Opinions of The Week

Opinions of The Week

Letter to the editor in response to the prompt: "The Campus has heard of opposition to the Women's Forum's plan for aiding American citizens of Japanese parentage by creating scholarships so that they may come to Middlebury. What is your opinion on this subject?" The author doesn't support this action on the grounds that he feels that there will be no friendship/camaraderie between the potential incoming students and current students.

Volume 40, Number 9

William S. Hawkes '43

The Campus

11/04/1942

William S. Hawkes '43

"It is generally recognized that Germany, Japan, and Italy are our major enemies. However, at Middlebury, there are both German and Italian students whose names are more than often found in the membership of our honorary societies and responsible positions around campus. So, some say, why not the American Japanese? My answer is background. The Japanese are physically set off from the others by being a different race, which seems to create the impression of being a different people."

"The success of having these American Japanese students here will be decided on the basis of whether they form friendships and make wholesome contacts... if there is an invisible wall of superficiality and insincerity between us, I think more harm will be done than good."
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