Minutes of Headquarters Staff Meeting, July 21, 1942

Hiroyuki Ichihara Papers. Reel 2. Manuscripts and University Archives, UW Libraries.

Meeting was called to order by James Sakamoto at 10:30 A.M.

A communiciation has been received from the Center Manager's office that they shall be notified in advance of all meetings of the Japanese Advisory Council. Such meetings must have prior approval of the Center Manager. It shall also be necessary for a representative of the Center Manager's office and a member of the Interior Security Police to be present at such meetings.

The following is the schedule of each area meeting received from the area director in compliance with the above order:

[This paragraph has the word "omit" written beside it.]
Japanese records, books, pamphlets, literature with the exception of Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries, religious books, and hymnals are considered as contraband. All of the foregoing including the exceptions should be turned in once as a matter of record. The exceptions listed will be returned to owners after inspection, and the contraband books, literature, pamphlets, records will be stored by the WCCA which will be later shipped to the relocation centers. No guarantee is given as to damages.

It has been requested by the WCCA center manager that the residents of this camp voluntarily hand in Japanese books, pamphlets, literature, records, which are considered as contraband at present, to the proper officials in their area. Instructions are that they should be properly packed to prevent damage. Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries, religious books, and hymnals will be returned to the owners after inspection and will be marked with an approval stamp. Receipts will be given to the owners by the WCCA office for all reading matter and records turned in.

Names of individuals not desiring to hand in books should be turned in to the WCCA office.

A suggestion was made by Mr. Parmeter that Japanese books that are harmless and non-patriotic such as trade journals, medical books, and where use of these books are imperative, be listed for exemption and sent to the San Francisco office for approval.

Seven or eight names are to be sumitted for the Censoring board from each area from which five persons will be chosen. Announcements may be made in Japanese in respect to this subject.

George Minato has been appointed to be in charge of supplying each area with stencil pads to mark approval on books exempted.

Announcements in Japanese
All announcements to be made in Japanese should be first handed in to the WCCA office for clearance prior to a meeting or information release.

Repatriation
Mr. Parmeter stated that bulletins should be posted in respect to repatriation in all areas and be publicized so that each individual will know about it. Suggestion was that the roll checkers pass the word along that applications will be accepted until Thursday noon.

Passes
George Ishihara requested that some measure be taken in regard to abuses on permanent passes issued by the WCCA office. Mr. Parmeter mentioned that the pass system should be controlled within the area as much as possible to avoid these abuses, and when they do arise, they should be reported to him, to be taken care of by their department.

According to instructions, the interior police have the right to go to any home without a warrant to search.

Area B will have Junior Government's Day next week on Tuesday. George Ishihara will arrange the passes for the personnel officers from different areas for that occasion.

Lefty Ichihara requested that some form of identifying orders issued by different sources be established. Mr. Sakamoto stated that such a method would complicate matters and that a broader interpretation of orders could not be obtained.