Jerome War Relocation Center - Registration and The Nisei Combat Team

Registration and The Nisei Combat Team

During the internment process, many of the Nisei (second generation Japanese American citizens) residents were asked to register for the armed forces and to fill out loyalty questionnaires. The first step in this process was to ask for volunteers who would be interested in joining the 442d Regimental Combat Team (Nisei). The 442d would be an Army unit consisting entirely of Japanese American citizens.

Col. Scobey, executive to the Assistant Secretary of War, visited Jerome on March 4, 1943 to persuade the internees to register, volunteer for the 442d, and fill out the loyalty questionnaire. He gave a speech, stating that the War Department was in effect presenting the 442d as a test of loyalty, and if response was poor, the public would say that the Nesei were not loyal American citizens.

Only 31 people out of an eligible 1,579 volunteered for the 442d. Thirty percent of residents were classed disloyal. Paul A. Taylor highly praised the 31 volunteers, saying they deserved respect and had demonstrated their loyalty. An article by Galen M. Fisher was written in the Denson Tribune in an attempt to get more people to volunteer. It was titled "What a Person Outside is Thinking". It said that refusal to cooperate would poison the public mind and prove the disloyalty of the detainees. On the other hand, he stated that cooperation would hamstring the Fair Play committee (a draft resistors organization) and be in tune with the philosophy of the "ideal America".

The lack of volunteers for the 442d was partly blamed on the timing: it was presented at the same time as the call for camp internees to register and fill out the loyalty questionnaire. Some riots ensued that also had origins in changes in working hours and an increase in prices at the canteen.

Mitsuho Kimura was one of six members of a committee for evacuees who conferred with Director Paul Taylor that they would protest against the War Relocation Authority Evacuee Registration Program. Kimura was characterized by a Naval Intelligence informant as a "very dangerous type of individual". Kimura was born in Hawaii in 1919 and attended high school in Japan from 1932 to 1935. He returned to Hawaii in 1935 and remained there until January 1943. He stated that he was loyal to Japan before Pearl Harbor, and that his loyalty to Japan had increased after Pearl Harbor. He said that he would not fight in the United States Army under any conditions, but would readily fight in the Japanese Army against the United States. He organized group meetings at Jerome among other Japanese patriots. The committee refused to register because they were loyal to Japan. 781 evacuees in the group registered by writing across the face of the registration form that they wanted to be repatriated or expatriated to Japan.

The final report of registration at Jerome stated that out of the 5,802 that were eligible 5,798 registered.