Alfred J. Elliott

Born in Guinda, California, on June 1, 1895, Alfred James Elliott grew up in Winters, California, before moving with his family to Tulare in 1910. In his younger years, Elliott worked as a farmer and livestock breeder.

Elliott first began his political career at age twenty-four, when in 1918 he joined the executive board of the Tulare Chamber of Commerce. He remained a member for nineteen years. He also became a director of the Tulare County Fair Association, a position which led him to locate his office within the Tulare Fairgrounds. He successfully ran for a seat on the Tulare County Board of Supervisors in 1933.

In March 1937, following the sudden death of Representative Henry E. Stubbs, Elliott announced his candidacy for California's 10th Congressional District. Running as a conservative Democrat on a platform supporting irrigation projects for Kern and Tulare Counties—he campaigned on a platform as "the farmer's friend"—Elliott received valuable endorsements from the papers of Tulare County. He won the election by a landslide. ^[1]

As a representative of the 10th district, which encompassed a region stretching from California's Central Valley to Santa Barbara County, Elliott focused his attention on acquiring federal funding for projects to support farmers and construction, such as the maintenance of Civilian Conservation Corps camps.

In the weeks after the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Elliott joined a growing chorus of official support for the forced removal of Japanese Americans. In January 1942, Representatives Elliott and John Anderson of California organized meetings with the Pacific coast congressional delegations after finding that the Department of Justice refused to consider mass removal of Japanese Americans from California.

On February 7, 1942, a representative of the California Farm Bureau Federation from Kern County wired to Elliott a statement calling for the removal of Japanese Americans from the state, claiming that "the sooner the Japs are removed from the Pacific Coast the better, as white farmers can produce anything better than the Japanese."

The shelling of an oil derrick near Goleta, California, by a Japanese submarine spurred Elliott to push the army for swift action. On February 24, Elliott was greeted with applause before the House after shouting "we [should] start moving the Japanese in California into concentration camps and do it damn quick!" A few days later, Elliott wrote to General John Dewitt of the Western Defense Command urging him to remove all Japanese Americans from Tulare and Kern Counties. Elliott pointedly declared that several of his constituents, representing the American Legion, were demanding action as well.

In Americans Betrayed , political scientist Morton Grodzins argued that Elliott cited the climate of hysteria in his district as evidence that Japanese Americans needed to be imprisoned as part of a policy of "protective custody." Following the enactment of Executive Order 9066 , Elliott praised General Dewitt for taking control of the situation. ^[2]

When Elliott noticed that Japanese Americans had moved to the areas around Tulare in March 1942 to avoid being sent to camps, Elliott pressured the Western Defense Command to designate his area as a military zone. Unlike other parts of California designated as part of Zone 1, where the army planned to send Japanese American residents to camps, Elliott's district had been classified as a part of Zone 2, an area of limited strategic importance. Elliott, in conjunction with local citizens' groups, lobbied the Western Defense Command to include all of Tulare county.

Among the sights selected for short term detention sites for Japanese Americans was the Tulare County Fairgrounds. On March 26, 1942, the army began construction on the site of the fairgrounds. Congressman Elliott, who managed and used the buildings at the fairgrounds as his local office, flew to Tulare two days later to confer with the army.

Within weeks of the army's starting construction of the assembly center, several problems arose. On March 30, Colonel Karl Bendetsen , commanding officer of the Wartime Civil Control Administration , telephoned Congressman Elliott about the details involved in building the assembly center on the fairgrounds.

Elliott told army officials to pay him thousand dollars for his crops destroyed by the army for constructing facilities, and listed his concerns over putting the camp site near the business center of Tulare. He also proposed an additional fence surrounding the fairgrounds that would divide a portion of Highway 99 to separate a nearby hospital from the assembly center. After consulting with his staff the following day, Bendetsen agreed to put up the fence.

Elliott's demands soon grew more numerous and outrageous. On April 3, Elliott telephoned Bendetsen urging him to immediately move out all 150 Japanese Americans from his district for fear that someone would dynamite the wells supporting the Tulare irrigation district. Bendetsen relayed his annoyance with Elliott to Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy , stating that Elliott never made a single constructive suggestion and simply stymied any progress on the assembly center. ^[3]

At the same time, though, Elliott continued to push the army to remove all Japanese Americans from California cities. On April 2, he made a press statement that "we cannot make good American citizens out of Japanese," and that they should be put into camps for their own protection.

A few days later, on April 9, Bendetsen flew from Washington, D.C. to Tulare to meet with Elliott in person, and survey the areas surrounding the assembly center. On April 10, the military police captain in charge of Tulare Assembly Center took over the offices of the fairground building to set up his headquarters, not knowing it was Elliott's personal office.

Outraged, Elliott demanded that the army captain leave, and complained to Bendetsen, who phoned the army chief of staff and General Dewitt. The chief of staff agreed to send Provost Marshall Allen Gullion to settle the matter.

Immediately after Bendetsen's visit, Elliott sent a press release to the Associated Press criticizing Bendetsen's handling of the Tulare Assembly Center. He accused the army of wasting taxpayers' dollars on the construction of the assembly center, arguing that the camp could have been constructed "from 45 to 65 percent less" and that construction damaged the fairgrounds for the upcoming fair (which had already been cancelled, along with other major gatherings that year). ^[4]

The article enraged Bendetsen. The Army Corps of Engineers produced a rebuttal to Elliott's outlandish claims. The report stated that the amount spent on building contractors was a mere fraction of what Elliott listed in his statement, and that the camp did not damage the fairgrounds. Unsatisfied, Elliott threatened the army with a proposed investigation unless they moved the center to another location. The threats eventually blew over, and construction of the assembly center moved on.

The next task on Elliott's political agenda was to extend the border of the exclusion zone to all eastern portions of Tulare and Kern County. Initially, the Western Defense Command announced on March 2, 1942 that all Japanese Americans living west of Highway 99 in Exclusion Zone 1 were to report for incarceration. This, and the army's decision to allow for voluntary migration in March 1942, led to thousands of Japanese Americans to moving to the eastern parts of Tulare and Kern counties which were part of Exclusion Zone 2.

The new migrants soon became a political target of Elliott, who swore to remove all Japanese Americans in his district. On April 16, 1942, the Tulare County Farm Bureau directed a statement at the army and Elliott that they would "disfavor on any effort to make Tulare County the dumping ground for Japanese that are considered undesirable in other areas of California." Director of the Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District and Sunkist representative Richard Stark also wrote to Bendetsen arguing that Japanese Americans in all of Tulare County needed to be expelled to protect the water sources of the region.

In response, Bendtesen told Stark on April 24th that it is unlikely that Japanese Americans would be removed from Zone 2 and the irrigation district was a low priority:

The responsibility for the protection of the facilities of the District rests fundamentally and inherently with the District itself and with local enforcement authorities. Even in the event the requested extension was granted, and as a result thereof all Japanese were excluded from the District, this in itself would be no guarantee as to the security of the works if left unprotected and unguarded. They would still be vulnerable to a planned and organized sabotage attack. ^[5]

Despite Bendetsen's reply, Elliott and the Tulare groups continued to push for extension of the exclusion orders to Zone 2. A few days later, on April 27, Elliott wired Bendetsen another message stating he needed to remove Japanese Americans coming into eastern Tulare County:

Has a decision for their removal been reached? Advise me by wire. My people becoming very much alarmed. When can we expect Japanese removed from Eastern and Northern Tulare County? You saw the danger.

Elliott continued to push Bendetsen and Dewitt to modify their exclusion orders to include the entirety of Tulare and Kern counties. In a letter to Stark from May 9, 1942, Elliott confidentially instructed Stark to use the local civic organizations in Tulare to pressure the Army to remove all Japanese Americans from the county:

You realize, Dick, that no publicity can be given this suggestion, but I would suggest that civic organizations continue to urge him to remove all Japanese. I cannot help but believe that the course I have taken here was responsible for the visit of Col. Bendetson and Mr. Eisenhower, and I assure you that I will continue my operations for the eventual removal of all Japanese.

Stark followed through on Elliott's suggestion and began rallying various groups to push for the removal of Japanese Americans from the area. Elliott's efforts succeeded when, on June 6, 1942, the Western Defense Command announced in Public Proclamation No. 6 that all Japanese Americans would be removed from Zone 2. ^[6]

Following his involvement in removing Japanese Americans from Tulare County, Elliott remained a vocal supporter of keeping Japanese Americans out of California. On October 13, 1943, Elliott gave a speech on the floor of the House in opposition to allowing Japanese Americans to return to the West Coast. Elliott wasted no time in showing his racism; he told the House that "the only good Jap is a dead Jap and that is exactly what is going to happen" if they return.

On January 28, 1944, Elliott joined a group of representatives in signing a resolution that called for War Relocation Authority Director Dillon S. Myer 's resignation for his "mishandling" of the Tule Lake uprising. It also called for legislation that would automatically denaturalize any U.S. citizens who expressed loyalty to a foreign state. ^[7]

For the duration of the war, Elliott was silent on the return of Japanese Americans. Elliott had no problems of approving a plan to use 3,900 Japanese prisoners-of-war as farm laborers in the Central Valley—under the assumption that the prisoners would be returned to Japan. On September 27, 1945, the Merced Sun-Star noted that Elliott consulted with the farm leaders of Tulare and Kern County before approving the plan. Elliott remained the representative of California’s 10th Congressional District until his retirement in 1949.

Elliott died on January 17, 1973. As of 2025, a building on the Tulare Fairgrounds remains named after Elliott in recognition of his contributions to the fairground's development.

Grodzins, Morton. Americans Betrayed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949.

van Harmelen, Jonathan. "A Circus in Tulare: The Career of Representative Alfred J. Elliott and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II." California History 102.1 (20250: 24–43.

———. "A Circus in Tulare: The Story of Congressman Alfred Elliott and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans — Part 1." Discover Nikkei, Jan. 8, 2024.

———. "A Circus in Tulare: The Story of Congressman Alfred Elliott and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans — Part 2." Discover Nikkei, Jan. 9, 2024.