Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

Transcript

May 4 (Monday)

Buddhism memorial service for late Mr. Otomo was held in the hallway in a camp facility. All fellow Japanese lined up on both sides of the front part of the east gate to receive the coffin when it was time and put it down on the most shabby looking altar set up at the west part of the space. We all lined up in a column and gave him our most respectful solute. Initially, Catholic service was scheduled to be conducted by the army, but they found out the deceased was Buddhist and quickly changed it to Buddhist service. 54 Buddhist monks from Hawaii and three from the mainland chanted the sutras. Such service is rare to see these days. I was located toward the end of the line and just managed to see the back of a section of the monks, but the area around the coffin was occupied by people from Panama. I also saw Consul General of Spain and a clerk from the Department of State, who happened to be visiting at time, were joining in the line with the camp officers behind the altar.

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His coffin was quietly carried by the folks from Panama, and the attending fellow Japanese returned to the position in the lines and offered him our most respectful salute while it was carried into a vehicle waiting for him at the east gate.

Burial was scheduled according to the regulations in Oklahoma State, and one representative of fellow Japanese in the camp and also of his personal friends were permitted to attend the burials and accompanied the coffin. Funeral of the first victim of malicious arrest at the prison in Oklahoma was solemnly conducted and attended by seven hundred fellow Japanese and came to an end.

His memorial gathering was held at the mess hall in the first section (outside of the area occupied by the fellow Japanese from Panama) and attended by the leaders from each tent. His friends offered their gratitude and a brief history of the deceased at the gathering. We were 0,that late Mr. Otomo as a pioneer ran a lumber mill patronized by the government before the war, and with his total assets amounting to 300,000 dollars, he is worth to be noted as one of the most successful people. His friend mentioned above said in his speech that the deceased would have attended with care by his wife and child/children, but it would have been impossible in Panama to be treated by a Japanese doctor even for a million dollars. He was most satisfied to be treated by a fellow Japanese doctor. Moreover, current information about the war between Japan and the U.S. was not available before he departed from Panama and was interned in the continent. However, he was deeply satisfied with the news about the war provided by the representative of his fellow Japanese from the continent in his hospital room in the camp. His funeral was attended by hundreds of representatives and fellow Japanese to solemnly mark the end of his full life, and it is more than enough to put him to rest in peace. We could not help shedding our tears listening to him.

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According to the letters both Mr. Miyako and Mr. Iwata received from his family, rounding up was recently reconducted again in Po [1] city, and about 20 people including Kunihiko Tanaka, Yutaka Tanaka, Hiroshi Kato and Taniji Nakagawa were arrested.

Mr. Takeoka is scheduled to report on the details about the meeting with the Consul General of Spain tomorrow. Our agreement is to make announcements such as mentioned above correctly at the same time by the representatives of each area, based on one recorded source. Some representatives though, trying to score a scoop, announced it this evening.

Interestingly, in such a national crisis there is still this power struggle going on amongst the fellow Japanese in this camp. I find it rather comical and also sometimes indecent that they annoyingly argue about things about southern California and a smaller number of people from the north west and so on.

[1] Portland?