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✓ Vagaries: by Larry Tajiri Friday Nov. 16th 1962 Pacific Citizen Eleanor Roosevelt and the Nisei Denver The death of Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Nov. 7 saddens mankind, for her domain was the world and all of its people her children. The passing at 78 of this great and gracious woman is a particular loss to Americans of Japanese ancestry who have not forgotten her efforts during World War II to obtain free and equal treatment for the Japanese American population. Eleanor Roosevelt's influence undoubtedly was felt in the re-orientation of the United States government's attitude toward its Japanese American population after the initially restrictive measures were taken after Pearl Harbor which placed the great majority of Japanese Americans in concentration camps, euphemistically referred to as war relocation centers. Mrs. Roosevelt's concern for the treatment of Japanese Americans in a time of war with Japan was immediately expressed after Pearl Harbor. "The day after Pearl Harbor," Ralph G. Martin and Richard Harrity recalled in their book, "Eleanor Roosevelt, Her Life in Pictures," (Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1958), "she flew to Seattle, posed with four Nisei, pleading the press that these loyal American citizens of Japanese descent be treated with neighborliness and the American sense of fair play. But they weren't. And when these American citizens--who later proved their loyalty as soldiers in combat--were herded into camps, she was the first to visit them and voice her sense of national shame." * * * ACROSS the front page of The Pacific Citizen of April 29, 1943 is a headline which expresses Mrs. Roosevelt's continuing concern for the Japanese Americans then in the relocation camps: "Mrs. Roosevelt Urges Release of Loyal Nisei." The accompanying story described her first visit to a relocation camp. She inspected the Gila River relocation center near Phoenix, Ariz., on April 24, 1943, and had issued a statement in which she said she saw no "pampering or coddling." There was a purpose behind the statement because the War Relocation Authority, the administrative agency in charge of the ten relocation camps housing more than 100,000 American residents of Japanese ancestry, was then under severe attack from some members of Congress who opposed the administration's policy of permitting qualified evacuees to leave the camps for free resettlement away from the evacuated West Coast area. In addition, the Pacific coast racists and the dollar patriots who had profited from the mass evacuation of Japanese Americans were involved in a campaign to slam the barbed-wire gates of the relocation centers on the evacuees for the duration of the war. White at Gila River, Mrs. Roosevelt met with evacuee committees. "Their greatest interest seemed to be whether it would be safe for them to return to their homes," she said. She praised the initiative of the evacuees operating their own farm at the center and maintaining schools for the children. * * * THIS WRITER met Eleanor Roosevelt on two occasions. One was in May, 1943 when, together with Saburo Kido and Dr. T.T. Yatabe as representatives of the National JACL, we visited the White House to meet Mrs. Roosevelt to express gratitude for her interest in the problems of Americans of Japanese descent. At that time a presentation was made to Mrs. Roosevelt of a painting by Chiura Obata, the noted artist who was then living at the Central Utah relocation center in Topaz, Utah, which depicted a relocation center scene. Mrs. Roosevelt was charming, gracious and completely conversant with the wartime situation of the Japanese Americans. The second and last time we met Mrs. Roosevelt was a year ago, backstage at the Colonial Theater in Boston. She had attended a pre-Broadway performance of Noel Coward's musical, "Sail Away," which she had enjoyed greatly and had come backstage to congratulate Coward, the producers and members of the cast. After being introduced, we mentioned the previous meeting at the White House and Mrs. Roosevelt expressed her gratification at the tremendous strides made by Japanese Americans in the United States since the war. * * * ELEANOR ROOSEVELT's influence as First Lady and as an American delegate to the United Nations probably was greater than that of any woman in history. She used that influence wisely and with great compassion and she has left the world a far better place because she lived. Adlai Stevenson, a close friend of Mrs. Roosevelt's, said it best. When informed of Eleanor Roosevelt's death, Stevenson said: "Like many others I have lost more than a beloved friend. I have lost an inspiration. She would rather light candles than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world."