“It is a singular fact that [the] supposedly civilized Americans in these times deny the Negroes the opportunity to engage in respectable jobs, the right of access to the restaurants, theaters, or the same train accommodations as themselves and periodically will run amuck to lynch Negroes individually or to slaughter them wholesale – old men, women, and children alike in race wars like the present one.”
What Radio Tokyo was referring to were the race riots that broke out in Detroit and seven other municipalities during the Summer of 1943. The report from Detroit read:
“When the shooting, the stoning, the knifing, and the bludgeoning, the arson, and the looting had ended after 24 hours, 35 were dead, some 700 injured 1,300 were under arest and a million dollars worth of property was damaged. War production dropped 40 percent.”
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