Monday, April 16, 2012

Apr. 16, 1944; Crimea Battle Near End:





RACINE, WIS., SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 1944.

Crimea Battle
Nears Climax
At Sevastopol
LONDON.—(UP)—
The red army captured the five-way rail junction of Tarnopol in prewar Poland Saturday and 500 4 miles to the southeast smashed through rear guard screens before Sevastopol, from which the bomb-groggy axis defenders were trying to flee by sea.
Premier Josef Stalin announced the capture of Tarnopol after three weeks of bitter street fighting, while soviet front dispatches reported that the week-old Crimean
campaign was roaring toward its end with Sevastopol within the Russian grasp.
Harbor in Flames.
Stormovik  assault planes of the red air force already had turned Sevastopol harbor into an inferno of shattered evacuation ships as Gen. Feodor  I. Tolbukhin's army
charged down from the outlying hills where the Germans and Romanians tried vainly to slow down the Soviet inrush.

Planes Strike Again
At Jap Kurile Bases
WASHINGTON—(UP)—
American airmen struck four more times at enemy bases in the Kurile islands on Thursday night and early Friday in their stepped-up aerial offensive against Japan's north Pacific outposts, the navy Announced.
At the same time, the navy, revealed-that the Japanese attempted a predawn raid on Eniwetok on Friday, but were driven off.

What Happens to Relocated Jap-Americans?
Reporter Finds Prejudice Bowing to Democracy

By S. BURTON HEATH
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—(NEA)—
The last time I saw Hugh Kiino he sat on a plank bench in a mess hall at the Jerome, Ark, relocation center and talked about the plight of our 70,000 Nisei, while his wife, Ruth, threw a farewell party for the little friends of their 2-year old son Carl
The.-Kiinos were leaving Jerome that afternoon to try their luck in a, Caucasian world containing an undue number of thoughtless persons inclined to feel that a “Japs a Jap, and I don’t care whether he's an American citizen or not"
This morning I visited Hugh and Ruth and Carl again in their home
here. Hugh, was asleep after a night's work, but Ruth insisted on
awakening him.  I had come here to get an answer tb a question I posed last year, after, visiting Jerome: "What will happen to Kiino?" This report should be preceded by the reminder that Hugh is a Nisei who failed to be employed by the FBI only because he never troubled to learn the Japanese tongue.
, Hugh was foreman in a good sized  bakery. He has six Japanese-Americans working under him on the night shift.
Hugh majored in political science in college and Ruth in bacteriology.
They had no experience as domestic servants. That is why they did not stay long in their first position in Jackson, though their employer wanted them to stay. Neither did Hugh know anything about baking. But be caught on fast
Before I saw Hugh here, I talked with two officials of the bakery. "He's 100 per cent in every way,"
(continued on Page 5, Col. 1)
 
Jap-Americans
Earn Praise
(Continued From Pate L)
 they told me, "A good worker. He's doing a job for which usually we use somebody with five or six years of experience."
Talk Hurt Business.
Hugh's employers had quite a bit of trouble awhile ago about their Japanese - American help. They had discharged two inefficient workers, who went around
telling that the bakery was replacing Americans with Japanese. A number of retail dealers stopped buying the bakery's products.
"Hugh was very broadminded about it," the manager told me. "He said if things got worse they would slip out quietly. He didn't want to jeopardize our business.
He said he did have faith enough in the sportsmanship of the American people to believe that, if they knew the facts, they would give the Japanese-Americans fair and just treatment.
The bakery stood by its guns. The local ministerial and teachers' associations, and many of the better people, backed the bakery and Hughs' group. Gradually the whispering campaign died down.
Ruth attends the First Methodist church. "Everybody is cordial and friendly," she said. "They go out of their way to invite me to functions  and group meetings, and come in their cars to get me. One lady invited me to help the Red Cross, and I go once a week and help make surgical dressings. I go to meetings of the Nautilus club, a social organization for young married people, once a month. Everybody
is fine."
Will Have Hearing.
There is one fly in the ointment, Hugh is a member of the Bakery and confectionery national Union of America, AFL. Most of his fellow workers have come through. The Central Trades
Council is interesting itself in the matter, and presumably the bakery local is waiting for instructions.
Even this may prove to be for the best. It has led such persons as the YMCA's industrial secretary, the pastor of Hugh's church, a young lawyer who is counsel for
the Red Cross, and others like them to take an interest in the situation.
Hugh is to appear before the council. The result may be a more intelligent acceptance of the right of these American citizens to earn an honest living than would have come if the question never had been raised.

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