Date:         Tue, 24 Feb 1998 23:56:59 EST
From: Hidden Thoughts <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      [WRITERS] TECH: Poets Behind Barbed Wire (Selections)

I was reading this slim volume recently and thought it might be of
interest to others.

tink

From "Poets Behind Barbed Wire" by Keiho Soga, Taisanboku Mori, Sojin
Takei, Muin Ozaki, edited and translated by Jiro Nakano and Kay Nakano,
ISBN 0-910043-05-1

From the section on Arrest

1. page 13

torawaruru
toki wa kitarinu
ame no yoi
kokoro sadamete
kutsu no oto kiku

The time has come
For my arrest
This dark rainy night
I calm myself and listen
To the sound of the shoes.

2. page 14

MP o matasete
nare ga totonoeshi
namida komorishi
kaban no omoki

While the MP's wait
You fill my suitcase
And spill your tears.
How heavy its weight.

3. page 15

ko no negao ni
wakarete samuku
hikare yuku
yami shojyo to
ame furi idenu

I bid farewell
To the faces of my sleeping children
As I am taken prisoner
Into the cold night rain

(p. viii) "For those who are not familiar with tanka, it is the second
shortest poetic form in the world, next to haiku, and consists of 31
syllables (5-7-5-7-7).  It originated in fifth century Japan and is
still popular today.  Tanka speaks of nature, as well as human emotions
and allows the reader to perceive the unsaid and the intimated."

Sojin Tokiji Takei, born in 1903, moved to Maui in 1922 with his
parents.  A teacher and principal at a Japanese language school, he was
incarcerated at a temporary camp for two months when World War II broke
out, and then interned at a series of relocation camps.  On Dec. 3,
1944, he was moved to Crystal City, Texas where he saw his family again.

Muin Otokichi Ozaki, born in 1904, moved to Hawaii in 1916.  Another
teacher, married with four children, he was arrested by the FBI on Dec.
7, 1941.  During his internment, he was moved to various camps.  In
February 1943, he was reunited with his family at Camp Jerome, Arkansas,
for two months before being placed in Tule Lake Internment Camp for hard
core internees.