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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