California State University Japanese American Digitization Project: An Exhibit

Lingering Opposition

Letter from Frank Herron Smith to President Harry S. Truman, May 4, 1945 (Cal Poly SLO) 

Smith urges President Truman to ask "Edgar J. Hoover [sic] and his organization" to help control "the arsonists and night-riders who are terrorizing the few Japanese Americans who have returned to the West Coast." Smith states that approximately 60,000 of the "110,000" [sic] people who were "evacuated" seek to return to their homes, under pressure from the War Relocation Authority to leave the Camps, and that those returning to rural areas are "having constant trouble" including arson and shooting incidents. Smith also states that there have been few arrests for these incidents, and mentions that [California Attorney General] Robert Kenny has neglected his responsibilities, noting that this is remarkable given that the UNCIO Conference [United Nations Conference on International Organization] was opening just as another arson incident had occurred.

 

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