Speech #820214086

It is a bill which has six simple objectives. I should like to review the six objectives very quickly at this point. First. it removes racial discrimination from our immigration and naturalization laws. That is our greatest and most crying need. We must do that if we are to practice what we preach. If we v. ant to give the Voice of America something to talk about all over the world all we have to do is to remove racial discrimination from our immigration laws. This would be a tremendous step forward for the people of the United States in our great effort to take world leadership. All pending immigration bills claim this as an objective. All theoretically agree that race should play no part in determining whom we shall admit to our shores or our citizenry. The removal of this sore spot from our laws will have a favorable effect upon our international relations throughout the world. particularly in the Far East. where the American antioriental exclusion policy has long been resented. Once before I mentioned on the floor that I happened to be in Japan in 1937 on the anniversary date of the passage of our Oriental Exclusion Act. I had never heard anything about it until I got to Japan. I certainly heard about it that day. because black flags broke out all over Tokyo. Black flags adorned the buildings. Japan proclaimed a national day of mourning. This would have been avoided by the admission under our quota system of something like 143 Japanese a year. Mr. President. no man knows the extent to which this Oriental Exclusion Act precipitated the climate of opinion in Japan which brought about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Every student of history admits that it had tremendous effect. For all we know. it may have been responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor. What a price to pay for the exclusion of 143 Japanese a year. The McCarran bill would permit the entry of 100 Japanese a year. Thus it takes some of the taint of racial exclusion. so far as the Japanese are concerned. out of our immigration laws.