INVOLUNTARY RELOCATION TO START AT MANZANAR IN MID-OCTOBER

LETTERS TO RESIDENTS REQUIRE DATE OF VOLUNTARY DEPARTURE AND PLACE OF RESETTLEMENT BE SET BY OCTOBER 9TH: ADMINISTRATION TO SET DATES FOR THOSE WHO FAIL TO REPLY

Acting upon instructions from the Washington office, contained in Administrative Notice No. 289, in which Mr. Dillon Myer, Director of WRA requires the scheduling of departures during the last few weeks of the Center, letters went out to one thousand residents of Manzanar giving them a final chance to set their dates of departure, and selecting the place to which they want to resettle.

The letters, signed by Project Director Ralph P. Merritt, are addressed to Manzanar Residents and state:

"When you returned your card you did not set a definite departure date. Under instructions from Washington it is necessary that I inform you that if you do not set a departure date and a destination by October 9th, it will be necessary for us to do so for you. If you do not make plans for yourself you will be returned to your legal residence.

"All persons must leave Manzanar before November 30th. The last week will be reserved for the departure of emergency cases. In order to secure adequate transportation, all others will be scheduled to leave, about 450 each week, beginning October 10th. Persons who do not set their own departure dates will have dates set for them on and after October 9th. Three days advance notice will be given each person of his scheduled departure date to permit packing."

The administration points out that it will not be possible to accomodate more than 450 persons during the week ending November 30 and urges that only those persons who have a valid reason approved by the Relocation office select that week.

Center closing was established as December 1, or earlier in a notification from the Washington Office received in mid-July and publicized in the Free Press. At that time it was pointed out that all centers, excepting Tule Lake, would close on a schedule prepared in Washington.

The schedule provided the following closing dates: Granada, October 15; Central Utah and Minidoka, November 1; Heart Mountain and Gila River, November 15, Colorado River and Manzanar, December 1; and Rohwer, December 15.

Already special trains have been leaving the centers scheduled to close earlier than Manzanar, and reports indicate that rapid evacuation of Units I and II at Poston and The Canal Unit at Gila are taking place.

On September 12 the total population of Topaz had dropped to 2,339 with Terminal Leaves for the month of September totalling 1,113 as compared with 829 for August. Last Friday special trains took 273 Topaz residents to San Francisco while 113 were on a train bound for Chicago.

CLOCK RETURS TO NORMAL AT TWO O'CLOCK SUNDAY

This is a must on your schedule of things to do Saturday evening. Set your watch and clock back one hour as War Time is abolished at 2:00 A.M. Sunday morning September 30.

War Time which set watches ahead one hour in February 1942 was established to save power and assist in the war effort.

PLANS FLIGHT TO JAPAN

Recently making a quick trip to the Center was Pvt. Harry Takechi who assisted his parent relocate to Long Beach. Takechi plans to return to San Francisco where he will board a plane to Japan, according to an item in Manza-knoll.

EDITORIAL DEMANDS FAIR PLAY TO NISEI SOLDIERS

Says Carpinteria HERALD, published near Santa Barbara, in a vigorous editorial on behalf of Nisei soldiers, "There will be returning soon to this country a group of American boys who look like Japs... Out of a sense of fair play we will tolerate neither injustice nor discrimination to cloud their return. They return as heroes. Most of them are decorated with the proudest medals a soldier can wear."