Infamy Read Online Free PDF

call for volunteer spy hunters to go into action.… Neither is it a reason to lift an eyebrow at a Japanese whether American-born or not.… There is no excuse to wound the sensibilities of any persons in America by showing suspicion or prejudice.”
    Southeast of Los Angeles, the Brawley News editorialized: “Americans should remain calm and considerate. In this community we have many Japanese neighbors and citizens whose loyalty to their adopted country remains steadfast during the time of crisis.”
    “In California we have many citizens of Japanese parentage,” wrote the San Francisco News . “A large proportion of them are native-born Americans. They must not be made to suffer for the sins of a government for whom they have no sympathy or allegiance.” Three days later, the News went further, saying, “To subject these people to illegal search and seizure, then arrest them without warrant to confinement without trial, is to violate the principles of Democracy as set forth in our Constitution.”
    Politicians, most notably Governor Culbert Olson and State Attorney General Earl Warren, also called for calm and restraint—at first. Governor Olson, a self-professed pacifist who was chairman of a high-minded group, the Northern California Committee for Fair Play for Citizens and Aliens of Japanese Ancestry, said: “Californians have kept their heads.… The American tradition of fair play has been observed. All the organs of public influence and information—press, pulpit, school welfare agencies, radio, and cinema—have discouraged mob violence and have pleaded for tolerance and justice for all law-abiding residents of whatever race.”
    There were some early signs of hope for peace and tolerance among West Coast schools, as well. In some schools, white students hugged their Japanese friends as they arrived on that charged Monday after the attacks. In Seattle, the principal of Washington Middle School, Arthur Sears, called all the students together for a morning assembly on December 8. “We are all Americans and we here at Washington want no part of race hatred,” he said. “We are all under the same roof.” After he spoke, students were assigned to write to their teachers about what he had said. A sixth grader named Betty wrote to Ellen Evanson, her teacher, “Mr. Sears told us that even if we have a different color face, it’s alright because we’re American Citizens.… When we were saluting the flag I was proud to salute the flag. Some people were crying because they were proud of their country.” Another sixth grader named Emiko wrote to Miss Evanson: “Because of this situation, we [may be] asked to leave this dear city of Seattle and its surroundings … if the school I will attend next would have a teacher like you I will be only too glad. When I am on my way my memories will flow back to the time I was attending this school and the assemblies that were held in the hall. Wherever I go I will be a loyal American.”
    Soon enough, however, fear and prejudice, politics and greed, began to spread quickly among white Californians. Politicians, military commanders, and the press began responding to or whipping up hysteria, passing on and publishing rumors of imminent Japanese bombing and invasion of California. The Los Angeles Police Department closed down the stores and shops on East First Street, the main thoroughfare of Little Tokyo, a community of more than thirty thousand Japanese and Japanese Americans, part of a colony that operated one thousand fruit and vegetable stands in the city, doing business of $25 million a year. Japanese florists had annual revenues of more than $4 million. Suddenly, carloads of people from other areas of the city descended on the streets of Little Tokyo and attacked the Japanese stores and stands. The vigilante “patriots” overturned carts and tables and threw tomatoes and potatoes at anyone with an Asian face.
    Nisei schoolchildren were sometimes mocked. Some