removal from office. This is a tacit admission that conditions have been very bad at Tule Lake and that the Red Cross and Spanish reports will be very severe towards American treatment of civilian internees.

Announcement Timed -- "It is a very odd thing that Britain and the U. S. should have dared to launch their atrocity campaign against the Japanese treatment of war prisoners right at the time that the American treatment of internees was on trial. It is doubly odd that the U. S. should have dared to protest against the alleged nondelivery of relief goods for anti-Axis internees in Japan, an allegation which, by the way, has been categorically denied by the International Red Cross authorities at Geneva.

Debate in Diet -- "In this regard it is interesting to turn back to a debate which took place in Nippon's Lower House not long ago. At the time the Vice Minister of Greater East Asiatic Affairs, Mr. Kumaichi Yamamoto, said: 'Japan is extending fair and just treatment to all enemy nationals interned. This treatment is based on international justice so as not to disgrace Japan's honor.' This statement was made in reply to an interpellation voiced by Mr. (Hochisaka) Tanaka who, on the strength of his recent personal inspection of internment camps in China, is convinced that the internees are being treated by Japan too generously as compared with the ill-treatment meted out to Japanese internees in the enemy countries. Vice Minister Yamamoto added that there were points which made him think that too much consideration was being given to the internees, but that was in the hope that the enemy countries would act likewise. He declared, however, that if the enemy countries dealt harsh treatment to Japanese internees, serious consideration would be given to the present generous treatment given to those persons interned in Japan.

Iguchi Statements -- "It has also been made clear by the Spokesman of the Board of Information, Mr. Sadao Iguchi, that arrangements which were being made by the Japanese Government through the Swiss authorities, for the delivery by way of the Soviet Union of American relief supplies for internees were affected by the Tule Lake incident and other war crimes. Said Mr. Iguchi, 'Both the Tule Lake incident, in which Japanese subjects were unwarrantedly maltreated, and the sinking of the hospital ship, Buenos Aires Maru, were considered by the Japanese Government to be of a very serious nature. Therefore the Government deemed it proper to postpone for the time being their reply to the U. S. Government on the matter of relief supplies, and the Swiss Minister in Tokyo was formally notified to this effect.'

Neutral Observer -- "All intelligent people throughout the world realize that the strictly neutral observers of the Vatican and the International Red Cross have expressly praised the treatment which Japan and Germany have accorded to war prisoners and civilian internees. On the other hand, neither the Vatican nor the International Red Cross has ever had occasion to defend Britain and America of (word missing) the unfortunate captives. Surely this very significant fact must cause some people in the anti-Axis camp to wonder what is the true value of the wooden statement of right, justice, truth, and honor which you are always having drummed into your ears." (Batavia, in English to the U. S., Feb. 28, 9:20 p.m. ENT).