9066

beep of the GPS . . .

still a long way

to Gila River

Granada camp—

my need to look it up

on Densho

a chill wind

off the sheer mountain—

Manzanar dust

Minidoka pilgrimage—

the tour bus slows

for escaped cattle

midwinter storm—

a story of miscarriage

from Heart Mountain

nails in the dirt . . .

the Poston memorial plaque

fading to black

Tule Lake parking lot—

a tumbleweed snagged

at a rotting fencepost

walking the rows

of the Rohwer cemetery

a pair of gulls

a flag at half mast

at the Topaz monument—

all I can carry

sunset shadows

where Jerome’s barracks used to be

no no

On February 19, 1942, United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 authorizing the “forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast.” More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were taken to ten inland “relocation centers,” where they were kept behind barbed wire for up to four years, watched by armed guards.

No-No Boys were “relocated” Japanese Americans who answered “no” to two questions on an American “loyalty” questionnaire, facing continued imprisonment and unlawful deportation.

Densho is a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, Washington, whose mission is “to preserve and share history of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans to promote equity and justice today.”

Of the 120,000 Japanese Americans forcibly removed from their homes, most of whom lost everything, not a single one was ever found to engage in espionage or to be disloyal to the United States.