[3] In a newspaper interview conducted the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks, Tanaka described how the local Japanese community had "not been in sympathy with Japan's expansion program" and had worked with the FBI and Office of Naval Intelligence for the preceding several years.
"[6] After his release from jail, Tanaka continued to run the Rafu Shimpo, a difficult task since the Issei staff members remained in FBI custody and over 1,000 households had canceled their subscriptions to avoid any perception of ties to Japan.
As the government and the military began to implement plans for removal, he investigated "voluntary evacuation" alternatives and visited the Pomona and Santa Anita assembly centers (then still under construction), reporting on his findings in the Rafu.
Located in California's arid Owens Valley in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, these inmates lived in crude barracks that did little to protect them from frequent dust storms and, in the winter, freezing temperatures.
"[2] Using his background in journalism, Tanaka documented the conditions and experiences in the camp for the WRA and sent reports to be included in a study of the internment policy performed at the University of California, Berkeley.
Fred Tayama, a prominent JACL leader who had been accused of colluding with WRA officials in the arrest of popular anti-administration organizer Harry Ueno, was beaten in his barracks apartment two days earlier; Tanaka was the next target of the protesters, who were critical of his support for cooperation with military authorities that operated the camp, and was able to avoid attack by donning a disguise and joining the mob searching for him.
He also edited "Scene, The Pictorial Magazine", a Life-type periodical for Japanese Americans which ran from 1949 to 1954, and wrote a column for the JACL's national paper, the Pacific Citizen.