TULARE CO. INCIDENTS

1/22/45 Orosi, near Fresno, Tulare County, Calif.: Group of Orosi ranchers and businessmen appeared and threatened evacuee owners of fruit and vegetable ranch with a set deadline for them to leave. Deadline has passed without untoward incident. Local offices and State Department of Justice watching the case

2/26/45, 2/27/45 Orosi, Tulare Co., Calif. Sam Uyeno's home was subjected to shooting on two successive nights at 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. No one was injured. Suspect two Orosi High School boys who quit school day evacuee Ben Shiba came back from Gila River Relocation Center and re-entered school. That same evening the first shooting occurred. Eleven evacuees are staying on Uyeno's ranch in Tulare County. Investigation continues.

Exonerate Suspect in Orosi Shooting

SACRAMENTO--George Griffin, acting chief special investigator of the Attorney General’s office, said on March 3 a ballistics check had shown that none of the bullets recovered in a shooting at the Sam Uyeno ranch near Orosi, Tulare County, last week came from any of the four guns owned by a high school boy questioned in the incident. Source: Pacific Citizen, Saturday, March 10, 1945, page 2

3/28/45 Tulare, Tulare County: Tulare Daily Times reported on 3/28/45 that late p.m. 3/26/45 a "self-confessed Jap" wielded a sharp knife and was routed after a short but bloody encounter with Henry Smith, owner of the Kern Street Market, 127 E. Kern St." The alleged encounter took place after Smith told the assailant he had no cigarettes and the "Jap" purportedly replied, "That's the trouble with you Americans, you won't sell anything to us "Japs." Paper's account makes it look like a "plant" or a phony.

April 3, 1945 Orosi, Tulare Co., Calif.

 Sign "No Japs Wanted" erected at entrance to town.  Reported to constable who said sign does not violate any local ordinance and that there was nothing he could do about it.  Dist. Atty. Walter C. Haigh said the sign did not violate any county ordinance but that he would try to have it removed.  Sign is posted on land owned by realtor, C.F.Schleicher.  He claims to know nothing about it and intends doing nothing about removing it. 

Source: “Special Field Reports of Allan Markley” to Dillon S. Meyer, Director WRA, Attn: M.M. Tozier, Chief of Reports, WRA

5/24/45 Orosi, Tulare County, Calif. At 10 p.m. two shots were fired from a moving automobile into the home of Kaudy Mimura, 58, a citizen, with him in the house were his wife, his son, 9, and three relatives. No one was injured, although the shots were shoulder high. One went into a bedroom and one into the front room, Mimura asked protection of Sheriff Sherman. (20^th shooting attempt), a brother of one of the three relatives present, Ray Kunitake, has a brother with the 442nd and another being inducted June 26.

5/25/45 Orosi, Tulare County, Calif. — At 10:00 p.m. May 24, two shots were fired shoulder high, into the house of Kaudy Mimura, 32, a citizen living at Route 8, Box 43, Orosi. One shot ripped into the bedroom and the other into the living room. Sheriff was notified immediately and made an investigation. He found one copper jacketed shell nearby. He declined to request special police protection, saying his office was shorthanded. He also indicated he felt he did not have enough evidence to go on.

Source: “Special Field Reports of Allan Markley” to Dillon S. Meyer, Director WRA, Attn: M.M. Tozier, Chief of Reports, WRA

PARKER, ARIZ. INCIDENTS

  Hero’s Reward: Wounded Japanese-American Soldier Ejected by a Barber, WRA Charges 

     POSTON, Ariz., Nov. 11, 1944 (AP)—The War Relocation Authority reported today that a crippled Japanese American Army private, wearing many service ribbons, had been ejected from a civilian barber shop near this WRA center because of the owner’s objection to his ancestry.

    Andy Hale, the barber, acknowledged he had ordered the soldier Thurs-day not to come into his shop but denied shoving or forcing the infantryman.

     The WRA said the veteran, walking with a crutch, had been shoved from the establishment.

     Hale, father of three sons in the armed service, said a sign on the front of his Parker (Ariz.) shop reads: “Japs keep out, you rat.”

   “I didn’t want none of their business,” Hale asserted. “They might close me up bit I sure as hell won’t work on a Jap”. 

“ALL THE SAME”

    Hale, in answer to a question, said it made no difference to him whether the Japanese Americans were civilians or soldiers. “They look just alike to me,” explained the Fort Worth (Tex.) native who has lived 20 years in Ari-zona.

   Mrs. Pauline Brown, reports officer for the WRA center, said the soldier was Pvt. Raymond Matsuda, 29, former resident of Hawaii, who was shot in the knee on the Italian front July 22.

     Matsuda, Mrs. Brown related, was wearing seven Army ribbons and badges, including the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the Purple Heart.

     He served two years overseas, she reported with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an outstanding unit on the Italian front.

NISEI’S STORY

     Mrs. Brown said Matsuda came to visit friends here.  He has been at the Army’s Hammond General Hospital at Modesto, Calif.  She reported Matsu-da gave this version of the incident:

    Matsuda went into the shop without noticing the sign and was confronted by Hale, who said, “Can’t you see that sign?”

    The soldier replied he hadn’t noticed but even so he was wearing a U.S. Army uniform.  Hale then shoved him out the door.

     Hale said “I didn’t touch the soldier—he didn’t even come into the shop. I met him at the door and told him not to come in.  That’s all there was to it.”

 Source: San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 1944

======================================================= 

April 28, 1945 Parker, Yuma County, Arizona--Andy Hale, (principle in wounded veteran incident), struck one of two Issei standing on corner near his shop.  Neither date nor identity of person struck has been established.

May 7, 1945 Parker, Yuma County, Arizona-- Internee at Poston Relocation Center attacked in Parker by Guy Lillard, Parker gambler.  Evacuee, waiting for a bus, was struck several times before he could get away according to witnesses. Lillard had been drinking. Evacuee's identity not established.

May 8, 1945 Parker, Yuma County, Arizona — Tom T. Sakai (18-9-D), 23 year old evacuee, attacked by Sig Hall while waiting on corner for Center ice truck. Hall watched crew of ice truck and entered drug store; he instructed them to leave Parker as soon as they were finished, and "stay out." He also followed project baggage truck in his car, warning crew not to leave the depot side of street. When ice-truck crew left drug store, Hall swung on Toshiya Ogura,(19-5-C) who warded off blow and suffered no damage.

Source: “Special Field Reports of Allan Markley” to Dillon S. Meyer, Director WRA, Attn: M.M. Tozier, Chief of Reports, WRA