Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

Transcript

July 19 (Sunday)

Both Mr. Kobayashi and Mr. Sada are serving as a cook now, and they are worried about me and kind enough to do some extra work for me. I am very appreciative as I can eat nutritious food without dentures thanks to them. Some patients and doctors clearly show hostility against Dr. Tanaka. One patient is furious as Mr. Tanaka was extremely insulting to him and placed an order for canned milk to keep himself fed with nutrients. I am very sorry for that.

Mr. Kimura continues to serve as a mess officer at the mess hall. He fell on the slippery floor with lye water all over while cleaning the mess hall and hit his cheek bone next to his left eye with a corner of a table. His x-ray review shows he needs to rest for a while, and he got hospitalized right away and is taking a rest there now.

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There will be a movie showing in the J Section tonight. Many people in our K Section went out to see it, and I was able to sit out and enjoy the breezy and quiet summer night. It has been a while, and I would have to say this is one of the best things that happened to me recently.

Some weird things are happening to some crews in the kitchen area these days, and each group ended up implementing some changes. There are sad-looking mess halls on both sides of the entrance barbed-wire gate in our K Section. The section is divided into two smaller sections K-2 and K-1 with each mess hall in the middle. Barrack residents in each section have meals in each mess hall in their section. Each mess hall has a chef, and we are taking turns working as cooks and others as always. However, it was found out tha ingredients in the K-1 section are constantly disappearing. Discussion was held, and people in the K-1 Section casted suspicious eyes that the above-mentioned activities were conducted by people in the K-2 Section. The truth, however, was totally different, and the K-2 Section mess hall security chief discovered that Mr. Watanuki (assistant co-leader) in the K-1 Section was eating and taking out single servings of food such as ham sandwiches and sushi. This situation simply could not avoid conflicts. The case was exposed by the other section, and we were forced to report it to the administration. As a result, each section in the K Section is completely separated, the supervising officers keep the keys to the mess halls and entering to mess halls is prohibited after work is done. Mr. Kobayashi was appointed as the chef in the K–1 Section as the most fair and appropriate person. Mr. Watanuki recommended someone who would work for him, but the supervising officer swiftly rejected it.

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Folks in the K-1 Section were not aware of what was going on, and their accusation ended up sterling up some unwanted trouble for themselves.

Mr. Watanuki held ambition to become the leader and tried to promote himself to the supervising office behind the curtain while our leader Miyagawa suffered a food injury and was in the hospital for about a week. However, his action mentioned above was exposed, and also he had the ugliest argument about some issue after Mr. Miyagawa was discharged. He is marked as a troublemaker by the officer as a result, and all his requests were immediately rejected. It is also reported that the supervising officer clearly stated that they will not remove Mr. Miyagawa from the leader position, and Mr. Watanuki did not have any options but to express his resignation to save his face. After that, Mr. Miyagawa and Mr. Watanuki came to terms with Mr. Taoka as mediator. Mr. Watanuki started movement to have his resignation taken back and requested support from Mr. Takeoka through someone. He did not have momentum though. The administration viewed his resignation as reasonable and made a decision to accept it.

True or not, they are only focusing on themselves, ignoring motives under the current situation or our future plans. They are even not interested in this enormous hardship where everyone in upper and lower classes pay sacrifice, offering their lives and belongings and doing all they can do for their homeland in this upheaval during the fierce war between Japan and the U.S. They are such pitiful fellows.

There is a report that it is not permitted for those who are going back to Japan to take any new items with them.