Life Behind Barbed Wire

FOREWORD

xi FOREWORD DENNIS M. OGAWA “Please don’t get cold” were Sei Soga’s last words to her husband as he was being arrested and taken away. At the time, Soga found himself unable to respond; a half-year would pass before he was allowed to see or speak to her. In a poem he expresses his feelings for his wife: After a long half-year I take my wife’s hand into mine And for at least half a day I do not wash away her touch Soga was one of 1,466 Hawai‘i Japanese who were imprisoned during World War II. He was arrested on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, incarcerated at Sand Island, O‘ahu, and placed in camps on the Mainland . This book, Life behind Barbed Wire, is a daily record of Soga’s internment experiences. In his preface, he writes: “In what follows I have tried to record my observations and experiences as truthfully, fairly, and simply as possible.” Regarding his description of internee life, Soga more often wrote about what he saw than what he felt. However, one can gain some insight into his personality in portions of the text and by reading between the lines. Soga loved nature and was fond of walking in the evening. He found great solace in the wildflowers and gardens raised by internees. One Christmas Eve, eight inches of snow fell at Santa Fe Camp: “As the sun gradually rose the snow began to glisten. The beauty of the scene was beyond my words. I took a solitary walk in the snow. I was able to enjoy the beauty of nature even while I was interned.” Soga’s personality comes through in his poems, which he wrote all xii foreword through his internment. Early on he writes of an encounter with a young MP who ordered internees at bayonet point, as if they were “dogs”: “I was so upset by his treatment that I felt as if my blood would run backward in my veins”: Like a dog I am commanded At bayonet point. My heart is inflamed With burning anguish. Yasutaro Soga was born in Tokyo on March 18, 1873, the first son of Kisaburo and Kura Soga. He studied English and later British law at Tokyo Law School. In his junior year, he decided to study medical chemistry, but his poor eyesight forced him to give it up. On February 18, 1896, Soga emigrated to Hawai‘i aboard the China Go, intending to stay just long enough to work and pursue an education in America. On March 5, 1896, he began his first job as manager of a store in Wai‘anae owned by Chuzaburo Shiozawa. He wore the same clothes as his customers, who were mostly plantation workers, and earned a similar wage, $12.50 a month. He worked daily from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. On Sundays, when the store was closed, he helped Japanese laborers write letters and learn English. He later worked at Shiozawa’s Waipahu store, then at a store on Moloka‘i, eventually becoming its bookkeeper and manager. Upon his return to O‘ahu in October 1899, Soga was persuaded by Shojiro Takahashi, editor of the Hawaii Shimpo, to use his language skills and become a newspaper reporter. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the Hawaii Shimpo and the Pacific Commercial Advertiser worked together to publish war news in Japanese in the English-language paper for the hundreds of Japanese domestic servants working in Caucasian homes. Every day Soga worked until after midnight in the Advertiser’s downtown office, translating telegrams then taking his translations to the Hawaii Shimpo to be printed. After proofreading his copy, he returned home on his bicycle. In May 1905, Soga became managing editor of the Japanese newspaper Yamato Shimbun. In 1906, he reorganized the paper as a joint-stock enterprise, completely changed its editorial policy, and renamed it Nippu Jiji. At the time, the six-page semiweekly paper had a circulation of three hundred and fifty. The Nippu Jiji took an active role in the 1909 strike led by Japanese sugar plantation laborers who were being paid $18 a month while others received $22.50 for the same work. Although the industry- wide strike involved all of O‘ahu’s major plantations and was supported by laborers on the...