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Identifier
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ghs2013-e-0063
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Description
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Japanese Exclusion League Journal newspaper, 4 pages printed on single folded sheet. Banner reads "THE JAPANESE EXCLUSION LEAGUE | JOURNAL | Vol. 1 | GRESHAM, OREGON, JUNE, 1945 | No. 2". Mission statement as printed in colophon on second page: "Published monthly in the interest of the Japanese Exclusion League, Inc., an organization dedicated to legally, peaceably and permanently ridding this Coast and, ultimately, this country of the Japs." Gresham listed as organization's Pacific Coast headquarters. Staff listed are president Dale Bergh, secretary C.G. Schneider, and treasurer Ralph Hannan. Content of articles espouses various racially-derived arguments against allowing people of Japanese ancestry to return to their homes in the West Coast states and encourages anti-Japanese discrimination in private businesses. Frequent criticism of the War Relocation Authority's preparations to return Japanese residents to Pacific states and of widespread pro-Japanese sentiment among the white populace and businesses. Coverage of an anti-Japanese statement released by the Western Conference of Teamsters and of Oregon's new restrictions on land ownership by non-citizens; assertion that Japanese farmers had damaged leased land on Bainbridge Island; op-ed advocating for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution rescinding citizenship rights for U.S. born children of immigrant parents; criticism of Oregonian and Oregon Journal newspapers for moderate stance on Japanese-Americans returning to West Coast; coverage of new Japanese Exclusion League chapters in Tigard, Sherwood, La Grande, Milton-Freewater, and Ellensburg; list of Japanese aid societies in Pacific Northwest; letter from president Dale Bergh lauding growth of the League and discouraging members from illegal "mob" activity; anti-Japanese statement by United Spanish War Veterans of Oregon.
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Provenance
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The Japanese Exclusion League was a Gresham-based group of farmers and business owners that organized in spring of 1945 as a response to the War Relocation Authority's plan to release Japanese people from wartime imprisonment and allow their return to West Coast states. It was an outgrowth of the earlier Oregon Anti-Japanese Inc. and the Oregon Property Protective League, both also based in Gresham. The anti-Japanese movement was deep-rooted in Gresham and elsewhere on the West Coast, where efforts to disenfranchise Japanese immigrants had stripped them of the right to own land or become citizens. After the war ended, many Japanese-Americans who returned to Gresham found signs in store windows reading "No Japs" and received a chilly reception from local residents who had once been friends. The Japanese Exclusion League, while apparently short-lived, lent a veneer of credibility to the everyday bigotry that Japanese people faced and organized the movement to make their return fraught and painful. An editorial in the Oregonian of April 30, 1945 raised fears that the League's incorporation signaled the transition of a handful of mean-spirited protests into an organized movement, warning that "...prejudice brazenly manipulated by promoters whose major interest must be financial gain continues its slow and malignant growth in the community." As the Oregon Anti-Japanese Inc., the group’s initial attempts to incorporate were unsuccessful. In March 1945, the group contracted with two Seattle-based promoters and renewed their attempts to incorporate. Despite objections, including the organization’s “ambiguous” objectives, Oregon Attorney General George Neuner directed the incorporation to move forward, stating that the articles filed “do not depict on their face any unlawful purpose.” Many well-known local citizens joined the Japanese Exclusion League, including the sitting mayor, Dr. H.H. Hughes. The controversy surrounding his membership and evidence of discrimination in his medical practice later prevented a statue in his honor from being erected in Main City Park. Prior to the war, Dale Bergh, the president of the League, had leased a 60-acre property in Clackamas County to Masayuki Fujimoto, a Japanese-American farmer born in Portland and educated at Reed College. In May 1945, Bergh and his spouse Lorene took Fujimoto to court to prevent him from regaining his land as stipulated in the lease agreement; the Berghs lost the well-publicized legal battle. The Japanese Exclusion League under Bergh's leadership filed articles of incorporation amidst the court proceedings.
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Contributor
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Gresham Historical Society
