Azalia Emma Peet

Azalia Emma Peet (1887-09-03 – 1973-09-21) was an American missionary educator in Japan. During World War II, she spoke out against the incarceration of Japanese Americans. She taught students and held church services at internment camps in Idaho and Oregon. She was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure (5th Class) by the Japanese government in 1953, for her lifetime of service.

Quotes

 * “These are law-abiding, upright people of our community. What is it that makes it necessary for them to evacuate? Have they done anything? Is there anything in their history in this area to justify such a fear of them developing overnight?”
 * "As a social worker, I am thinking of the aged; I am thinking of the sick in the hospitals today, in the Japanese community; I think of the babies born since Christmas time, and those about to be born; I am thinking of the young people in the schools and colleges of this State. Are they a menace to this community, that they must all be moved now?"
 * "Testimony of Miss Azalia Emma Peet, Methodist Missionary, Greshem, Oreg." National Defense Migration: Hearings Before the Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, House of Representatives, Seventy-seventh Congress (U.S. Government Printing Office 1941): 11386.