Cane Fires: The Anti-Japanese Movement in Hawaii, 1865-1945

11. In Morning Sunlight

Chapter 11 In Morning Sunlight Koko Head nears, And now Diamond Head! How bright the sea is Shining in morning sunlight! -Sojin Takei Penned Cargo Two ships left Honolulu harbor during the early months of the war: the Ulysses Grant, departing on February 20, 1942, with 172 Japanese issei and nisei "troublemakers"; and the Maui, setting sail on June 5, 1942, with 1A32 nisei men of the Provisional Battalion. Although both ships headed for America, the Ulysses Grant discharged its hold at Angel Island on the north side of San Francisco Bay. (During World War II, Angel Island served as a prisoner-of-war camp; in an earlier period, the island had confined Asian migrants seeking Gold Mountain.) 1 The Maui unloaded its store, as if embarrassed by the contents, under the cover of darkness on the east side of the bay, at Oakland. From here, the paths of the two groups diverged. The elders were placed into concentration camps; the youth were herded to training fields in preparation for their "blood sacrifice." Despite that branching, both fathers and sons-in the Ulysses Grant and Maui-were penned cargo and the victims of Hawaii's anti-Japanese movement. Before military trucks and armed jeep escorts sped the internees through the streets of Honolulu to the waiting Ulysses Grant, the Japanese were subjected to a final, humiliating body search. Kaetsu Furuya recounted how they were 253 254 World War II, 1941-1945 stripped and branded before boarding the ship: "We had to be stark naked ... on the bed and then we had our nose, mouth, hands, feet ... anus, genitals, everything was examined carefully and then we had numbers written on our bodies. In red ink. Mine was '13."'2 Once on board the Ulysses Grant, the human cargo was confined below deck for the duration of the ten-day crossing to the mainland. According to one of the men, their keepers instructed them on the use of life vests, but locked the door to the hold in which the Japanese were kept. "What is the use of life jackets if our door is locked?" he asked. "Unless someone came to unlock the door first, our lives had to go with the life of the boat." 3 On board, the food was apparently "delicious," plentiful, and served three times a day. But there was little water for washing, none for bathing, and the door was unlocked only every three hours to permit use of the bathroom. As a result, there were long lines whenever toilet time came, and for those who could not wait, a garbage can in the corridor served the purpose. Suikei Furuya and thirteen other men were separated from the rest of the group and placed "in a small room in the bottom of the boat" that was kept in semidarkness. There was nothing for the men to do. "1 like to travel by ... boat," he recalled, "but I'd never had such an unpleasant trip by a boat in my life." Perhaps the greatest torment was administered not to the body but to the mind by the suggestion of their guards that enemy submarines lurked in the vicinity and that the Ulysses Grant could be torpedoed at any moment.4 On arriving at Angel Island, there was the usual body inspection: "We were kept naked. Then we dropped down on all fours and our anuses were checked," recalled Furuya. "My first impression of the mainland was really bad." 5 The island was a transit stop en route to Camp McCoy, where they arrived on March 9, 1942. Although Furuya described the camp commander, Lieutenant Colonel Horace 1. Rogers, as "a warm hearted person" who "tried to give us as much freedom as he could within the limit of the military law," camp conditions were stressful, especially with regard to food. "We weren't sure why we were always hungry," wrote Furuya. Internees received a potato and two slices of bread for lunch, and dumpling soup and two slices of bread for dinner. "The rumor began to spread that our mess officer was stealing our share of food." The men complained to Rogers, and the situation improved. On May 25, the men were moved to Camp Forrest, Tennessee; a month later, those selected for repatriation were taken to New York for transportation aboard the Gripsholm for Japan. In Morning Sunlight 255 The crossing of the Maui was...