(I wanted to write something a little bit more creative this time so I decided to write a diary entry through the eyes of an adult inside one of the Japanese Internment Camps using the knowledge and information I received from this week's readings as well as the knowledge and information gained about Japanese Interment Camps from researching it for my Power Point presentation.)
Dear Diary,
“This was not imprisonment. This was relocation.” It has been months since I first heard those words spoken to me when I first arrived at this camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. I remember the day I first came here with my husband and children.
I can remember how naïve I was of how life would be in this camp. Still I smiled with a glimmer of hope and optimism on that day as the photojournalist took a photograph of me and my family as we first boarded the bus, carrying our bags before we embarked on the ride to Heart Mountain. Now, many months down the road, that smile I once had has turned into a frown.
Feeling like a prisoner, trapped inside these walls that surround me, I miss my freedom. I miss my life outside these walls. Now, it feels as if I have almost forgotten what freedom was like but still have the memories of my life before the camp to remind me of the freedom I once had. I long for that freedom once more, even if is only for one day.
I have seen some of the most terrible things inside the walls of this camp. I have seen people tortured and killed for trying to escape. I have seen families become broken so quickly. The teenagers do not want to eat with their families in the mess halls and opt to eat with their friends instead, causing the relationships of families to shatter to the point of non existence. My heart is breaking to see families becoming separated this way and I hope my children continue to eat with the family for I do not want to see my family become broken and separated as well.
Life is so hard here. Wages are very low for those of us who are working. Many of us have been forced to dip into our personal savings just for our families to live a little bit more comfortably. I myself have been forced to do this as well in order to better provide for my family. If my family must continue to stay here against their will, then I want them to at least live as comfortably as possible and I will do whatever it takes to help them live as comfortably as they can possibly live.
It has also become saddening to see other families loved ones die from not having the proper medical care needed to help them. A few weeks ago, I was worried about losing my youngest daughter, Sakura to pneumonia. I am relieved to say that she has had a full recovery. Still, I long for the day when my family and I will be free to step outside these walls once again.
Sincerely,
Momoko Yamamoto
Ashley: I'm so glad you wrote a creative response! I think your diary entry captures the sadness and difficulty of the internment experience. What I like about the poems is that they capture these same aspects through vivid images, such as the outhouse and the watchtower, that put us instantly and poignantly in that situation.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I really enjoy ready your “Diary”, even though you weren’t actually in that situation, you can put yourself in that scenario vividly. I think acting a role in the historical scene is very and unique, so I wanted to play a short role as one of the victims living in the camp, in addition to your diary. Besides the insights from the adults, I would like to go for the kid, since that is one of our discussion topics in class. I am now 18 years old, five years ago……
ReplyDelete……during the Japanese Internment Camp I lost my parents and my family during the evacuation, I was moved to a place which I have never seen with many people who looks similar to me, but I didn’t any single one. The food is not enough, it is considered lucky when I can have 2 full meals a day, and it happened once in a blue moon. I am glad that there are people who volunteer to teach kids like me how to read and write, but I didn’t learn much. The adults were rarely able to make decision, and the kids were never able to make any decision. I follow what they want me to do and that is the key for surviving… now that I have came out from the camp, I knew no one outside and I don’t even know where I really from…..I am lost… I don’t know where to go and I don’t know how can I survive because I know nothing………
Ashley and Anthony, you guys both nailed the creative approaches to this week’s readings! I felt like both of them would have fit right in with the rest of the poems/letters. I think the creative interpretation of our readings on the Japanese internment camps is really helpful in this case for how it focuses on the mindset of someone adapting to this situation. It’s easy to study what kind of problems the people in the camp were afflicted with: “Okay, there were watch towers, armed guards, meager supplies, crushing weather conditions –“ but it’s really important to consider how they responded to these things, and what kind of mindset someone would have in the face of these daunting circumstances.
ReplyDeleteLike in your blog entry, Ashley, Momoko has “seen people tortured and killed for trying to escape” and yet seems mostly concerned with families falling apart. It adds a level of depth that is easy to overlook when you are just scanning the facts. Even writing about how hope was crushed over time. It makes sense that the smiles while going onto the busses could have had some genuine optimism behind them. What about the Japanese citizens who might have had honest misconceptions about the camp being a step above their current living conditions? That is pretty heartbreaking.
Anthony, your creative entry brings up something else I had never considered! In my head, I always assume that everyone in these camps can become friends with each other, no problem. But obviously that’s not always the case. If a teenager were separated from his entire family and left to fend for himself miles and miles away with a whole group of people they didn’t know, there would definitely be some challenges there. I like your line, “I follow what they want me to do and that is the key for surviving…” because it implies that the narrator has faith in his eventual release.