Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

Transcript

March 28 (Saturday)

It has been a full three months since we got detained at this enemy alien detention Fort Missoula. We are getting used to life with restrictions and complaining less about unsatisfying meals. Let me continue my people watching.

I am glad to see that Dr. Koyama is regaining his strength and his personality as used to be. It was hard to see how extremely distressed and pessimistic he was at the beginning. He sees many dental patients for treatment these days, and his busy schedule must be helping him to change his mood.

As for Mr. Miyako, he is always keeping his cool, and it is not clear whether he understands everything or not.

One thing I would like to pay my most attention to is the sexual frustration of middle-aged fellows like Mr. Kobayashi, Mr. Kondo and the Matsushima brothers.

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According to the report Mr. Takeoka brought to us at breakfast this morning, Japan and the U.S. are currently planning to exchange detained citizens from both countries with Spain as a mediator. Therefore, based on the demand of the Americans living in Japan, sending them back to their county by exchanging them with detained Japanese is considered. International merchants and illegal aliens are the target of the exchange on the side of Japanese living in the U.S., and strict investigation of the undocumented Japanese is conducted for the purpose. We were also told that permanent residents who have been living in the U.S. for a number of years could also be taken into government consideration if requested. Moreover, I heard the detention center in the east coast area has the highest number of undocumented Japanese. There are a fairly large number of detainees to be released, and the final decision was almost made but put on hold as the evacuation [1] issues suddenly arose.

Nine cases of apples, oranges and grapefruits have been delivered to Mr. Hirano from the Japanese Grocers Association of Portland. They were distributed among the members, and we all share and appreciate their goodwill.

According to The Daily Missoulian article on the Washington Journal [2] report this morning, the number and the expenses of Japanese, German and Italian citizens detained in each camp are reported at the congress. As of March 9th, the total number of detained enemy aliens is 4,023 [3], 3,852 males and 2,791 females, and breakdown is as follows. (It seems the newly detained and those who were released after March 9th are excluded)

[1] Evacuation is the word used by the author

[2] 華府電報 - Washington News? Washington Daily?

[3] Calculation does not add up

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Japanese – 2,791 including 36 females

Germans – 892 including 119 females

Italians – 298 including 9 females

The current population number of each detention camp is as follows:

Fort Missoula (Mont.) – 1,859 (Japanese and Italians)

Fort Lincoln (N. Dakota) – 1,483

Fort Stanton (Calif.) – 402

I also saw the following in the Washington Journal [4].

According to the final survey by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the total number of documented Japanese living in the U.S. is 53,582, and among that:

920 – Colorado

257 – Montana

267 – Wyoming

News broadcasted from Tokyo reported that Mr. Ken Harada (former diplomat at Japanese Embassy in France) has been appointed as the Japanese special envoy to the Vatican City. His appointment did not establish an official diplomatic relationship but is widely viewed as the beginning of a de facto diplomatic relationship. It appears to be a wrong report that Mr. Matsuoka was appointed.

Mr. Shonan [5] Kimura (the 20th barrack) from Los Angeles gave a talk at 6:30 in the afternoon. It was the most favorite of all out of all the talks he has given so far. One person was sent to our camp with guard today.

[4] 華府電報 - Washington News? Washington Daily?

[5] Matsunami? Matsunan?