Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

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March 29 (Sunday)

We held two indoor ball games against each barrack today, one in the morning and the other one in the afternoon. The California team was holding up flags and drumming empty barrels, and it was quite a bustling sight like opening drumming for a grand sumo tournament or loud and comical street musicians hired for advertisement.

Late spring air is all over the sky and ground in Missoula. A sash of leftover snow is still winding on the side of the mountain peaks far away, and such scenery in nature intensifies yearning for home. Despite my sorrow, I saw many of my fellow residents walking in the sunlight.

On the radio this evening, it was reported that legal mediations are being made for Japanese living in Portland. Curfew law was issued by the military order this time to be enforced on enemy aliens and Japanese Americans. Mr. Minoru Yasui (a nisei lawyer), the eldest son of Mr. Masuo Yasui, deliberately broke the curfew law implemented by the military and turned himself in to present a test case and to challenge the constitutionality of the discriminatory treatment of citizens even though the target is Japanese descendants.

Institution and human rights are the founding principal of the United States, and judgments of the U.S. Supreme Court will be closely watched.

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The country is facing its greatest historical crisis, and Japan is an enemy nation. President Roosevelt has already launched the famous “Quarantine Speech” in Chicago several years ago and has been repeatedly calling for denunciation against Japan. At the same time, he has imposed economic pressure on Japan and openly expressed his opposition. Moreover, he is proudly displaying its vast resources and the supreme power of the navy and army to the world and pressing intense fear and oppression over nations without means. He has been largely fortifying the military force in Hawaii and the Philippines and announcing to the entire world that he will attack Japan if the nation does not obey him. However, facing the war that started unexpectedly, his unpreparedness and confused reaction is clearly observed.

He also made a large number of so-called, by many people, malicious arrests of numerous fellow Japanese living in the U.S. as if we were criminals. That is all based on superficial observation that we are a danger to national security. The detained are all U.S. citizens. As the war spans out, not only remaining Japanese living in the U.S., but Japanese Americans are forcefully removed from the designated area. Curfew law was imposed on all enemy aliens until the removal order was issued, but a different order was enforced upon Japanese Americans from any other public citizens.

I am wondering if the U.S. government will deliver a fair judgement on the self-scarified Yasui lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the curfew. Observing the total interference with jurisdiction by the president although people talk about the judicial power, fairness seems hard to expect. It is not only the biggest crisis of the U.S. in its history, but also grave wrongdoing by the military in the nation where political parties administer.

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As long as the nation is facing the current situation, unreasonable means can be forcefully taken. Moreover, many people ignore the constitutions regarding the treatment of Japanese Americans mixed with the enemy nation Japan, and it is undoubted that a certain number of the anti-Japanese will take advantage of the current climate in effort of defeating them. It is also unmistakable that the public will go with the flow and call for actions.

I think the result of such a test case by nisei now would create an intense situation for the future. It is extremely interesting and at the same time makes me unbearably anxious.

Tonight, according to Mr. Takeshi [1] Nakazawa from Los Angeles, extremely inhumane and vicious treatment conducted in the California region was exposed while arresting our fellow Japanese living in the U.S. Mr. Seki, who passed away after he was detained in this camp, was told by his doctor that he had two months left to go after a major surgery. However, he was arrested, detained in a federal government prison, and temporarily put in a hospital unit. They took turns and delivered meals to his hospital room, but when it rained, a tray carrying his meal was constantly rained down on in a block and a half distance in between. Bread got completely soaked and was unable to be consumed, and although he requested military police officers a lid to be placed over, it was totally denied and not granted. This seriously sick person was forced to be fed with food soaked with rainwater. Later on, this patient went aboard a train with the other people at 1 in the afternoon, but the train did not depart, and he was forced to sit in the train with all the windows closed until 9 in the evening.

[1] Ken? Takashi?

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Following that, he was sent to this camp sitting in a seat throughout the long trip on the way. It was such misery that his suture finally ruptured during the trip, and he was moaning on his deathbed until he passed away. It is such a horrifying story to hear, and I cannot help feeling my pulse in my blood vessels.

War is truly cruel and tragic. Modern wars seek victory no matter how. However, how would the world view the United States when the nation, which promotes democracy and civil rights, abuses civilians, especially so-called long-term resident second citizens, ignoring safety of human life despite grave medical problems.

It is the very reason why we are extremely concerned about possibility of abuse toward women and children of the remaining families facing the evacuation [2] issues.

[2] This is the word used by the author