The U.S. at War

(4 of 8)
<

The zealous authorities in Norfolk, Va. did not even wait to hear from the FBI. They rounded up every Japanese they could find, clapped them in jail.

From coast to coast, FBI men swooped on Axis nationals. In the Canal Zone hundreds of Japanese aliens were interned. By week's end 1,370 Japs, 1,002 Germans and 169 Italians had been arrested. In almost every case, the FBI had been watching the arrested aliens for at least a year.

Potential Column. The 1,124,000 citizens of Germany, Italy and Japan who live in the U.S. are potentially the biggest fifth column in the world. Said Attorney General Francis Biddle: "So long as the aliens in this country conduct themselves in accordance with law, they need fear no interference by the Department of justice."

Comforts of Home. In Philadelphia, FBI men picked up Princess Stephanie Hohenlohe, 45, who had last been reported in Mexico, and Dr. Hermann Ranke, one of the world's ranking Egyptologists, who held a visiting professorship at the University of Pennsylvania.

In New York, they snared Antoine Gazda, Austrian-born inventor, who holds the U.S. rights to Switzerland's Oerlikon cannon, now being manufactured in Providence for the U.S. Navy. At Roosevelt Field Inn on Long Island, county police arrested Baroness Lisette von Kapri, a civilian flyer, born in Rumania, who for the past year has been friendly with student pilots at Roosevelt Field. In Alexandria, Va., the prize was pink-cheeked Kurt Sell, Washington correspondent for Germany's official DNB news agency.

All these suspicious aliens will receive hearings before they are interned. Some may be paroled if found harmless, the rest will go to detention camps. Italians will probably join the 1,000 or so agents of the Duce who are now held at Fort Missoula, Mont. Germans may be sent to Fort Lincoln, N.Dak., where some 300 Nazis are now interned.

They will be considerably more comfortable than they would be at home. At both these concentration camps are warm barracks, playing fields, good food. Chef at Fort Missoula is Orlando Figini, who managed the restaurant in the Italian Village at the New York World's Fair.

Sorrowful Yellow Men. Not half so happy were thousands of enemy aliens who did not fall into the FBI dragnet last week. In Los Angeles a 61-year-old Japanese, Takematzu Izumi, a resident of California since 1896, swallowed poison when he heard that Japan had attacked Hawaii. Said he: "I am ashamed. . . ." In Seattle the principal of the Japanese Language School did not turn up for classes. News men called to find out what had happened. Said a stoical Japanese woman: "So sorry. FBI have the principal."

Unhappy too were Nisei, the 79,642 native-born citizens of the U.S. who are descendants of Japanese. Said a young Nisei with yellow skin, slant eyes, and a college education: "Over there I'd be a coolie. Over here . . . I have enough money to own a car, I can talk to any man. Over here, by God, we believe enough in what we have to fight Japan." But panic was in his heart. Would other U.S. citizens know the difference?

Not all of them would. At Ann Arbor, Mich.j a young Filipino marched into a police station, asked politely: "Now can I shoot the first Japanese I see?" In Nashville, Tennessee's Department of Conservation put in a requisition for 6,000,000 licenses to hunt Japs at a fee of $2 each. The purchasing department vetoed the requisition, with the note: "Open season on 'Japs' — no license required."

CIVILIAN DEFENSE

To Meet the Improbable

The block wardens met at 8 p.m. in the Borough Hall. It was like a town meeting. The atmosphere was serious, solemn, a little ponderous. They were practical men, met to discuss practical steps-to be taken. Nobody suggested the extreme improbability of the Luftwaffe bombing this little country town; all the discussion, all the questions centered about the practical details of what to do when the Luftwaffe came.

The chairman, a serious young man, talked of incendiary bombs (one plane can carry as many as 2,000), of the consequences of a lucky hit on exposed telephone wires, or whether or not it would be a good idea to use Boy Scouts as messengers during a raid. (When someone suggested that young boys ought to be kept out of harm's way, a veteran father said, "Hell, if there are bombs dropping, you won't be able to keep the kids indoors anyway.") A man from the gas company feelingly urged his fellow wardens not to attempt any repair jobs on broken gas mains, etc., but to send for him — "and for God's sake don't monkey with any loose wires."

All over the U.S. last week, but particularly along both flanks of the U.S., such meetings were held, such plans discussed. Civilian-defense offices up & down both coasts were log-jammed with applicants. Mayor LaGuardia's Office of Civilian Defense moved too fast to keep track of its own progress. But this week the civilian defense picture was taking shape.

* Hottest area for defense enrollments was New England, which leads the nation with 1,287 local councils. Coolest was the Midwest. In Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin are only 251 councils altogether.

* Though men are wanted (for air-raid wardens, bomb squads, etc.) the big need is for able women. OCD estimated that it could use 500,000 women for home nursing, another 100,000 for nurses' aides. Some 300,000 women are wanted to take charge of OCD's nutrition program, 100,000 more to look after school lunches.

* Mayor LaGuardia announced that he will enlist 90,000 licensed pilots, 90,000 student pilots, 100,000 ground workers to serve in a Civil Air Patrol for the war's duration. Under the command of Major General John F. Curry of the U.S. Army Air Corps, CAP will operate from 2,600 airports in the U.S. which are not used for military or commercial flights.

Chief hitch in the Mayor's program so far is lack of air-raid facilities. It would take a mort of heavy cloth to blackout New York City's 10,000,000 windows. Most big cities are so noisy that civilians cannot hear air-raid warnings. New York's Board of Estimate last week appropriated $25,000 to buy sirens. In the newspapers, OCD took full-page advertisements telling civilians what to do ("Keep cool. Stay at home. Put out lights.") if raiders come.

In all Manhattan, a preliminary survey disclosed virtually no adequate shelters. (OCD does not consider subways adequate — they are too near the surface, covered with a vulnerable network of wires, pipes, cables.) In Stamford, Conn. an old bank vault, nine feet under the sidewalk, was converted into a bomb shelter last March — as a money-raising stunt bv British War Reliefers. Detroit, like. Chungking, is well supplied with natural shelters. Under the city, 1,100 feet down, are Detroit's old salt mines , with 25 miles of passageways, all dry, healthful, airconditioned.