Poston

Prologue

California, USA 1942

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The first time Kazunari Ninomiya read the large notice on the telephone pole, he felt like he couldn't breathe. The second time, he felt like crying. By the third time, he did.

INSTRUCTIONS
TO ALL PERSONS OF
JAPANESE
ANCESTRY

Pursuant to the provisions of Civilian Exclusion Order No. 33, this Headquarters, dated May 2, 19942, all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, will be evacuated from the above area by 12 o'clock noon, P.W.T., Saturday, May 9, 1942.

Kazunari cried, then his sister cried, then finally his mother. After first crying, then Mama only looked up, took a deep breath, and told her children, "It can't be helped."

Mama had to go to a Civil Service station the next day and try and sell anything she could. The house, the car, the washing machine Mama worked years to buy, Nino's precious radio, even Mama's fine China dishes, all had to be sold. Anything that was worth money was sold, and the rest was either given away or put into storage or taken with them.

The government told them to bring extra clothes, plates and bowls and cups and silverware for the family, bedding and linens for everyone, toiletries, and whatever else they could carry. Papa's old travel trunk was used for the family's personal belongings, like yukatas and kimonos, photo albums, letters, school yearbooks, fans, books, their required plates and forks, and any dry food like rice or dried fruit. After that, any clothes that would fit went in their suitcases, their linens went into a large cloth laundry sack, and Nino's guitar stayed fastened to his back. They said they could bring anything they could carry, so if he could carry his guitar and his suitcase and their trunk, then the soldiers couldn't tell him no.

They were first sent by bus to San Anita Racetrack, where barracks had been built in the large parking lot for the thousands of relocated persons to live in until their permanent camps were finished. For the Ninomiyas, their first barrack was a manure smelling cleaned out horse stall.

"It can't be helped," Mama only said.

There, they stayed in San Anita through the summer. The people in the barracks had made a school, had church services, and tried to go about life as normal as they could. Nino went to services and ate in the mess hall, but most of the time he spent those months sitting outside of his barrack and watching the red, white, and blue American flag as it flew tethered to the flagpole near the entrance to the racetrack.

What a wonderful place the American dream has provided for its citizens, Nino only thought bitterly as he looked around at his horse stall, just as his sister came back with news about their final destination.