Because it doesn’t matter how good we are. Cause they only see what they want to see.

—

Now some hakujin strangers are going to take it. They don’t want our alien faces in their neighborhoods, but they don’t mind our lacquerware in their homes.

—

The army guys are here to recruit volunteers for Roosevelt’s new combat team. See, we don’t got liberty, we don’t got property, but you better believe we’ve got the Great American Right to die for a country that doesn’t want us.

—

Lieutenant So-and-So says the combat team is gonna show the ketos how American we are, how wrong they were to lock us up. Like it’s our job to fix the prejudice in this country.

—

 “Yeah, it is. But you can’t fight everything, Frankie. You’ve got to pick something to fight for, or you’ll wear yourself out trying to fight the world.”

—

I thought things were normal again. I thought I couldn’t lose. But maybe it’s my fault, because it took me until now to realize it—as long as this is our normal, people like me can always lose.

—

They all wear different hats and different uniforms, but they’re all there to do the same thing: contain us.

Why won’t anybody admit they were wrong? Why won’t they just call this what it is? Why does everyone keep lying? They said we were citizens. They said we were “dangerous.” They told us they were being considerate of our needs. They said it was an “evacuation” and a “migration,” not an incarceration. They said the camps were full of opportunity. They said they weren’t violating our rights. I run out of rocks before I run out of windows. And for what? So they can save face? So they can go on thinking they were right?

—

He says he’s being fed well, and he asks for a change of clothes, a shaving razor, and maybe one of those law books from the library, if we can get it. He doesn’t mention any mistreatment, but the mail is being censored through the military police, so we can’t be certain of anything.

—

“If someone always said, You have to do this for me before I do this for you, then nothing would ever get done,” he says. “If I say I will do something, then I do it. Acting in a forthright and honest manner is the only way to retain one’s dignity.”

—

You know what’s funny? If a white guy abandons his post, he’s a coward. It’s a shame. But he’s just one guy. But if a Nisei did that? Hell, it wouldn’t just reflect on him, would it? Nah, we’d all be cowards.