Show Geo o. o A. A Fisher Given Just Praise Keetley Story I Dear Lee Am enclosing herewith a a. copy of th the I I Japanese American newspaper with a astory astory a astory story of the Keetley venture in human rights It was wu called to my attention Ina in ina ina I a letter from a Japanese American army officer now stationed in Japan copy of I which I am also enclosing with tho the hope i that your valuable columns will find I space apace for them both I am ara sure they will bo be of Interest to the tho vast majority of your readers and since I have had praise from the War Department Its it 11 I for or the effort I made to assist In a delicate situation I feel that the articles would be further constructive I Out of the colony of the one lone one remaining family left yesterday for their new home In Los Angeles They I own a II nice home in Monterey ThIll farmer who is Just leaving tells me that more than 90 per cent of the original group have filtered back to the coast I Also we summed up roughly that by reason eason of them coming to Keetley to toIve live Ive live the government was wai paved laved nearly a million dollars for their keep had they chosen to go to concentration camps And what is more they provided and produced vast quantities of foodstuffs foodstuffs- their lettuce output alone ran about crates annually So 80 out of It all the venture is recognized fixed everywhere as a successful and proper one I will therefore be grateful for or your cooperation In thus getting the I facts before your readers With thanks and best wishes I am am Very sincerely yours CEO GEO A. A FISHER Osaka Japan 18 October 1948 Dear Mr Fisher I Just finished reading the article The Tho bo Keetley Story appearing in the September 1948 edition of the Pacific Paci I tb fic flo Citizen I was truly thrilled by the I article and am sitting down at this I moment to write and express my heartfelt heart heart- felt gratification to you for tor all the good I things that you have done for other i people I x was reared in Davis county Utah I and graduated from the high school at Kaysville and then put In a semester at Logan before moving to California in the early part of 1938 I too went through the whole evacuation process and can fully understand the position of the evacuees and of the great acts of humanity of you and others like you who went to great pains to secure the well being of these unfortunate peo pee pie To champion the cause of this group even in the face of criticism is praiseworthy to the highest degree Mr Fisher in concluding this brief note I say A good Job well done Most sincerely yours HENRY H. H KUWABARA 1st Lt Infantry I United d States Army TIlE THE KEETLEY STORY Out in Keetley Utah odd forty miles southeast of Salt Lake City there sprang up In the spring of 1942 1942 a colony colony of Japanese Americans It was a war-born war colony product of the tho war and the evacuation and for several years the colony grew In a eo sense I prospered and then waned as the evacuation evac- evac order was rescinded and the Japanese Americans went home to the coast Today little remains of Keetley save the buildings which housed the onetime refugees from the military evacuation orders But the story tory of Keetley Is glimpsed again in a leather notebook which was brought into the Pacific Citizen office last week The notebook kept up by George A. A Fisher owner of the Keetley ranch and guiding spirit of the relocation relocation relocation reloca reloca- tion settlement covers the 45 1942 period during which Keetley sheltered numerous Nisei and Issel Issei who sought I independence rather than the and camps Filled with snapshots letters and news clippings the book records the lifetime of a town the life of of a colony that grew out of a spirit I of independence and the vision of ot a I single Utahn I r The n not notebook 0 t e b boo 0 0 k begins prosaically I enough with a letter from Dan B. B I Shields United States attorney in Salt BaIt Lake City Dated March 13 1942 the letter says Dear George Fisher I have your request for the opinion of this office as to whether under the Presidential Proclamation you would be allowed to lease your property at Keetley Utah to certain American born Japanese who are figuring on leaving Los Angeles It is our opinion that this can be done without violating the law In any reI re- re i I I U U. U S. S Attorney Shields who even evenI I I then was known by the Nisei in Utah I for his eminently fair and sympathetic I attitude toward the evacuated Nisei throughout this period and later j t the leave requirements of many Japanese Americans who passed through I I the state tate following the evacuation order I by the military A A- A series of news clippings from Salt Lake City and other rs follow They record the immense difficulty I I faced by Fisher in the settlement of oft I Ii I i t lee Keetley A letter from Earle W W. mayor of Park City Utah printed in the Park City City- Record of March 19 1942 reports that living standards will be lowered In our district if It Mr Fisher is allowed to bring Japanese labor into our district district district dis dis- dis- dis and that the mayor and city council of Park City Utah go on record urging the Honorable Governor Herbert B. B Maw to do everything In his power to stop this little colony of Japanese from froDL being brought Int ink our Clur district Above the letter Fisher has put t Franklin Delano Roosevelt's statement Remember the Nazi technique quo que Put race against race religion against Religion prejudice against pre pre- pre pre- judice Divide and conquer We mut mul must t f not let that happen here We must reI remember re re- ro- ro member what we are defending liberty decency Justice I But Dut other headlines of this period say eay Counties Rap Proposal to Accept Japs from the Salt Lake Tribune and Do DoWe DoWe DoWe We Want Japs Here lIere In the Roosevelt Standard The be headlines wavered from hostile to friendly and back again The O Oakland kland Tribune of or April 11 1942 reported One Man City Booms Dooms Anew as as Jap Cooperative Co Co- I operative Town and anti the Park City I I I I i I Record said Jap Evacuees Happy In New Keetley Home On April 10 the Deseret News Salt Lake City reported that a a. dynamite blast had bad been set setoff off off in Keetley The story continued with the news that residents In Wasatch county were very much against the Japanese coming Into this valley And a seventh-grader seventh was reported as saying If U George e Fisher likes the Japs let him go to Japan Fisher however added his own note to the bottom of the clipping nut But George A. A Fisher having ancestors in Ireland and others who helped de develop p this country preferred to live on his ranch which Is inside the United States Stated of America As April went on there were more I dynamite blasts against the Keetley colon colony but the people hung on By June Juno 6 0 6 1942 the colony had progressed to such a point that the Salt Lake Telegram carried a story picture-story feature on it Ii The Telegram reported that the new- new day colonists were working 16 to 18 hours a day to convert the fields Into producing food soil Barley Darley peas cabbage cabbage cabbage cab cab- bage lettuce potatoes carrots strawberries strawberries straw straw- i berries and meadow hay were planted Tho The women were sewing and knitting for tor the Red Cross the Telegram noted I It added that people In the surrounding area have accepted their coming in more or less good grace And It added summing up Theres beres an American flag flying atop n II foot 30 pole at the Keetley Junction with Highway U. U 8 S. S 40 On either side at the base is a freshly painted sign Food for Freedom The men and women who put up the flag and the signs hope to grow tons of it By fly July the same year Keetley was producing rich crops A letter from Gov Herbert B. B Maw of Utah to Fred Wada Vada leader of the Nisei Nisel group said saidI I am writing to thank you for the box of delicious vegetables which you and Mr air Fisher were kind enough to deliver to my home The beets lettuce peas turnips and onions were as fine fineas fineas fineas as any I have ever tasted You and your people are certainly to be congratulated on the fine work that yu ou are doing in Keetley We are all very proud to know that you are making such splendid headway during this period of time when i the odds are against you Snapshots of the Keetley ranch at this period show Keetley residents dents busy at work In their fields planting and har harvesting harvesting harvesting har har- I vesting what appear to be bum bumper r crops I They are photographs of or people happy happ in their work secure In their homes I Two pictures show Bill and Corp Den Een Wada members of the U. U S. S army visiting the Wada home homo while on fur fur- I lough tough Others show Nisei girls knitting socks for the Red Cross and a corp of or healthy youngsters one of whom Is clutching a baseball bat another a ball I Keetle Keetley was beginning to succeed I Sheriff Charles sheriff of Wasatch Wasatch Wasatch Wa Wa- r I satch county who in April had written Continued on Page Four Geo Fisher Praised Keetley Story Continued from Page Pace On Ones l that I am not and have not been favorable to bringing Japs to Wasatch county wrote on Dec 21 to George Fisher Beginning with the arrival of the small email group of Japanese Americans from Pacific coast areas area to your ranch under voluntary evacuation early last spring It baa has been part port of my official duty to observe closely the actions of these people Without any hesitancy I am sin glad to be able to report that they have conducted themselves In a manner worthy of any citizen anywhere Some Same criticism In the beginning has changed to tolerance If not praise for forthe forthe the way these people have shown a willingness to help In any field that might aid In the national emergency There follow a number of clippings the headlines of which speak for them- them The Japanese-Americans Japanese Are on Our Side Sid The Tho Deseret News April 29 1943 War Department Announces Names of Five Five Nisei Nisel Killed One Wounded on Italy Front Pacific Citizen January 1 I 1944 and Director Hopes Camps MayDe May MayBe MayDe De Be Closed Salt Lake Tribune March 3 1944 The notebook nears Its end A Salt Lake Tribune story dated December 10 ID 1944 notes the lifting of the evacuation order Fishers Fisher's hers her's own title for the story written In Ink alongside the clipping Is 15 A Light Breaks A few news clippings follow They tellof tell tellof of Nisei soldiers killed on the Italian front of the dissolution of the Topaz relocation center of Ben Den appearing on the Simma radio program A letter dated January 15 IS 1945 written written written writ writ- ten at Keetley closes the story It is addressed To Whom It May Concern and It says And here a chapter In a great American drama The one hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred and forty Japanese Americans who participated In the migration herein re recorded recorded recorded re- re corded have my profound respect Many of them have gone to more desirable locations None of them have bave proven shoddy stuff Quietly patiently and without bitterness they have added countless tons of foodstuffs Entering a community where there never has been a Japanese Chinese or Negro resident re resident resident re- re they endeared themselves to the citizenry by their unstinted devotion to the cause of or America which gave them citizenship Their sons and daughters daughters daugh daugh- are brushing shoulders tonight along with my boy and yours on many a far flung battle front At home their man power has bas been devoted to filling critical labor gaps gape The exacting scrutiny to which they have been subjected subjected sub sub- the merciless Jibes of the ant the sudden jar of dislocation from the even tenor of their way of life on the coast could not bo ho detected here in their dally daily lives in these new surroundIngs surround surround- ings I II I feel that if 11 every cross section of one hundred thousand souls in the United States could stand the acid test to which these citizens have been put the safety of this government would be assured To all those loyal friends who stood behind me in the storm of criticism critic crItic- lam Jam which broke over my head I 1 herewith herewith herewith here here- with tender my sincere appreciation and anda a hope that they and their 31 GI Joe may not have served in vain I x thank them for their courage and their Independence in saving laving their government government government gov gov- huge sums of money for their keep To the entice critics I 1 can only pray that someday they'll understand It is signed George A. A Fisher and It It closes the story of Keetley Utah a wartime community |