Haiku poetry – Japanese Americans: Edmund F.

The poem I decided to choose is from Neiji Ozawa, who was the Haiku leader of the Valley Ginsha Haiku club, in Fresno – an established club organized in his own home. The haiku I decided to choose for this is:

From the window of despair
May sky
There is always tomorrow

As for how this imagery captures the daily life of the Internment camps, it’s quite clear from the start that the poet, Neiji Ozawa was facing a sort of anguish in his life. The first line of the Haiku states that he’s staring through a window with despair on his face, a possible connection to the terrible conditions they were in. When looking at the poetic features included in the first line, symbolism comes to find. The window could symbolize a prison, a cell, or a different view because of said window. We can correlate this window to the internment camp he was forced into, and the same window that he was forced to look out of, causing him grief as a result. Diction can also be seen through the usage of ‘despair’, conveying the sense of hopelessness, as he’s trapped in the internment camps.

Next, ‘May sky.’ While short, there can be some connections made here, the first one I thought of was the sky during May. May is commonly known as springtime, a time of hope and happiness, a period of time when the world begins to warm up as a whole, plants begin to spring from the ground, and overall, a swell time. Perhaps during this time, we could make the connection that not only was he trapped in an internment camp that forced him to look outside his window in despair, but it was also during May, springtime, a heavy sense of irony being placed here. It’s the most vivid time of the year, yet he’s caged in a camp of nothingness, conveying that image.

The last part, ‘There is always tomorrow.’ Perhaps this final line could be considered ill-placed hope. Neiji continues to believe that sometime in the future, he’ll finally be able to break free of this. There is a tomorrow that he doesn’t know about, where he’ll finally be free – a flicker of false hope through his despair. To me, it can either mean two things – Neiji keeps false hope no matter what, he doesn’t know when the despair will end in the internment camp, but he’ll continue wishing for it, no matter what happens. The other meaning behind it, is that while the current day was filled with despair, perhaps the next day might be different, perhaps it could be a little bit better.

All in all, the imagery invoked in the Haiku, essentially painted a portrait of a poor man whose life has been caged inside an internment camp for so long, that he keeps a timeless notion of hope due to the extended length of time he’s been in it. It’s caused him so much anguish, that whenever he looks outside the window, he’s only able to feel despair, thus labeling it as the window of despair. The May sky tells us that the biggest irony is the fact of it being the most beautiful season of the year, springtime, during the start of May. Even during such a beautiful time, he’s forced to deep into a timeless despair, that all he can do is peer out the window of despair.

“FREE LAND”Masking Concentration

Ozawa born and raised in Japan lived a life of hardship and overcoming, he left his life in Japan for the betterment of his life and the fact that he stood up for his rights, as he was against the way that Japan was controlled by the government at the time. He parted ways with his native land of Japan, living in the time of tension in Japan and tension in the United States towards the Japanese. Although Ozawa did not himself live through the internment camps that were built for the Japanese people during WWII he was around in that time, although he was at an elder age. Ozawa saw the freestyle of the haiku poems as a better means of getting messages across and a better way of expression than the traditional forms of poetry, which is why he found fascination and interests in this type of poetry. Ozawa would go on to live in the Central Valley, organizing and taking part in the Valley Ginsha Haiku Kai, a group of poets who found themselves in the art of haiku poetry. They would proceed to right poems about their experiences in the United States as part of the Japanese community.

The poem that caught my attention was one written my Ozawa that reads:

“Sensing permanent separation

as you left me in extreme heat

on gravel road”

This poem can be connected to the way that the Japanese community of the United States felt when they were taken from their homes and put in internment camps by United States officials as well as being made inferior, not being allowed to go/reside in certain locations due to them being Asian. Imagery is used in this poem to paint the picture of what the people taken away lived through. Although they were literally “left” in “extreme heat,” the fact that it is mentioned in its own line helps emphasize and has the reader better understand that there was horrible discomfort in these camps, and although the government tried to mask the camps and claim that this was only for the safety of the American people, the Japanese weren’t treated humanely in these camps, not only living in cramped horrible conditions, but also having to face the extreme weather of the rural location of the camps. The imagery of the “gravel road” allows the reader to imagine the path that the people had to take. When paving a path gravel is commonly used, this path had gravel, but this path paved with gravel lead them to hell. This path lead them to a place of discomfort and deprive them of their freedom on this supposed “land of the free.” I left the first line of this haiku for last as it hits the reader very hard, the “sensing” of “permanent separation” the feeling that you will never have what you had once had again, the separation from that life that the Japanese had worked to hard so build. This line captivated the true feelings of the Japanese people and the feeling that they will never be set free from this cage that they have been put in. Their life and liberty stripped away from them. This short poem, in such few lines manages to captivate the lives of an entire community, who was shunned by a “free country.”

Guadalupe Lemus

In the End, There Will Always be Tomorrow

The year is 1942, it is a cold fall morning on February 19, and the world is in turmoil.  World War II is officially underway with millions are dying overseas. Pearl Harbor has struck and the U.S. has decided to enact a law that institutes that any one of Japanese heritage (native-born or not) is to be forcibly relocated to internment camps because of a supposed security risk they posed to the Allies war effort.  Millions of men, women, and children were ripped from their homes, having only six days to relinquish all their private property, jobs, and personal belongings to be sent westward.  They were situated in these camps until the war officially ended in 1945, many having lost any aspects of their former lives, often disregarded on the street, and only having the reality be acknowledged some 46 years after the event.  This is naturally considered one of the darker moments of America’s past.  A classic story of government failing, political hysteria, and blatant racism leading to the suffering of many innocents who had done nothing against the nation or anything to encourage the enemy.  But, as with all outcasts in society, there is always someone willing to record the images of their daily lives in hopes of inspiring others to not lose faith.  

The haiku: a short, seventeen syllable poem was used as an outlet for many internees as they struggled through daily life in such a desperate time.  Poems that really highlight this are often credited to famed author Neiji Ozawa from An Anthology of Wartime Haiku. The man was a very important figure in helping establish poetry clubs, medical novels, and instilling pride in the achievements of Japanese Americans. His work would often deal with his caring of the ill and dying, helping others with their work through critique, and progressive views of freedom and independence. This particular piece of his goes: 

“From the window of despair, 

May sky, 

there is always tomorrow.”

The imagery immediately  establishes the setting as dreary and lacking hope.  One can almost visualize the scene occurring before them: looking out the window, all one sees are bars, single room houses, and the isolated loneliness of being distanced from all other society.  It contrasts excellently with the May sky described, as May is a springtime month.  Usually, this means freedom and enjoyment, as new life grows and the harshness of winter comes to an end.  But in this poem, that harshness never leaves.  The May sky is like any weather that the people in the internment camp experience.  Daily life is a blur with the monotony of entrapment and an inability to do anything they used to do in the past growing ever more evident.  Finally, the final line “there is always tomorrow” marks the idea that the people would resign to their faith vs. the last breath of hope many had to this ending.  The former goes with the overall theme of the poem, with the idea the people would trudge through time, miserable in the torment they were facing under unfair circumstances.  The latter is the reality.  The Japanese people in internment fared forward.  They worked to create schools, enlisted into the army, and created a community in capture.  Regardless of how much pain was dealt, they persisted steadfast in living their lives as they waited for the day their bondage would be beaten.

Jojo C. Chukwueloka

A Consequence of Callousness

As we review history, we dive into America’s past concerning Japanese Americans and their experiences dealing with racism and prejudice. Presented to us are choices of very concise poems that depict the emotion and tangible setting from Japanese internment camps across the states during the second World War. Poetry was a consequence of these traumatic times for many victims, they helped exude vexation and dejection. Haikus in particular possess ways of expressing vehement sentiments in a mere 3 lines. Neiji Ozawa, a Japenese American poet, has written a vast amount of haikus that convey his moments in the internment camps. Through imagery, Ozawa captures the apprehension and melancholy these individuals felt as the days fled. 

Ozawa begins his haiku painting a somber scene by a window where the speaker senses anguish yet continues their certainty on a blissful ending. Ozawa writes, “From a window of despair/ May sky/ there is always tomorrow” (Lines 1-3). A “window of despair” is a discernable depiction of an individual being silenced by glass as the outside world continues on without them. Ozawa uses visual imagery in the first line to portray to the reader what it precisely feels like to be locked away and only witness the gravel leading to the horizon. In these internment camps, Japanese Americans were residents in tight spaces as well as caged by barbed wire fences to enforce little to no escape. In lines 2 and 3, “May sky/ there is always tomorrow” there is a feeling of yearning and ambition that is embedded. The sky is limitless as well as the many days we have to live a fulfilling life, which is what I believe Ozawa is illustrating for the reader through visual imagery. I can imagine the days dragging on in these internment camps. The monotonous endeavors become tangled and the internees must have lost track of time on a daily basis. Ozawa constructs a beautiful poem from the tribulation he and others had to endure. 

Emily Pu

The Road Not Taken

The horrendous things that occurred in internment camps in all various parts of the world have endured things we all attempt to not think about. But it is only through facing these harsh past circumstances that we learn from others’ mistakes to maintain peace and justice. There have been many writers who’ve discussed their horrid experiences in these camps to highlight to us and the whole world why this situation should never happen again. Especially with the poem written by Neiji Ozawa, I feel as though truly captures the experience of Japanese people’s daily life in internment camps.

Through the use of imagery, Ozawa, even with such a short piece and a mere few lines, was able to construct the image of the suffering the people went through. Ozawa immediately opens with “Sensing permanent separation” to show the people in these camps could already tell that they were going to be separated from their loved ones for a very long time, even permanently. Additionally, he adds, “as you left me in extreme heat” (line 2) to illustrate the bearing down of the sun and heat strokes people likely experienced every day from being in these camps. And with a mighty punch in the last line, “on gravel road” he shoves in readers’ faces that not only were they forced into this heat but they were also left on gravel roads. Where the pavement is hot, rough, and unbearable to lay upon. The imagery involved in this haiku poem I believe truly calls attention to what they’d undergone daily in the internment camps. 

Patricia Brewer