Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

Transcript

April 12 (Sunday)

The train arrived at a large city at 4 a.m. We found out we are in Denver. Our train needs to arrive early in the morning. It was almost pitch dark and totally silent in the station. This is what we found out later, but a young man named something Yamane was sent over to join us aboard after being detained at a county jail in Salt Lake city for about four months.

The train departed at 5:20 a.m. after staying at the station for about one hour and 20 minutes. We were again going on through the dark. There seemed to be oil fields out there, and I saw oil rigs. They might be for test drilling. What I noticed was that I did not see cars on highways. Not seeing any cars on highways in this nation of automobiles tells us how things go in wartime. The result caused by control over oil and rubber consumption is apparent.

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Not only the quality of our meals suddenly went down after we left Denver, but also the service has been extremely bad. Tin plates are gone, and liquid sometimes seeps out on our laps through thin paper plates. Moreover, this steward calls us Charlie and has an insulting attitude. This is because our diner changed to Rock Island R.R. This is no comparison to to N.P.R.R.

About eight hours after we left Denver, an officer was kindly walking through the train and telling us to forward our watches by one hour. Also yesterday after breakfast, one officer was walking through with the steward and asking us a few times if we were satisfied with meals and had anything to complain about. This is probably a common practice for the army when they detain enemy aliens, but it is definitely a generous gesture by the military.

I spotted a car from Kansas in a small town and also saw a parked car with a Nebraska license in another place.

We passed a small town called Belleville at 6 p.m. I saw a green wheat field for a while and started to see trees here and there.

We slowed down and passed through quite a few small towns in the evening. We were just passing the edges of the towns, but I saw a lot of black children playing. It was probably a school for black children. It also looked like a small stadium with a stand on the ground. I saw black people in every single house. It clearly seemed like a well populated city.

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There was a fairly wide river going through the town. I asked a black waiter where we were, but he just gave me a very simple “I don’t know” answer. There is no way employees working for a railroad company do not know the cities, towns and villages along the line. A strict “no answer” order must have been issued.

A lot of people got food poisoned with dinner, and bathrooms were alway crowded. Everyone was furious and Rock Island R.R. was the target of our criticism. It was such a riot. It would have been almost like bombing an unarmed area and slaughtering civilians if someone had died from the food poisoning.