Smith urges Truman to ask "Edgar J. Hoover and his organization" to help control "the arsonists and night-riders who are terrorizing the few Japanese Americans who have returned to the West Coast." Smith states that approximately 60,000 of the "110,000" people who were "evacuated" seek to return to their homes, under pressure from the War Relocation Authority to leave the camps, and that those returning to rural areas are "having constant trouble," including arson and shooting incidents. Smith also states that there have been few arrests for these incidents, and mentions that [California Attorney General] Robert Kenny has neglected his responsibilities, noting that this is remarkable given that the UNCIO Conference [United Nations Conference on International Organization] was opening just as another arson incident had occurred. See also Letter from Francis Biddle, Attorney General of the United States, to Frank Herron Smith, May 8, 1945; and Letter from Tom C. Clark, Assistant Attorney General of the United States, to Frank Herron Smith, May 31, 1945. Papers of two generations of the Smith family, Dr. Frank Herron Smith and his son Dr. Morris Eugene “Gene” Smith, including vintage broadsides and government reports on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and correspondence from the elder Smith to government officials advocating for improved treatment and safety for returning incarcerees.
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