Grace Morizawa
Knock, knock
Aunty Junko said they came
6 PM December 7, 1941.
[Knock, knock,]
Two tall men in long overcoats and hats
Stood in the doorway,
[Knock, knock,]
Mr. Ikeya, Mr. Kaiji Ikeya?
No time to say good-by to his
Beloved wife who was taking a bath.
No time to get his toothbrush.
[Knock, knock,]
[Knock, knock]
1,173 Issei picked up that day.
[Knock, knock,]
[Knock, knock]
17,000 in all
[Knock, knock]
One third of the first generation men
Priests, teachers, community leaders
Imprisoned, Disappeared.
Kaiji Ikeya found to be intelligent
Well-liked, a leader, a member of the Methodist church,
Interned without family,
Interned, denied rehearings,
Interned,
never seen again by Aunty Junko.
They didn’t know there were informants
Decades before, surveillance records
Secret lists. Potentially dangerous.
[Knock, knock,]
Into the middle of the night
They didn’t know their success meant
They were “enemy aliens.”
Jerked from camp to camp,
Tuna Canyon, Missoula, Santa Fe
Honouliuli, Ellis IsIand
Knock knock knock
Can you hear it?
[Knock, knock, knock, knock]
Can you hear it now?
[Knock, knock, knock, knock]
[Knock, knock, knock, knock.]
Previously published in Endangered Species, Enduring Values: An Anthology of San Francisco Area Writers and Artists of Color, Pease Press, 2018.
Reflection Questions:
Why were Asian immigrants not allowed to become naturalized citizens from the 1880s to the 1940s?
What is the legal difference between interning immigrants who are citizens of countries with which we are at war and incarcerating U.S. citizens based solely on their parents' country of origin?
Grace Morizawa is a Sansei, third-generation Japanese American. Her parents met in Heart Mountain Concentration Camp. She grew up in Ontario, Oregon, a Japanese American community in eastern Oregon, where West Coast Japanese fled to escape incarceration. Currently, she is the Education Coordinator for the National Japanese American Historical Society.