Bunro Sakaino Concentration Camp Diary

Transcript

July 21 (Tuesday)

The Police Department has been recently established, and people from each barrack are appointed to take turns and serve. The duty is to collect trash like cigarette butts and paper pieces scattered all over the K-1 Section to make the area look nice. I was the one from the sixth init this morning, and this was my first time. It is such a silly duty, but it needs to be done as we are required to keep the facility clean. The task is easy, and it is important for us to try to save energy by moving efficiently.

However, the leader of our barrack Mr. Sakimura added some more work to this duty, raking leaves, cleaning dust on the roads and asking the others to help him.

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Naturally, complaints came up, and so did distrust and harsh criticism against him. People originally were saying let him do what he wants to do, and gradually started to say we should help him to a certain extent as he would like to show his loyalty to the military although he is pretty dumb. I absolutely stand against Mr. Sakimura’s behavior. He is an advocate we have elected and merely a representative. He should be paying attention to the protection of our old body to promote a comfortable life for us. It is most ridiculous to sacrifice his own fellow citizens in order to accept the agenda imposed by the military.

The barrack leaders held a meeting about the labor responsibility outside of the fence this afternoon, and they presented a report. The administration cannot require us to work outside of the fence, it has to be voluntarily conducted, and monetary payment has been approved even if it is on a voluntary basis. Questionnaires regarding willingness to work, as well as name, age and religion have already been filled out and submitted to the authority by the representatives. However, almost everyone rejected the recruitment of volunteers yesterday for labor outside of the fence. It is imaginable that the initial volunteers were hesitant as the details of the required labor were not available and also as due to the heat with a temperature of degrees. The military found it highly disturbing and assembled the representatives today. One Lieutenant requested cooperation from us and went on saying they alway had a policy to meet with our requests. He threatened to eliminate the canteen stores, stop movie showings and prohibit sending telegrams if we do not cooperate and accepted their request for labor outside of the fence, hinting enforcement of the requirement from up above.

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They had discussion for a while, promised to deliver some sort of official response after consulting with the member of each barrack and ended the meeting.

We were asked for our opinion on this by Mr. Sakimura. Mr. Takeoka, Mr. Usuda and Mr. Horagami joined us to discuss various items. Mr. Horagami’s opinion is that it is not wise to go against the military at this point as it is unpredictable how many more years we will be forced to live under the current circumstance, and we should expect more demands and requirements issued in the future. The majority of his Unit 7 members agreed to work outside of the fence to a certain extent. However, something like prohibiting sending telegrams is not acceptable, and he offered a detailed explanation about how we will emphasize our cooperation with them instead of responding to the administration’s threats to stop or eliminate services at their mercy. Mr. Usuda was insisting that we should be more aggressive and had some small arguments with Mr. Sakimura, who seems to be with the military side. After all, we decided to peacefully accept their request this time and to make sure they understand we are elderly and could not fulfill some tasks in the heat depending on what is required. We all agreed at the end that it is appropriate to offer our labor as long as it is too hard for us, and that we will send our response to them.

Treats made by this officer to close some facilities is unjust and inhumane. It is clearly against the Geneva Conventions. I assume they will take this authoritarian position every time something comes up in the future.

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It is certain that they will push their unreasonable policies as their useful weapon on us if we give in now. This is something we should give our deep consideration, and it is a big issue. Everyone except for Mr. Sakimura agrees that we should respond to them with the most assertive mindset. I of course do not have any objections and completely agree with it. However, we are under an indescribably unfavorable situation and have been receiving unlawful treatment so far. It will be fine for me as I am going back to my county, but there might be more disadvantages and suffering posed upon those who are remaining depending on how the war pans out. I presented my opinion to Mr. Takeoka and told him that we should seek resolution for those threats issues through negotiations by the upper management sometime later. Everyone agreed.

Mr. Takeoka and Mr. Sakimura keep emotional distance from each other. In fact, they had small arguments today. There is no way to find common ground for the hawky Takeoka and the pro-America Sakimura. Mr. Sakimura is condescending, and he does not get along with Takeoka who is rather slow.

I heard that Representative Miyagawa accused Mr. Takeoka and said Takeoka is an agitator in English in front of the administration officers at the end of the meeting today. If this is true, I have to say it is Mr. Miyagawa who is an agitator. He cannot be trusted if he captures a warlord on his side and accuses him of being an agitator in front of the enemy. I believe he is the most dangerous figure and worth monitoring.

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The U.S. government views us as dangerous persons, and he is simply an enemy within for us to make such unfavorable statements to conjure up suspicion against us while we are being held here as political victims. Moreover, it is totally opposite from the truth to call Mr. Takaoka agitator as he is a peacemaker who has paid personal sacrifice in an attempt to promote peace and mutual understanding between Japan and the U.S. I cannot help feeling anger and resentment. I am planning to figure out if this is malicious intention of Mr. Miyagawa or just a slip of the tongue.

Today’s news is that the first exchange boat that departed on the 20th reached the destination. The kiosk sold ice cream for the first time, but it was sold out in minutes.