F.D.R. memo. revealing

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 15

F.D.R. memo. revealing

The late United States President. Franklin Roosevelt, considered watching the movements of JapaneseAmericans and listing any who behaved suspiciously as early as 1936, according to a newly discovered White House memorandum.

The memo.-dated August 10, 1936, and addressed to Roosevelt's chief of naval operations, suggested that military officials might identify suspect Japanese citizens and non-citizens in Honolulu so they “would be the first to be placed in a concentration camp in the event of trouble."

Discovery of the document could help the present attempts of Japanese-Ameri-cans who were interned at the start of the Second World War to get reparations, some officials said. United States authorities have maintained that the internments were hastily ordered only as a reaction to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941. The memo was authenticated by Stewart Butler of the National Archives, who said a copy of it was in-

eluded in formerly classified files of the Secretary of the Navy from 1926 to 1939. It was declassified in 1973.

Anthony Hodges, a writer and environmental activist, said he found the memo in a naval library in Annapolis. “One obvious thought occurs to me," Roosevelt wrote in the memo, "that every Japanese citizen or non-citi-zen on the island of Oahu (in Hawaii) who meets these Japanese ships or has any connection with their officers or men should be secretly but definitely identified and his or her name placed on a special list of those who would be the first to be placed in a concentration camp in the event of trouble."

The presidential memo went on to say: "As I told you verbally today, I think a joint board should consider and adopt plans relating to the Japanese population of all the islands. "Please let me have further recommendations after studies have been made." NZPA-AP, Honolulu.