Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

Transcript

April 1 (Wednesday)

Matshishima brothers received a notice from Mr. Taro Kumanaga, who is working on Teikoku Trading Company in Po City that the brothers manage, let them know that he sold the store for a cash payment. Mr. Tameta [1] Matsushima shared the notice with us as he thinks it could be helpful for others. According to the notice, attorneys and others worked on the sale, and the agent and company people are happy with the favorable result. Teikoku Trading Company is one of the oldest stores with rich history in our fellow community in Po [2] City, but it was forced to disappear, leaving the history of the past thirty-something years, as a victim of the war. I have to say it is heartbreaking.

[1] Could be a different name

[2] Portland?

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It is clear, based on what the letter says, that Mr. Matsushima had already known that the business had been sold before receiving the telegram. The letter also says you do not know what is currently happening to your fellow citizen community in Portland city. Husbands are safe and at ease under the surveillance of the government, but all the families left behind have the husbands taken far away from them and have no one to depend on. It is hard to imagine how anxious they are feeling now that they are facing the removal order coming so close. We saw something like who would comfort them and save them from their suffering, and it is hard to read the letter without turning our face away from it.

According to the newspaper this morning, the government is to restrict their supply of tea to half of the current amount. It is a natural policy to take for the U.S. government now that the supply regions for rubber and tea have been controlled by the Japanese military power.