Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

Transcript

April 9th (Thursday)

Our luggage was supposed to be inspected by the administration and ready to be shipped by noon today, but almost everything was done by the end of yesterday. Tables were set at the checking area with several guards inspecting each one of them, but the inspection was quite simple this time as all the items brought into this camp have already been checked when they were carried in or mailed in. I even saw people carrying trunks while I was watching, and I imagine a large amount of luggage is to be transported. They were transferred into the train by truck right after the inspection. After that, all cash we had was handed over to barrack representative Mr. Horagami, the amount owned by each of us was recorded and it was temporarily held by the administration.

A farewell gathering was held after dinner at 6:30 p.m. for everyone who is to be transferred. A bottle of soda was served on each table, and we had a toast, but we could not help feeling beaten up with sorrow and misery. We held a re-election as we will add new councils including a replacement of mayor Taoka upon the transfer this time, and the new councils were introduced at the gathering.

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Mr. Kashiwao [Kashio] [Hakuo] (former Japanese player of Davis Cnp [1]), the president of the Seattle branch of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., has been appointed to take over and be the new mayor, serving as the head of the Japantown in Missoula. Both the outgoing and incoming mayor gave a speech. The speech by the mayor Taoka, who is being pushed away with us, was truly sincere and deeply impressed all of us. The entire place was hushed as if it had been hit by a splash of water, and I saw people sobbing here and there. All of us, whether going away or remaining, had our head hanging low and our eyes covered with a handkerchief. Seeing so many such fellow citizens in front of our eyes, who could not help crying?

Commemorative gifts were offered to each new and former council member to express gratitude. I have attended a number of farewell ceremonies but have never encountered anything more somber and sorrowful than this one.

A farewell gathering was held in our 25th barracks in the evening. Mr. Gen Koyama was the Emcee, and each of us had two minutes to speak. It took quite a while to have 39 of us speaking except for Tsuboi who was sick in bed, we had ice cream that we had not had for months and sandwich treats, and the gathering ended around 11 p.m. without anything dramatic happening.

Mr. Sumio Arima from the adjoining 24th barracks brought a dish of cooked octopus for us as a farewell gift. I think we all went to sleep around midnight thinking about our unforeseen future. This is the last night at Fort Missoula. My dream is over my wife and children.

[1] ?