Torn Apart

by Susan Aihoshi

  In English Lit. today, Miss Wright read “The Song My Paddle Sings,” a poem by a Canadian writer named Pauline Johnson. It made a nice change from the usual British stuff! Miss W. suggested we might enjoy one of Miss Johnson’s collections of poetry or even her book of short stories called Legends of Vancouver.

  At Guides tonight, I asked Miss Alston if she’d heard of Pauline Johnson and she had! Next week she’ll bring in more information and thanked me for a good discussion topic.

  Sachi and I got home safely, using Maggie’s umbrella trick again. Thank goodness Vancouver is drizzly so often.

  Wednesday, March 18

  I’m still missing Geechan badly.

  Mike’s been pounding the pavement this week, looking for a job. So far, no luck. At this rate, he’ll need new shoes.

  Thursday, March 19

  I signed out Legends of Vancouver from the school library and am really enjoying it. The tales are all about places I know. Miss Johnson met a Squamish chief who told her many of his people’s traditional stories. She found them so interesting that she wrote them down and these are the legends in the book.

  Reading Legends helps to pass these dreary evenings when we can’t go out on account of curfew. My big brothers and sisters say they’re bored to tears stuck inside the house. They need to find some good books too!

  Saturday, March 21

  Tad and Mike got into serious trouble last night. Tad told Papa they were meeting some friends on Powell Street after work and to let Mama know the two of them wouldn’t be home for supper. Papa thought they’d be back before dark but they weren’t. By 9 p.m., Mama and Papa were anxious. Harry asked if Tad and Mike had been arrested, so Kay put him to bed! Mama was so distracted, I stayed up longer than usual. But it was getting later and later with no sign of my brothers. Papa began telephoning the homes of all their friends, but nobody knew where they were. Mama was so worried she couldn’t even sew. I finally went to bed but I was worried too.

  This morning Emma explained what happened. Tad’s friend Fred Yu told him that these days some Chinese people are wearing special buttons that say I am Chinese, so they won’t be mistaken for Japanese! Most hakujin can’t tell the difference. Tad asked Fred to get some of those buttons for him and Mike, so they could go out in the evenings again!

  Tad and Mike arranged to meet Fred at an ice cream parlour in Fairview before dusk. Fred brought his sister and two of her friends. The six of them had something to eat, saw a movie and then went bowling! My brothers came home on the streetcar and were still wearing the buttons when they walked in the front door after midnight.

  Mama was livid and told them they were thoughtless and impertinent! Papa was just relieved they were safe. Tad and Mike got a very long lecture from Mama in Japanese before they could go to bed. She took away their buttons. And she made them promise they’d NEVER do something like that again!

  Monday, March 23

  When I got home from school today, Harry was sulking and wouldn’t say what was wrong, but Emma eventually got him to tell. Some boy called him a dirty Jap at recess and told Harry to go home to Japan. Harry said he was born in Canada and his home was right here on Oxford Street. The two of them started fighting but Harry’s teacher turned up and asked the other boy to mind his own business.

  After he told his story, Harry burst into tears! Rags knew Harry was upset — he tried to lick Harry’s face. Emma gave Harry a cookie and he finally stopped wailing. Kids can be so mean to each other. As if I don’t I know already!

  Tuesday, March 24

  The weather is still cold and miserable. I hope Geechan is okay wherever he is. Vancouver has a fuel shortage but we haven’t run out of coal yet. Papa has been lighting fires in the living-room fireplace, so it’s a little cheerier at night. Made it to Guides and back safely again!

  Tonight Miss Alston talked about Pauline Johnson, who was part Mohawk. She became famous reciting her poems in England, the U.S. and Canada, including British Columbia. She loved canoeing, camping and nature — she’d have made a great Guide leader! — and she’s buried right here in Stanley Park. I’d like to see the plaque dedicated to her next time we go there.

  I told everyone how interesting Miss Johnson’s stories are and how they describe places we’d all recognize, like the Lions. The Squamish legend calls them the Two Sisters!

  Wednesday, March 25

  I feel terrible again. Mike got orders to go to road camp today. Like Geechan, he’s being sent somewhere near Alberta and must leave next week. Mike said he’s lucky, because his friend Ron only had seven hours to get ready! Tad told Mike he should be glad he wasn’t going to the Hastings Park Clearing Pool first, so I asked Mike why. He said all the Japanese moved from their homes on the coast or the Island must go to the park first. The Exhibition grounds are being converted so people can live there until they’re sent somewhere else. It sounds unbelievable!

  Mike hasn’t said anything but I can tell he’s upset about having to leave us. He told Papa and Mama he’ll wire them as much of his wages as he can. He was making fifty cents an hour working at the lumberyard, but the Security Commission only pays twenty-five cents and deducts the cost of his accommodation and food! The only thing Mike asked was whether he could take the gramophone and some of his favourite records with him. Since he and Tad bought them with their own money, everyone agreed. They’re unusual items for road camp, but Mike loves the big bands. Tad said if he ends up in the army, he couldn’t use them anyway, so Mike may as well!

  Saturday, March 28

  We don’t have a car anymore. Mr. Cowan bought it from Papa for a good price, saying it seemed like it belonged to Cowan’s Pharmacy already, with all the trips Tad had made for the store. And Tad couldn’t drive it anyway. The latest order requires any Japanese Canadian to have a permit from the RCMP to travel “for any purpose whatsoever.”

  We’re lucky we could sell our car. So many of Papa’s friends just turned theirs in at Hastings Park for a receipt and a promise they’ll be reimbursed later. It must be terrible for people who need cars or trucks for their businesses, like Mr. Nakagawa. I asked Mama what would happen now to the Nakagawas’ farm without any trucks to deliver the berries in the summer. She didn’t know.

  At supper Mama described something terrible she learned from Mrs. Shimura. When curfew first began, an elderly man was living alone in a Powell Street rooming house. He was very ill and probably dying, so his daughter asked for a permit to see him. She was turned down, as was the man’s Japanese doctor. The poor man died all alone! And all because of curfew. So far only a few Japanese doctors and dentists have been given permits to see patients after dark.

  I want to cry when I hear things like this are happening here in my own city and my own country.

  Sunday, March 29

  Yesterday’s New Canadian had a huge notice “TO ALL MALES OF JAPANESE RACIAL ORIGIN.” All men eighteen or over in the Vancouver area must report to the RCMP. Since Mike is already leaving, that means Tad and Papa. If they don’t, they have to pay a $500 fine and go to jail for a year!

  The New Canadian has moved into the offices of Mama’s newspaper. They need the Japanese typefaces to print articles in Japanese. The government finally realized that some people can only read Japanese. The paper is being censored now. I guess the government finally found someone who can read Japanese!

  Tuesday, March 31

  I feel wretched. We said goodbye to Mike early this morning. Papa looked glum and Mama was trying hard not to cry, so I tried, too, but it didn’t work. Kay and Emma did a better job but Harry was bawling. It was grey and drizzly out, just like our feelings. Tad and Papa took the streetcar to the train station with Mike. They helped carry his luggage — one suitcase of clothes and a box with the carefully packed gramophone and records. Mike had to show the Mounties at the station that the record player wasn’t a radio! Papa and Tad couldn’t even wait for Mike’s train to leave because they both had to report to the RCMP barracks before going to wo
rk.

  I was just getting used to Geechan not being with us and now Mike’s gone too. We were all very dejected at supper tonight, especially Papa and Mama. I went to my bedroom after eating and said I was going to read, but instead I cried some more.

  I said a prayer for Mike’s safety and Geechan’s, too. I also prayed that Tad and Papa won’t be leaving next.

  Wednesday, April 1

  April Fool’s Day. We’re all missing Mike and feeling so rotten, no one even played any tricks this morning.

  Thursday, April 2

  Tad’s still working in Cowan’s stockroom. He does the smaller deliveries on a bicycle Mr. Cowan brought in. Mr. Cowan hasn’t found a driver for the car yet.

  Mama went to Powell Street to buy fresh salmon for tomorrow’s Good Friday supper. She says she sees a lot more nihonjin on the streetcars these days because so many have lost their cars. But with gasoline rationing starting this month, she might see more hakujin too.

  Good Friday, April 3

  No school for me and no work for Papa today. We all went to church this morning. I always find Good Friday so depressing, and I was already feeling dismal. At least it’s a long weekend.

  Easter Sunday, April 5

  The Easter bunny brought Harry a chocolate rabbit from Purdy’s. I received something more practical, pairs of socks in different colours. But I also got a box of Maple Buds, which reminded me of Geechan and made me sad. We haven’t heard from him yet, even though he’s been gone almost three weeks. But Papa says any letters from men at road camp must go to Ottawa first to be read by censors before we get them.

  Early mass was crowded this morning. Today is the vernal equinox, when there is as much daylight as darkness. It means the days are getting longer and it’s brighter earlier and later, so curfew is easier to bear.

  We had ham for Easter dinner. Aunt Eiko came over around noon and announced that she has a new job. She’s doing secretarial work for the Security Commission, of all things! They like that she speaks English as well as Japanese and has office experience. She’ll be helping out at Hastings Park. Mr. and Mrs. Hirano came for dinner too. I know we all had to squeeze around the dining-room table before, but I really missed Mike and Geechan today.

  Thursday, April 9

  Kay’s job ends this Saturday. Business has slowed down at Maikawa’s after Easter. It’s been slowing down in the Powell Street shops anyway with all the uncertainty. People are unwilling to spend money in case they need it later. At least Kay won’t be sent away somewhere because she’s out of work!

  Tuesday, April 14

  Sachi and I got to Guides tonight without Maggie’s father’s umbrella. It’s light enough now that we can get home before dark. Hurray!

  The cherry and apple trees in our backyard are blossoming. So are most of the flowering trees in the city. They look so pretty, but they remind me of Geechan. He liked to sit outside this time of year and look at the flowers. I’d like to write to him but we don’t know where he is yet. And besides, he can’t read much English and I can’t read or write Japanese. I hope he’s well, and Mike too!

  Wednesday, April 15

  At supper tonight Harry mentioned a new board game the kids at Hastings Elementary are playing. It’s his birthday soon, so Kay asked him to describe it. He said it’s called Yellow Peril! We stared at him in disbelief as he went on to explain how a few brave defenders can fight a great number of enemies.

  Everyone was dead silent until Emma finally told Harry he would NOT be receiving that particular game. Then she explained that “yellow peril” is what hakujin call the Japanese who might invade North America. It’s a phrase being used to convince people that all Japanese are evil. Harry said he was sorry, but Mama told him this showed why he shouldn’t want what everyone else wants. Wartime propaganda again!

  Still no letter from Geechan. He’s been gone a month now.

  Friday, April 17

  When I got home from school today, Mama and my sisters were all talking at once. It took a while to find out why they were so upset. Aunt Eiko had told Mama that their old friends the Haradas are here in Vancouver, so Mama went to see them this morning. The Haradas used to live in Prince Rupert, but the family was forced to move last month. Since then they’ve been living at Hastings Park. After what Mama described, no wonder Tad thought Mike was lucky he didn’t have to go there!

  The families evacuated from the coast really are living in the Exhibition buildings. There are barbed-wire fences around the park and guards check everyone coming in and going out. What a dreadful place for Aunt Eiko to work!

  Mrs. Harada and her three children are sleeping in a cattle stall in the livestock building! It smells disgusting and they have to share one straw mattress. Hundreds of mothers and children are crammed together — the only privacy they have are some sheets and blankets the women have hung up.

  The toilet facilities are wretched. There’s just an open trough without seats or walls and there are only ten showers for ALL THOSE PEOPLE! The Haradas can’t even be together as a family. The children and Mrs. Harada are all in one building, but Mr. Harada is in another and they aren’t allowed to visit each other! They’ve been there almost a month and Mama said they looked tired and unwell.

  The family is having a hard time eating the food provided because they only ate Japanese food at home. Mama saw people waiting in a long line for lunch — a slice of bologna and a piece of dry bread, served on a tin plate. There were no fruits or vegetables and only black tea or coffee.

  Mr. Harada was angry at being separated from his family and tried to protest. Maybe because of that, he’s going to be sent away tomorrow! And Mrs. Harada and the children must go somewhere else, to one of the places where the Japanese are now being ordered to go. Mama calls them “ghost towns.” I wondered why they’re called that, but everyone was so worked up, I couldn’t ask.

  So now Mama is putting together a package of Japanese food and fresh fruit for the Haradas. Kay and Emma are going with her to deliver everything tomorrow. Aunt Eiko got them special passes to get in.

  The last thing to infuriate Mama is that there’s no school at Hastings Park even though the two oldest Harada kids should be going. Mama and Papa have always stressed the importance of a good education to us. We need it to succeed in the future and get good jobs.

  I’ve never seen Mama so cross about anything before! At times, I wasn’t sure I really understood what Mama was saying. She was so distressed, she could only speak rapidly in Japanese. But my sisters say it’s all true. Kay calls the situation barbaric and Emma is going to write to the Security Commission and anyone else she can think of, to complain.

  I should feel lucky that our family hasn’t had to leave our home, and that we eat well and I’m still in school, but I don’t. I don’t feel very good about anything right now.

  Saturday, April 18

  Mama and my sisters went to Hastings Park this morning. When they came back, Harry asked if they went on any rides. Kay rolled her eyes but Emma explained that Hastings Park isn’t an amusement park anymore, it’s where Japanese people are being kept until they are sent away. Harry wanted to know if they’ve been bad and are being punished, like at school. Emma said that’s the big difference — Japanese Canadians have done absolutely nothing to deserve this treatment.

  Emma also explained what the “ghost towns” are. They’re places in the interior that used to be prosperous mining centres but have fallen on hard times. The towns agreed that the evacuated Japanese could live there to help their economy. The Commission isn’t calling them ghost towns, though. They’re “relocation centres.”

  Sunday, April 19

  Papa’s planting a garden and asked Harry and me to help him look after it. It will be smaller than the one Geechan put in, but Papa says fresh vegetables are best and cheaper than what we can buy in the shops.

  Tuesday, April 21

  Mama took more food to Hastings Park today for the Haradas. Still no word on where the famil
y will be sent. Mama said it is so sad to see people in such shameful living conditions. She told us maybe it was sacrilegious, but she wished Father Benedict would pray during mass for the Japanese here in B.C., because right now they need God’s help almost as much as our soldiers do.

  Monday, April 27

  I am a wreck. I’m losing my family one by one.

  Tad took me aside after supper tonight. He knew how upset I was when Geechan left and then Mike, so he waited until the last possible moment to say he’s leaving us too! But he’s not going because he has to. He volunteered to go east with the other Nisei ordered to a work camp in northern Ontario. He made up his mind a while ago and doesn’t want me to worry about him.

  He’s heard that people in Ontario aren’t against us the way they are here in B.C. He told his plans to Mr. Cowan and Mama and Papa after Easter. Even Kay and Emma knew and kept it secret! I was the last to know besides Harry, who found out while I was busy giving Rags a bath. Tad didn’t say so, but I think he’ll try to enlist out there. I’m so upset I can’t write another thing.