all of the welfare bureaus all over the Nation, and for 1 year I have devoted my entire time to trying to help these unfortunate people, and I know whereof I speak.

We have over 100 people hospitalized today-people who just cannot get along. We have one poor lady who dies of starvation in Los Angeles. I knew nothing about it until it was too late, and we buried her.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any questions, gentlemen?

Mr. HINSHAW. Mr. Chairman, this gentleman, Mr. Wilson, is a resident of my congressional district in my home city of Pasadena, Calif. In reference to his statement concerning the bill introduced in the Senate and sent to the House-the reimbursement of those persons of Japanese ancestry who were removed from the west coast during the war-may I say that when that bill was proposed to be brought before the House of Representatives, certain of us, including myself, notified the Speaker of the House that we would object. At that time we were under what is known in our circles as the unanimous consent procedure.

The bill could not have been brought before the House except by unanimous consent. We felt that certainly the people who are represented by this Internees Committee and all of the other internees should have the first consideration of our Government in any matters in relation to reparations and damages and so forth. I think from the witnesses who have already appeared before the committee-the stories that they have to tell-that is evidently true.

Now, I think one of the facts that must be established for the benefit of the House and for the judgment of the House refers to the statements that you have quoted in your testimony as having been made by a Member of the Senate and a Member of the House. I believe that that sort of thought-namely, that these people in the Philippines and elsewhere in our possessions had been warned to get out—is a thought that is generally held by many of these representatives of the people, and that means generally by the people themselves over the United States.

I trust that future witnesses from among your group will be able to demonstrate that you were not only not warned, but in fact you were encouraged to stay for morale purposes, and perhaps, as stated by Mr. Grew in his portion of the other testimony that you have quoted from, that political reasons were a part of the consideration. I would like myself to know from Mr. Grew what he meant by "political reasons," but I can estimate what he had in mind; namely, the maintenance of the morale of the Filipino people.

I presume that that was the "political reason" to which he refers. Obviously, these people did maintain the morale of the Filipino people and provided through that maintenance of morale a very substantial support for the effort of the United States to regain their position in the Pacific and ultimately to beat Japan.

I have no questions, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. I want to take this opportunity of assuring Mr. Wilson, as president of the American Internees Committee, that your member of Congress, Mr. Hinshaw, who has introduced this bill, has shown great interest in the matter, and these hearings that we are holding today are a result of the interest that he has taken in it.

I have no doubt whatever that that interest that he has already displayed will continue.

Mr. WILSON. May I add that in my position as chairman of this organization, there are many people who have no friends like, for instance, Mr. Brooks and a few more who come to this country who have been residents of the Philippines for years. I have tried to help them, and they look upon me as one ray of hope. Now, I am transferring that ray of hope to the shoulders of this organization, because I feel now when I go back to California, that they will say, "Maybe something will happen for us today"; and that is their prayer today. There are many waiting until I get back to California to know what happened and that is their ray of hope. If they get that ray of hope, there will be many happy Americans.

Mr. MILLER. I just have three brief questions. You referred to deposits in the Bank of Taiwan. Who controlled that bank? Mr. WILSON. That was a Japanese bank.

Mr. MILLER. The United States did not get any of the assets of that bank?

Mr. WILSON. No; that was all destroyed.

Mr. MILLER. You referred in your letter, in the last letter you read, to the fact that the gentleman had been receiving $100 per month and that income had now stopped. From what source was that, provided it was not a private source?

Mr. WILSON. The first year we had an appropriation from the Federal Security Agency. I think it was $5,000,000. That was allowed as expenses for repatriated persons from war areas, which included any nationality. This man was a man in pitiful condition, and Iwent to the various welfare bureaus and I happened to find one person who was sympathetic to this case, so they allowed him $100 a

month.

Then, Mr. Aude moved around in the hope he would find something else to help him out, and by moving from one State to another, of course, they stopped his settlement.

Mr. MILLER. I have one other question, and I hope it will not be misunderstood, but I know members of the committee will be interested. You refer to this committee for which you have worked as a nonprofit organization. For the record, and certainly without any personal offense, may I ask: Has any agreement been entered into between this committee and these people whom you represent, either for payment now or following the passage of this bill?

Mr. WILSON. None whatever.

Mr. MILLER. I did not want to offend you, but I wanted it in the record.

Mr. WILSON. I appreciate that.

Mr. MILLER. And I state that I asked the question only because I received a letter making such an accusation.

Mr. WILSON. That is right.

Mr. MILLER. I certainly commend you, and that is why I was reluctant to even ask the question, but as long as it has been raised, I think it should be in the record that no promises now or for the future have been made to these people.

Mr. WILSON. May I add to your statement that I am grateful that I have a lovely home. My wife is happy, she was in the camp with me, and I was lucky because I did work for the Government.

I have been reimbursed by the Government. I might state in reply to some of the questions asked: There are several firms that paid all of their employees, with a rider that if those employees were reimbursed by the Government, they should repay their employers. I have seen several of those agreements.

Mr. MILLER. It is my thought that whatever money the Government should appropriate should be protected just as we protect veterans' war risk insurance by putting a limitation as to what can be paid for counsel fees for that. I want to see this group protected from any unscrupulous attorneys, if any there should be.

Mr. WILSON. They have had plenty of contact with unscrupulous attorneys, and I might also add that we had quite a few Government employees in the Philippines that came back to this country and drew as much as $8,000 or $7,000. Now, I have contacted many hundreds of those people to try to help those who did not get anything, and they have never come forward with one single cent, even to contribute to get the thing started and get the fund rolling; even to take care of some individual, to buy a magazine subscription in the hospital. Those people, if they would be given some recompense, that should be deducted. I am willing to refund mine back to the Government.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee has received statements from two witnesses yet to be disposed of this afternoon.

Mrs. Fred F. Fairman, 460 West Twenty-fourth Street, New York City. Mrs. Fairman.

STATEMENT OF MRS. FRED F. FAIRMAN, NEW YORK CITY—

Resumed

Mrs. FAIRMAN. As you know, my name is Mrs. Fred F. Fairman, and I live at 460 West Twenty-fourth Street, New York City, for 2 years as head of the Santa Catalina Hospital kitchen and the little kitchen in Santo Tomas. I had the opportunity of meeting and knowing a great many of the unfortunate people that were interned, and I had the opportunity of seeing and treating a great many of these people. Also, I had first-hand knowledge of the food that was given to us to take care of the hospital wants. I must say that this is just a repetition of everything else that everybody has said about the lack of food, because-well, it is something that we did not have.

In the very beginning, I was working as the assistant Commissary officer under Mr. Lee Hobbs in Manila and for the Philippine Red Cross. I knew that we had cattle in the hills, and we had a lot of supplies of food-cracked wheat that the Red Cross had sent out, rice, corn, milk, and other things. In the beginning of the camp, we were allowed, with our contact with the outside Red Cross, to bring supplies into the camp-limited supplies.

Then, as the years went on, of course, the Japanese took most of these supplies, and the food that they gave us-the meat was diseased and the rice was floor sweepings, mostly worms, and I had to feed sick people.

I want to draw attention to the fact that when the Coolidge left, which was the last ship to leave Manila, it went out over capacity. Now, a great many of those people on that ship were on there because they were due for home leave and not because of pending war. The Army and Navy wives received an order to go home. Transports were

sent for them, but nothing was sent-no transports or any ship-for the civilians.

Mr. Fairman and I were interned on January 4, 1942. At that time, Mr. Fairman was in very good health, never having had a sick day. He was subjected to this unfortunate experience, and he died. He died of malnutrition, starvation, and the years at the camp. I took care of him for 8 months in a shack, and I did not have any light at night, and I had to care for him in the darkness. I was very much afraid that I might fall asleep and he might wander out of the shack and be killed. On February 7, 1945, after we were liberated, I was sitting in my shack one morning drinking a cup of coffee when I realized that the firing had changed and it was Japanese shelling. They had been trying to get to our guns over in Grace Park, but their range for them was not long enough, and unfortunately for us, they took the camp as the next objective.

About 50 feet from my shack a shell burst and destroyed a shack. I got a direct shell through my shack, and I got two flickers in one arm and five underneath the arm, and I crawled out on my hands and knees with a friend, and we went over and there was some crude rubber which the Japanese had salvaged from some of their boats and brought into the camp and had dumped in the front yard. We got over to that crude rubber and hid in the crude rubber for three hours.

I saw friends killed and injured. I was in the hospital when Mr. Roy Bennett, Mr. Fred Stevens, who compiled this book "Santo Tomas," and Mr. Vanu St. Clair was brought in, having been tortured, and I know that the Japanese did not think he would make Santo Tomas, but he did. Toward the end, there was a question asked today, "Did we receive any fish?" As I was in the hospital, I can say we did receive fish, but it was fish heads and a little bit of dried up salty fish that you can find in the cheapest markets of Japan. For over a year we were fed the equivalent, as Mr. Holland said, of half a glass of rice which we call laugau which was nothing but this very filthy rice boiled and made into a weak water solution. I would like to read what we had on December 15, which was our meal for the day, which was one piece of biscuit for morning breakfast, one ladle of this laugau for lunch and one ladle of this laugau for dinner.

When Mr. Fairman went into the hospital toward the end, they did not have any milk. They had no eggs, and we had nothing to give these sick people. They would take this laugau and season it up with Chinese curry powder, and that would be given to the patients. Mr. Fairman was president and Far Eastern manager of Dodge & Seymour, an export and import firm. He had spent 21 years in China and 8 years in the Philippines. During that time, we had accumulated many lovely things. We were coming home the year we were interned, to live here. Unfortunately, everything was destroyed or taken by the Japanese. I have just come out of a New York hospital. I weighed 96 pounds, and I have gained back 68 pounds. When Mr. Fairman died, he weighed 50 pounds.

They tell me that I am facing, maybe in 10 years, a wheel chair, so I am asking for recognition of the part we all played in the Pacific

war.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any question, gentlemen?

Mrs. Fairman, there were one or two statements that you possibly overlooked referring to that might have some interest to the committee. I will see that the reporter makes that a part of your testimony. I think it is very important that it should be made a part of your testimony.

Mrs. FAIRMAN. You mean where I state that I worked as a volunteer worker?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, that is right.

Is it true that you were a volunteer and worked for the Philippine International Red Cross from 1938 to 1942?

Mrs. FAIRMAN. It is true, it is a true statement.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you have the opportunity of working in close association with men who should have been apprised of the seriousness of the situation?

Mrs. FAIRMAN. I certainly did.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you state that not only a great many of our prominent businessmen but also some of the high-ranking Army officers deemed it too far off to worry about, with the assured feeling that our Government would not only notify you people, but provide for your evacuation, if necessary?

Mrs. FAIRMAN. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. In the effort to procure food, did you dispose of your diamond and sapphire ring for one tin of powdered milk and a half pound of sugar?

Mrs. FAIRMAN. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, these circumstances to which you have referred certainly makes plain the serious situation with which you folks who were unfortunate enough to be in the Philippines at that time were faced.

We thank you for having appeared today, and we are particularly appreciative of your having called to our attention this book of Santa Tomas by Mr. Stevens. Since I saw your copy, I have been able to get a copy from the Congressional Library, and I have no doubt that it will prove very helpful to our committee in supplying many details with respect to the tragedies about which you testify. We thank you, Mrs. Fairman.

Mrs. P..R. Danner, and this will be the concluding witness for today.

I am assuming that your statement is brief, Mrs. Danner, is that true?

Mrs. DANNER. Yes, sir, it is.

STATEMENT OF MRS. P. R. DANNER, NEW YORK, N. Y.

Mrs. DANNER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee: My name is Mrs. P. R. Danner, Ruth Armstrong Danner, an American citizen, formerly a resident of New Jersey. I live at 1 University Place, New York.

Before the war I cannot remember a time when I was really sick. During 3 years' internment in Santo Tomas, and 3 years of suffering and starvation, I was 13 times in the hospital, once for a 3 months' stay. It is no thanks to the Japanese that I am here today. The credit for my survival is due to our wonderful American doctors