S. HRG. 98-1304

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMISSION ON WARTIME INTERNMENT AND RELOCATION OF CITIZENS


HEARINGS

BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE,
POST OFFICE, AND GENERAL SERVICES
OF THE

COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE

NINETY-EIGHTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON

S. 2116

TO ACCEPT THE FINDINGS AND TO IMPLEMENT THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMISSION ON WARTIME INTERNMENT AND RELOCATION OF CITIZENS

AUGUST 16, 1984 -- LOS ANGELES, CA
AUGUST 29, 1984 -- ANCHORAGE, AK

Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1986
64-273 O

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402

64-273 O-86--1

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

WILLIAM V. ROTH, JR., Delaware, Chairman
CHARLES H. PERCY, Illinois
THOMAS F. EAGLETON, Missouri
TED STEVENS, Alaska
LAWTON CHILES, Florida
CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR., Maryland
SAM NUNN, Georgia
WILLIAM S. COHEN, Maine
JOHN GLENN, Ohio
DAVID DURENBERGER, Minnesota
JIM SASSER, Tennessee
WARREN B. RUDMAN, New Hampshire
CARL LEVIN, Michigan
JOHN C. DANFORTH, Missouri
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi
DAVID PRYOR, Arkansas
WILLIAM L. ARMSTRONG, Colorado

JOHN M. DUNCAN, Staff Director
IRA S. SHAPIRO, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
TERRY JOLLY, Chief Clerk
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE, POST OFFICE, AND GENERAL SERVICES
TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman
CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR., Maryland
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
WILLIAM L. ARMSTRONG, Colorado
JIM SASSER, Tennessee
WAYNE A. SCHLEY, Staff Director
EDWIN S. JAYNE, Minority Staff Director
PAT PHILLIPS, Chief Clerk


NOTE: [Bracketed] text in original. This excerpt starts from page 405 of the record.

Senator STEVENS. Our next witness is Catherine Treadgold.

TESTIMONY OF CATHERINE TREADGOLD

Ms. TREADGOLD. Good afternoon.

I am Catherine Treadgold, and that is with a "C," and the last name is T-r-e-a-d-g-o-l-d.

Senator STEVENS. Thank you.

Ms. TREADGOLD. And I come to you as an authority; I will not give my opinion nor hearsay. They mostly gave opinion and hearsay.

I registered the Japanese at Sacramento, CA. I went to the Assembly Center with them, and I declare they were, en masse, disloyal.

I have proof of that, but I will not document as I talk. Anybody that wants to write me for documentation, I am in the phone book in San Francisco. I wish to refute most of what you have just heard on the Korematsu case.

There are two things that common sense will clear that up. For instance, the footnote that he said they had hid and not told has been covered by Mr. Lowman's report. Those people and their opinions, they were not informed. I will give you an example of why their testimony was not particularly presented.

When the Army would bring into the room where I registered the Japanese before they went to any center, in the morning they would bring those to me upon whose ranches they had found the guns, the preparation for war, and in one case when they went in and searched a ranch and a home, they found nothing. But there was a little elderly grandmother lying on the bed there, and the Japanese said, "Please, don't move her, she is sick."

As an afterthought, they moved her and under her bed, and under the floorboards, were the caches of arms and the flags, and those people would be brought in before me to register ahead of the others. This was an Army action and an example of wartime conditions wherein one branch of the Government or service may not know of the action of the other -- as were the unused notes of the Korematsu case.

This brings me up to the second thought on the Korematsu case, and that is his petition -- his remarks in court were that he had had a doctor alter his face so that he would not look Japanese and stand out back East. He said that he was going to be married to a Caucasian woman and they were going back East.

Now, the Caucasian woman is ethereal. She has never materialized. I think it is the tooth fairy. He is looking for money. The only place where he would need a Spanish face was on the west coast; he would not have stood out where all the Japanese were going. Judge Patel was very ignorant not to have deduced that.

He had his face altered, the bridge of his nose and eyes to look Spanish, and he had gone to work in a war plant. That's exactly where he wouldn't dare look Japanese on the west coast. I hope that settles the Korematsu case, and by the way, it is still under appeal.

Back to what I intended to say, as an authority, I came face to face with the Black Dragon Society, talked to them, discussed things with them, and they were young Japanese my age. I said to one of them -- I was a young married mother -- I said to one, "You don't speak good English and you were born here" -- of course, they don't particularly honor another language -- and I said, "You were born here, you went to Harvard, and you are my age, why don't you speak better English?" He became angry and he jumped up and with his black eyes flashing, he said to me, "I am an officer in the Imperial Army of Japan!" So I stepped from the room and got an Army man and he ran and they caught him.

This was the main thing in dual citizenship. They had to serve and they did serve, and at that very moment that I was talking with him, they had the American citizenship boys killing our boys, and their money, right here, provided the planes that bombed Pearl Harbor. I was talking with them and they told me of the money they sent back to Japan.

For instance, I had three chairs in front of me. One Japanese sat down with his two sons and his young wife was expecting a baby, and holding a baby in her arms. There were 28 children. I said, "Just a moment, this woman is too young to be the mother of 28 children. Where is the mother of the children?" He said, "Wife number 1 is sick. I sent her back to Japan and sent for a second wife." Then he explained that his money was also going to Japan.

When they would come before me, I would ask them did they lease land or own it. Very few, of course, owned land. There were reasons for that. They had ways and means of getting the land through organizations which involved Caucasians -- I don't care to go into that.

Also, with this dual citizenship, and with their sons overseas -- remember, 30,000 Japanese-Americans were in Japan at that moment, perfectly safe, and believe you me, there were not 30,000 Germans in Germany that were American citizens; there were not 30,000 Italians in Italy that held dual citizenship. In fact, the Italians fell into a category all by themselves; they detested Mussolini falling for Hitler's flattery that he was the last of the great Romans.

Also, I got enough information from them that the head, a lady from Washington, promoted me to the job of in charge of all German and Italian enemy alien travel permits. I did catch one German spy -- I don't know how many got past me.

Before me came Jewish people. They were tattooed. It is an insult, it should be punishable by a fine to call what was in America, a concentration camp. Show me a tattooed Japanese from any of those centers.

Another thing on my job, I went to the Assembly Center with them and I carried the forms and I said to them, "Please, all you've got to do is sign loyalty. I was raised in the Midwest and at night in the summertime there are the most beautiful fireflies that come out" -- I tried to tell them, you know, I was young -- and I wanted to show them the Christian way. I explained to them that back East they would like it, the Government would help them get work, and remember, that thousands of them had accepted that and many remained back there successfully. These were the ones that either could not afford to go, or were like Korematsu, would do most anything to stay and get in the war effort and wait for the invasion.

Now, how can I say they were waiting for the invasion?

Because out at that Assembly Center where there were thousands of Japanese, not one would sign. A group of very tall ones, young, my age, surrounded me. I had an interpreter. I said find out why they hang around all day -- it was hot up there and hot in the sunshine. He came back and said they are arguing whether your hair is bleached, or you are a natural blond.

Now, that isn't true, I knew it was a lie, so I became rather suspicious of them. I said, "Tell them to go away." They did. They moved away and here I must digress. The Government has failed to recognize the categories which is extremely significant. We didn't have just aliens and citizens, we had aliens, citizens, and thousands of illegals.

Now, to show you the importance of the illegal Japanese, today, Mexico says that their illegals in this country provide one-third of all the income in their banks. Nobody would suspect an illegal in this country of being loyal to this country. You wouldn't even expect it of them. The Government has never considered the illegals.

Now, the alien had a passport. The illegals then had been counted in with the citizens, so your citizen was young, or a child, or where are your illegals because I registered them, I sent the information to Washington -- they were here. What it meant to California -- the California economy at that time -- is fantastic.

When I came out from Missouri, I had never seen any Orientals in my life. I was fascinated and I admired them. They had a fruit and vegetable monopoly -- and flowers. I would not have admired had I known then about the illegals. Our farmers never knew what hit them. They took those illegals and moved them from ranch to ranch with a truck working them, and we couldn't compete with that kind of slave labor. Who told me that? The illegals.

The moment this little group of Black Dragon Society, my age, American citizens, moved aside at my request, two illegals came up and through an interpreter they told me their story. They said the Japanese had come into Japan and had begged them to come to America, promised them they could make money here, be free and send back for a bride. They said they never let us do it. We are going to take a chance; if the Government will move us right now. And that right now was very important -- if you look at the testimony of Mrs. Elaine Yoneda from San Francisco. I do not at any time like to hold hands or agree with a Communist, and she is an avowed Communist -- she and her Japanese husband. She did tell it -- I have to stand beside her -- about the Black Dragon Society in her camp. In her camp the Black Dragon Society kept everybody in line for the Emperor, but they drew up a list and that list was 60 people they they thought might be loyal to America, and the Government honored that list and removed those 60 people and added 60 more.

Now, you can't argue with facts like that. That's their own figure on how many were loyal to America. And Mrs. Yoneda told it; however, she wants money.

Now then, when these Japanese came up and talked with me, I walked over and I said to these Black Dragon Society men that I knew now were the fighters, I said to them, "Why won't any of these people take the Government offer -- and by the way, I must tell you, that the two illegals that could only sign an "X," they were taken and given jobs and they were moved and their way paid because they trusted the U.S. Government to do it.

When I said to the Black Dragon Society, why won't these people sign, it's a wonderful offer, nobody has to go to any center. In fact, did you know the Government hadn't finished building the centers? Whey they went to the Assembly Centers, they were waiting -- and by the way, I want to clear up something right here, about they said they were taken to horse stalls where they could smell the urine.

The Government completely renovated and cleaned those out, put in the proper kind of boards, put in hot and cold water, and after the Japanese had left there, that emergency measure, our boys were sent there in training.

Now then, I was going to tell you, when I asked these Black Dragon Society why won't these people go, they said, "Because we don't know who is going to win this war, and if Japan wins, we will be here to greet them."

Now, I want to tell you a little bit about what that means -- "we will be here to greet them." That meant those arms caches weren't there for nothing. That meant they were clinging to a culture. I can best explain it in the words of a nurse -- a Japanese nurse trained here, came up and said to me, "This is the best thing that could happen to my people. Now they will break from the old culture."

But Time magazine, August 1983, says they have returned to the worship of The Sacred Crane, the Emperor. This is not quite accurate. They never left it.

After the war was over, I rented a room to a young Japanese boy who had just come over. Typical of all Americans, I forgave and I forgot. I never even told my sons any of these things that I have told you today.

I rented and had in my home a boy going to college here, and one day I said, "You know, Yoshi, it's a funny thing. You have better clothes, your leather shoes and everything. You come from a wealthy family." He said, "Yes, I do." I said, "Then why would your family settle for a college here? Why not somewhere like England?" He said, "The first son is in education in England."

Now, the Statue of Liberty says, "Send me your huddled masses and your poor." I tell you, they don't come over here from any huddled masses. They don't object to the culture they are leaving like the Russians would. They don't object like the people that came -- the original Pilgrims that came here and found a vast void. There is no void here today; they come here backed by a Government. Before they speak English, they buy the corner grocery store. And I don't mind that if it's legal. That's all right with me. But this is a continuation of Pearl Harbor.

I can give you -- I told you no opinion -- Russell Braddon, prisoner of war, has written, "Japan Against the World," and he was told that by one of his Japanese guards as he started to walk away, and was rescued and he said to Russell Braddon, "Well, we've only lost 4 years of a 100-year war against America. We will win the rest."

Now then, what are they doing on that war?

Industrially they have robbed IBM, our steel, they have paid the fines, our softwares, our kerosene lamp company back East. There are three cement companies up in Northern California suing them for unfair trade practices.

But the saddest thing I can say, when I read in the paper last week that three Japanese have announced that it is the Japanese duty to spread Japanese culture in America. They are forgetting an outstanding fact, that -- well, not in my words, the words of Wendy Tokuda, our news announcer. She went to Japan and came back and she had a series showing why Japanese are superior. She said because of their 6,000 years of good family life and their many gods, and to illustrate, had what looked like a bedsheet held by four poles, and she said if little children touch this god, they are safe.

I wish she would take a look at what is on our dollar, "In God We Trust." That is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with Christianity optional. Our laws are based on the laws of Moses and our laws are so far superior, they exceed anything Japan has ever had.

At the time that Admiral Perry went over, if any seaman of another nation was cast ashore, they put him in a box until he died -- this is what their gods and their family life led them to, and on their family lives, I can document it, I can mail it to you. The Asiatic countries around there are begging them to keep their men home from the sex tours of the other countries. That's their family life.

I would tell you this: I have been asked over and over, "What organization do you represent?" I represent that same organization which defeated them at Pearl Harbor.

The one thing I want to dedicate, what I am saying here today, to young Japanese-Americans, there is a freedom in this land. When I went to school, I was told eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and if they permit the JACL {Japanese American Citizens League} to encumber their minds with race prejudice, and I can document that -- a Japanese man in charge of electronics in Japan came over and he said they are turning out a superior product -- this is quoted in the Wall Street Journal -- because they are a pure blood and not mongolized as America.

Well, in the medical term, pure blood can be inbred and it can bring out characteristics repeatedly. The main thing for young Japanese America is to look at the JACL people, some of whom renounced their citizenship and went back to Japan, and then changed their mind and came back here and picked up what had been a very nice organization and took it in this direction.

If they can look and see that this can bring a whiplash, this can start a racism that has never existed.

In my home where I took the Japanese boy in, whom I like very much, my sons, one of them now -- I've got two sons quite successful in the business world -- one of them said to me, "Mother, they are making a mistake. America likes them. It isn't true what they are saying. Why do they deceive their own children?"

Well, over in Japan they have rewritten the 1900's, when they first went after Russia and then they took North Manchuria, then they went into Korea and occupied them for 35 years, stole the lacquer art from them and claimed it for themselves, and then they attacked China.

Remember, that was with American dollars and American boys.

Now then, when they did all of that, the thing I want to bring out here is that Americans forget and forgive, and my sons said, "Mother, we like them." He said that. Now all of this has raised up the question: Are they returning to that type of thing? Is this an attack?

Do you know that the Commission stopped and took time on the taxpayer's dollar to ask the Japanese how they were coming along with Black reparation, and they announced one year ago that the Japanese-sponsored Black reparations is $4.8 trillion? They are working on that next.

They also said they want Japanese cultures in every State of the Union -- that's an interesting thing. I tell you, they are promoting their culture. They do not amalgamate, they colonize, but America has no void. People must amalgamate here. We cannot have Voodooism coming in and letting that blend in with us. We cannot have the worship of many gods because they forget that our President is sworn in on a Book that says, "Behold, I will have no other gods before Me," and they are not superior because of a piece of a bamboo pole which can be a god.

Now then, to show you what it means if they say, "Well, we are Christian." At the San Francisco hearing, Reverend Sano announced that the Japanese people don't -- and he was saying it with tears in his voice and eyes -- "We don't want to be known as the 'Chrysanthemum People' anymore" -- I don't know what that meant. I never knew they were the chrysanthemum people. He said, "We want back the samurai sword in the center of our home as worship," and he is a Christian minister.

I tell you, if they understand Christianity, that's not the voice of Christianity.

Now, I don't know how I have gone on the timing here, but I declare again, I am an authority. They did declare what they were doing to me because they had to. I registered them and I want the Government to consider the illegals.

Senator STEVENS. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

[The prepared statement of Catherine Treadgold follows:]


PREPARED STATEMENT OF CATHERINE TREADGOLD

My job was to register Japanese aliens, citizens and illegals who lived in the Sacramento, CA, area. Notices were posted on telephone poles for the varied areas to report. I had a desk and three chairs on the opposite side and there were two others doing the same job. In small rooms off to one side of the large room in which I worked were other Government-paid employees who then told them the government options for the care of their cars, if they desired to store them on the arrangements which could be made with friends regarding property, etc.

I learned how the Japanese remained loyal to the Emperor and old world culture and they told me of sending their money back to Japan. Through the use of the illegally-in-this-country-Japanese, the ones who leased land would truck them from ranch to ranch and thus they gained through literally slave labor a monopoly on the fruit and vegetable industry of California. They had to register and they had no passports. I learned how they were smuggled into this country and it included three ingenious ways.

The impact on our industries can only be fathomed by noting the impact of illegals coming from Mexico and the banks of Mexico stating that one third of their deposits are from the illegal Mexican workers in America! The difference is that the Mexicans can keep their moneys earned but these Japanese were brought over with promises of wealth and ability to send back for brides and then were not allowed to do so. This was told to me, when I tried to get them to go on their own from the Assembly Center into our other states, and found that I needed an interpreter for these "illegals." Further, two of them, the only two Japanese that I could get to sign loyalty to our American Government, and whom the Government immediately provided transportation and money into other areas to be on their own, were bitter at the treatment from the Japanese who brought them over.  A group of tall young Japanese-Americans stood around me all day, and when I inquired why, they explained that they were arguing over whether I was a natural blond or if I bleached my hair, and of course, they lied, because these two illegals told me that "they are the fighters" -- Black Dragon Society keeping the entire camp in line for the expected invasion, and loyal to the Emperor. I accosted the group and asked them why all these thousands of people would not sign the paper and go free, on their own and they told me, "We do not know who is going to win this war and if Japan wins we will be here to greet them."

The Army some mornings would bring groups of Japanese to be registered in advance of the regular notice, and it was explained to me that these had been found by the Army to have weapons and preparations for war, with Japanese flags buried on the ranches or hidden in their houses. An outstanding case was one where the Army could find nothing and had been beseeched to not move the aged, ill grandmother. Just as they were about to leave one of the Army officers changed his mind and ordered the woman lifted from the bed and under that bed, in a box buried under the floor was the caches of arms for war. That entire family and all on that ranch were brought in immediately.

The FBI had no part of this war-time Army effort and these matters were not relayed to the FBI which has left room for the big lies Japanese tell now, that the FBI had cleared out all suspects, and given the rest a clean bill of health.

During the registering period, I learned these young men were all trained in the army of the Emperor, and one such became angry with me when, noting he was about my same age and had been born here and attended Harvard but could not speak English well. I asked him for an explanation. He jumped up and with black eyes flashing, told me was (in his own words), "I am an officer in the Emperor's Army," and I walked out and got an Army man and they took him right then.

On the ranches, they lived in a primitive style. They would get old cast-iron tubs and put them out in the open with space for a fire underneath. Bath night, the mother and girls would build a fire and fill the tub and the father would bathe and then the sons and finally the mother and girls. A nurse, who was born here, citizen and Japanese, came to me and privately told me, "This is the best thing that could happen to my people. It will break them away from their old world customs."

Some problems were created when there would be interracial marriages with Chinese and Filipinos. It would have been too dangerous for them to have gone into the camps with the Japanese, but this decision was left up to them. I never knew of one who went to the Center. An example of the wisdom of their decision can be noted by the fact that when the U.S. in one prison for soldiers of war for our captured Japanese put all the Asiatics fighting against us into a camp with barbed wire and the Japanese started throwing men over the fence. It was learned that our Army had not been able to tell the Korean from the Japanese and the Japanese considered themselves too superior to be in the same camp, even as prisoners of war with the Koreans and were throwing them out.

Most lands were leased. Some had been purchased by forming an organization with Caucasians and using those names bought property, such as a man who came before my desk with twenty-three children and a very young expectant wife, holding another child in her arms. I urged him to permit her to sit but he and the two older boys took the chairs and she was the first to refuse to sit, upon my suggestion. After much talk I learned, his landlord was wife No. 1 and he said, "Wife No. 1 is sick and I sent her back to Japan. She is my landlord." He had sent for this younger woman as wife No. 2.

On our large (now illegal) billboards of that day was a picture of the world boxing champion, Joe Louis, in the uniform of the American Army and with rifle and saying, "We are going to win this war because we are on the Lord's side." That is mentioned today because that represented the unified spirit of America (which is not evident today) and the Japanese were lone dissenters. They counted on an invasion and were prepared for it. Some of the American-born sons of them were already killing their fellow Americans in the Japanese Army. 30,000 were in Japan at the time of the dropping of the "God-given" A-bomb.

The cry of the Japanese in the Philippines, after they had control, was, "White America racist." Today this is the cry of these lying JACL leaders. It is in the religious belief that the Japanese will rule the world and the Pacific Islands were what they bargained with Hitler to obtain (while secretly planning to gain Europe from Hitler later on) and today they call their newspaper, "The Pacific Citizen," mouthpiece for the JACL. Today three Japanese have, just this last week, attested to the fact that it is the "duty" of Japanese to spread Buddhism and Japanese culture throughout America. At the hearings in San Francisco in 1981, a Japanese American minister of the Methodist (which is supposed to be Christian) Church, stated that they want back their center of worship, the samurai swords. He explained his great love of the samurai because his father was one and thus he would be and how as a child he had felt the swords and admired how they shined. Time Magazine says they have returned to the Shinto faith, primarily, "Fealty to the Emperor."

When the Japanese were relocated at great -- in fact millions of dollars -- expense to our government, also at war, I was promoted to the job, "In Charge of All German and Italian Enemy Aliens Travel Permits," and took my orders from the Army. Germans and Italians were also treated en masse. About this the Japanese today are lying. Some of the Germans and Italians were evacuated; some confined to their homes; some allowed to go out but under day hours curfew.

I am acquainted with and have a statement from a lady, Secretary at the time of Colonel Bendetsen, telling how she escorted these families, and how later they were on "probation" and had to report continually.

Japanese say, "But we were citizens." Yes, citizens of the Empire of Japan and loyal to it.

No German carried dual citizenship; no Italians trained and were fighting their fellow Americans in the uniform of Benito Mussolini. In fact, the Italians hated him for his teaming up with Hitler.

Today, Japanese have organized the Asiatics all over the world and held two world-wide Asiatic conferences with Japan in charge. Here in America Japanese have organized Asiatic Caucasus in 21 States, and also in the Democratic Party!

I caught one German spy, while working on the Travel Permit job. Also, a young German spy, sent over by Hitler, turned himself in to our Army at our location.

The Germans and Italians had only certain city blocks upon which they could travel and, for instance, one woman had to come in and get a permit to go into the area where her doctor was and she was expecting. The German spy I caught was a young tall German with steel blue eyes and he wanted a permit to go to a theatre on a certain evening, in a military forbidden zone. To relax his attitude a bit, I told him not to worry about it and that a grandmother of mine had come from Germany. Whereupon he sat up stiffly and asked me her name and what ship she came over on! I got a chill. I immediately reported this to the Army and they said, "Give him any permit he asks and tell us the date and time and his address." About a month went by and I asked the Army man about this and they said, "We cannot tell you about it but this much and that is that you caught a big one. He had tunneled under the rented house and installed equipment to reach Berlin." I never learned more of him. Italians were known to be loyal to America and any family who had a son in the service of the U.S. was exempt from restrictions. Many Jewish people were also reporting in because they were here on German passports. They were exempted also. Some had the tattoo marks still. Tattoos from the concentration camps of Hitler.
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