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Show Need Farm or Factory Help? Thousands of Workers In Japanese Relocation Camps Waiting to Be Hired nity. . He can not enter as "cheap labor." WRA's motto is: "No more, no less than anyone else for the same work in the same community." Both an American citizen of Japanese Japa-nese ancestry or a Japanese alien can obtain indefinite leave. An alien is checked more carefully and outside out-side camp his movements have more restrictions. WRA procedure to move American-Japanese out of the camps has been approved by the department of justice, the U. S. army and endorsed by the War Manpower commission as a contribution to national security and manpower needs. WRA's program of relocating American-Japanese began in the spring of 1942 when, for military reasons, some 106,000 Japanese were taken from California, the southern third of Arizona, the western half of Oregon and Washington and placed in 10 relocation centers in the West. WRA officials point out that the centers are definitely not internment camps or places of confinement. con-finement. They were established by the United States government for two chief purposes: to provide self-sustaining self-sustaining communities where evacuees evac-uees can contribute to their own support sup-port pending gradual reabsorption 1 i . - -V - ,: Y 'h git..y"'i i.- - rft " -v i Nearly Every Trade Found Among Loyal Japanese - Americans Farmers and factory owners own-ers who are looking anxiously about for help have available an almost untapped supply of intelligent and industriovfls workers. These people are the 90,000 Americans of Japanese Japa-nese ancestry who are now in S the ten relocation camps in the West and Southwest. The War Relocation Authority has found employment for 16,000, and is seeking to place 25,000 more by the first of the year. More than one-third one-third of these American-Japanese are farmers or have done some agricultural agri-cultural work. Others are skilled mechanics, and many are in professions. profes-sions. Occupations, in fact, range from doctors to ditchdiggers. Most of these people are American born, and are considered ioyal to the United States. These workers may he hired permanently per-manently or seasonally by any farmer farm-er or other employer anywhere in the country, except in the military zone, a strip running along the Pacific Pa-cific coast. Procedure whereby American-Japanese American-Japanese and loyal aliens are brought out of the camps and placed In jobs is a simple one. A relocation reloca-tion office in each area has a staff of officers who look for jobs in different dif-ferent kinds of employment: farming, farm-ing, dairying, poultry raising, nursery, nur-sery, domestic, restaurant and hotel work, skilled and unskilled labor, factory work, various trades and professions pro-fessions such as dentistry, medicine, engineering, industrial designing. Job offers received are screened as to' suitability of wage and working work-ing standards. If legitimate, the offer is sent to any or all of the 10 relocation centers which are in the states of California, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Arkansas. Ar-kansas. In the camp, job offers are catalogued, cata-logued, posted in mess halls and administrative buildings, and printed in the camp newspaper. Each evacuee evac-uee has filed his working qualifications qualifica-tions and each camp has an employment em-ployment staff to assist the proper person to get the proper job. The evacuee is not forced to take a job. He can select one for which he thinks he is best qualified. He makes his own arrangements. He corresponds with his prospective employer em-ployer and, if accepted, informs camp authorities who then place him on indefinite leave which means he is entitled to leave camp and go anywhere in .the United States except ex-cept the forbidden regions. Both American citizens of Japanese Japa-nese ancestry and Japanese aliens are allowed to leave the relocation camps in the West once their loyalty has been assured. Each evacuee is investigated by the War Relocation authority and males of draft age are checked upon by a joint board in Washington composed of the intelligence in-telligence departments of the armed forces and WRA officials. Also, each evacuee is checked against FBI records. On the other hand, before an American-Japanese settles in a community, com-munity, it is canvassed by WRA officers who seek reasonable assurances assur-ances from responsible officials and citizens that local sentiment will not be against the newcomer. Indefinite leave usually is granted only to an evacuee who has a place to go and means of support. Each evacuee must inform WRA in Washington Wash-ington of any change in job or address. ad-dress. An evacuee must receive the standard wage rate of the commu- 1 erally can do the same job he did on the outside. American - Japanese serve as doctors, dentists, nurses, optometrists, watchmakers, clerks, civil engineers, carpenters, masons, farmers and in many other trades. Each one who works receives from WRA a monthly salary from $12 to $19 depending on his job. Since the WRA staff at each camp is very small, a huge amount of the admin- istrative work is done by the evacuees evacu-ees who work as stenos, bookkeepers, bookkeep-ers, typists, clerks, interviewers, translators, switchboard operators, etc. Each camp has co-operative food and clothing stores, a canteen, notion no-tion counters, magazine racks and even a post office. Most camps have large agricultural tracts and become largely self sustaining. American-Japanese and Japanese aliens sometimes are known as Is-sei, Is-sei, Nisei end Kibei. Issei are Japanese Jap-anese born in Japan but who came here to livf. Nisei are second generation gen-eration Japanese, born in the United Unit-ed States and citizens of this country. coun-try. Kibei are American born Japanese Japa-nese who have gone back to Japan for education and then returned to America. WRA investigates Kibeis very closely, watches them carefully and is reticent about giving them freedom. Mostly 'Nisei. j The great bulk of the 135,000 Japanese Japa-nese in this country at the outbreak I of the war, including the 110,000 along the West coast, are Nisei. They are the young boys and girls, the men and women who have lived here all their lives and are just as American as we are. They have broken away from Jap- anese customs. Their thought is American thought. They prefer American food and our way of doing do-ing things. They like to jitterbug, go to movies, have coke dates and parties like any normal American. Surveys have proven that the Nisei have a greater percentage of members mem-bers with a college or university education than any racial group in the United States. It is the belief of the WRA that the spreading of the American-Japanese throughout the nation instead of concentrated in groups along the coast will be a good thing both for all Americans and for American-Japanese. American-Japanese. Approximately 8,000 American-Japanese American-Japanese are in the United States armed forces. After Pearl Harbor they were given the opportunity to volunteer and thousands of boys enlisted en-listed from the relocation camps. Two large units at Camp Savage, Minn., and Camp Shelby, Miss., contain con-tain most of the American-Japanese combat fighters. From Hawaii alone came a specially picked combat team of 2,500 American-Japanese boys. At Camp Savage many are training to be interpreters and language lan-guage teachers. Wherever they have been sta tioned, American-Japanese soldiers have won high praise from their commanding officers. They are training with extraordinary zeal even spending their free time in military study and voluntary drills. Instructors have to be keen and alert to avoid being tripped up by questions. ques-tions. It is a saying among tfiese Japanese-American soldiers that "We have a year and three minutes to live," meaning a year of har,d training, and three minutes in the thickest of the fighting. WRA officials have found that adequate ade-quate jobs can be found for the evacuees, evac-uees, but that housing is a serious problem. This is especially true in large cities where booming war plants have caused a heavy influx of war workers. In the smaller communities this condition is less severe. WRA believes be-lieves that a large measure of its success will depend upon how well the American-Japanese relocate in small towns and agricultural areas. WELDER Many Japanese-Americans, like George Y. Nakamura are excellent tradesmen. He is working in Chicago at a farm implement factory, whence he came from the Minidoka Relocation center, Ore., where he was maintenance machinist. machin-ist. into a normal American life; and to serve as wartime homes for those who are unable or unfit to relocate in ordinary American communities. Beginning January of this year, WRA initiated a program of steady depopulation of the centers by encouraging en-couraging residents with good records rec-ords of behavior to re-enter private employment in agriculture or industry. indus-try. Relocation offices were set up in Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Kansas Kan-sas City, Little Rock, Salt Lake City and Denver to seek jobs for American-Japanese. Each relocation area has sub-offices. sub-offices. The Chicago area, for example, ex-ample, covers Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Wis-consin, Minnesota and the eastern half of North Dakota. Elmer L. Shlrrell is supervisor of the area. Sub-offices are located at Indianapolis, Indianap-olis, Peoria, Rockford, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis and Fargo. Relocation officers there carry on the same kind of employment and placement service given in the area headquarters. Model Communities. Life In an evacuation center is no picnic. American-Japanese were abruptly moved from their own homes and placed in barracks, which though adequately constructed, construct-ed, were bare of furniture, had no running water, toilets or any conveniences con-veniences we accept as normal. A camp is laid out in blocks like a city. Each block contains two rows of barracks housing 12 living units. Each block has its mess hall, lavatories, showers and meeting hall. No family cooks for itself, but must eat with the other inhabitants inhabi-tants of the block in mess halls which are started by full time American-Japanese cooks and attendants. Food for evacuees at camp is received re-ceived from army quartermaster corps and cost must not exceed 45 cents per day per evacuee. Each camp has schools, churches, playgrounds, recreation halls, YMCA units and sometimes a boy and girl scout troop. Each camp has a police force, a fire department and each block Is represented in the camp council which meets regularly regular-ly with WRA officials to determine camp administration and other problems prob-lems which come up. Each family is housed, fed and, if one member of the family is working, work-ing, the government gives a small monthly allotment from $2 to $3.50 to each member for clothing. ' Any able-bodied American-Japanese can work at the camp, and gen- ( V-v -ti( ,f, amet. ... ..v .... . v?.J..:T-,..-v....v.-..J f " ' r I . . .... . ...' .. SPINACH Miss Momayo Yajnato cnltlvatcs the dark green stuff on the broad acres of the Gila River Relocation center farm. She formerly for-merly worked In Fresno, Calif. Thousands of skilled agricultural workers like Miss Yamato are looking look-ing for private employment. OVEU THE FLATE Strictly in the American tradition, these Japanese-American sixth grade boys piny softhall at recess, at the Man--zanar Relocation center in California. |