Midnight in Broad Daylight
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MIDNIGHT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 1 10/2/15 2:33 PM MIDNIGHT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT A J A P A NESE A MERIC A N F A MILY C A UGHT B ETWEEN T WO W ORLDS Pamela Rotner Sakamoto Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 2 10/2/15 2:33 PM MIDNIGHT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT A J A P A NESE A MERIC A N F A MILY C A UGHT B ETWEEN T WO W ORLDS Pamela Rotner Sakamoto HARPER An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 3 10/2/15 2:33 PM Copyright midnight in broad daylight. Copyright © 2016 by Pamela Rotner Saka- moto. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Harper Collins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007. Harper Collins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales pro- motional use. For information, please e- mail the Special Markets Department at [email protected]. first edition Designed by Michael Correy Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sakamoto, Pamela Rotner Midnight in broad daylight : a Japanese American family caught between two worlds / Pamela Rotner Sakamoto. — First edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-06-235193-7 1. Fukuhara, Harry K., 1920–2015. 2. Fukuhara, Pierce, 1922–2008. 3. Fukuhara, Frank, 1924–2015. 4. World War, 1939–1945—Japanese Americans. 5. Japanese American families—Washington—Seattle. 6. World War, 1939– 1945—Japan—Hiroshima-shi. 7. Translators—United States—Biography. 8. Soldiers—Japan—Biography. 9. Japan—Relations—United States. 10. United States—Relations—Japan. I. Title. D753.8.S24 2016 940.53092'356073—dc23 2015017943 16 17 18 19 20 ov/rrd 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 4 10/2/15 2:33 PM Dedication FOR MY PARENTS, SANDRA AND HOWARD ROTNER Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 5 10/2/15 2:33 PM Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 6 10/2/15 2:33 PM Epigraph Day of spacious dreams! I sailed for America, Overblown with hope. — Haiku by Ichiyo, from Issei: A History of Japanese Immigrants in North America by Kazuo Ito, translated by Shinichiro Nakamura and Jean S. Gerard War forced us from California No ripples this day on desert lake Cactus field local train huffing and puffing At daybreak stars disappear where do I discard my dreams? —three Haiku by Neiji Ozawa, a poet interned at Gila River, from May Sky: There Is Always Tomorrow, compiled by Violet Kazue de Cristoforo August 6, 1945 midnight in broad daylight people inflicted on God a punishment of fire this one evening the fires of Hiroshima are reflected in the beds of humankind and, before long, history will lie in ambush for all those who imitate God. — Excerpt from Sankichi Tōge’s poem “Flames” in Poems of the Atomic Bomb, translation by Karen Thornber Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 7 10/2/15 2:33 PM Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 8 10/2/15 2:33 PM CONTENTS Author’s Note XIII Prologue: Shockwave 1 PART I: AMERICAN BORN, BICULTURAL BRED 1 | At Home in Auburn 9 2 | Hiroshima Sojourn 2 4 3 | Growing Pains 3 5 4 | The Great Depression 4 5 5 | Ivory Bones and Leaden Ashes 5 4 PART II: ADRIFT IN TWO COUNTRIES 6 | Land of the Rising Sun 6 7 7 | A Sorrowful Homecoming 9 0 8 | Hazing in Hiroshima 1 0 2 Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 9 10/2/15 2:33 PM CONTENTS 9 | Panic in Los Angeles 1 1 9 10 | Silence from Glendale to Hiroshima 1 3 7 PART III: THE WAR ON THE HOME FRONTS 11 | Incarcerated in California 1 5 1 12 | The Empire’s Home Front 1 6 2 13 | Arizona Sandstorms 1 6 9 14 | A Balmy Winter in Minnesota 1 8 3 15 | Mary’s North Star 1 9 3 16 | Rations and Spies in Hiroshima 2 0 1 PART IV: THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC THEATER 17 | Suspicious from the Start 2 1 1 18 | To the Front with a Typewriter 2 1 9 19 | No Season for Cherry Blossoms 2 2 7 20 | Taking New Guinea 2 3 1 21 | Pierce’s Stay of Execution 2 3 8 x Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 10 10/2/15 2:33 PM CONTENTS PART V: DOOMSDAY OVERTURE 22 | A Stunning Encounter in Sarmi 2 4 3 23 | Glacial Change in the Jungle 2 5 5 24 | The “Red Paper” Draft 2 6 2 25 | Extremes in the Philippines 2 7 2 26 | Brothers at War 2 8 2 27 | The Atomic Bomb 2 9 6 PART VI: THE AFTERMATH 28 | Bittersweet Reunion 3 1 5 29 | A Troubling Letter 3 3 3 30 | Peace and Redemption 3 4 1 Epilogue: At Ease in Honolulu 3 5 5 Acknowledgments 3 5 9 Glossary 3 6 5 Notes 3 7 3 Selected Bibliography 4 1 3 Index 4 2 3 xi Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 11 10/2/15 2:33 PM Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 12 10/2/15 2:33 PM AUTHOR’S NOTE he true story of a Japanese American family en- gulfed by war on both sides of the Pacific came to me by serendipity one summer day in 1994. I had recently moved to Tokyo and was attending a press conference for former Jewish refugees who Thad survived the Holocaust thanks to a Japanese diplomat. The diplomat was the subject of my dissertation. Harry Fukuhara, a retired American colonel with decades of experience in Japan, was accompanying the group as a favor for his travel agent friend. I saw Harry navigate the crowd at the Miyako Hotel, managing American journalists and Japanese diplomats with crystalline Japanese and English. When I remarked to a filmmaker that the refugees had amazing stories, she replied, “If you think their stories are incredible, you should talk to Harry.” Harry and I introduced ourselves but didn’t talk further. But when he came back to Tokyo from his home in California a few months later, he invited me to lunch. An extrovert and frequent mentor, Harry met with many on his trips. Over the next few years on his occasional visits, we chatted over cheeseburgers and iced tea. Harry confided his family’s story. I realized that there was far more to his account than what the odd newspaper feature had captured. In late 1998, I asked Harry whether he had ever considered a book as a legacy of U.S.- Japan relations, the Japanese experience in America, and the nisei second- generation Japanese American Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 13 10/2/15 2:33 PM AUTHOR’S NOTE story. His story was remarkable, rare, and unknown. Harry soon arrived in Tokyo and introduced me to his brothers. So began my journey of research and interviews in two countries. I would comb archives, museums, and libraries across Japan and the United States and interview more than seventy- five people in Japanese or English in both countries. In Tokyo, I discovered Harry’s parents’ passport applications for the United States and evidence that his father had attended college, an un- common feat for a poor immigrant. Harry, his younger brother Frank, and I talked over the course of a decade— in coffee shops, restaurants, ferries, and taxis. Most interviews were formal, with my notebook and tape recorder on hand. Others were impromptu conversations. Frank, who was based in Ja- pan, became my travel partner. Harry never wanted to go to Hiroshima, but Frank did not hesitate. When the bullet train from Tokyo whooshed into Nagoya Station, he hopped on, sat beside me, and handed me a homemade lunch. We met rela- tives on the sacred island of Miyajima, attended his elementary school reunion, and spoke with the man who had once bullied Harry. One autumn afternoon in Hiroshima, we were walk- ing to the family’s former home when a woman came running. “Fu- ra- n- ku,” she called in her singsong voice. It was Masako, a neighbor who had been with Harry and Frank’s mother on the day that the atomic bomb exploded; Frank had not seen her for more than half a century. She was bursting with memories. The home in Hiroshima that Frank and I entered with Masako by our side? The present owners had bought it with its American furniture and fixtures from Harry and Frank’s mother; it was a preserved time capsule of the 1930s and 1940s. I was stunned that there were also shards of glass embedded in the stairwell, debris from the atomic bomb blast. Harry and I flew to Los Angeles, where he had lived before he was interned xiv Midnight_Final_464_1002_CL.indd 14 10/2/15 2:33 PM AUTHOR’S NOTE in 1942. At the house where he had worked and been treated as a surrogate son, the subsequent owner still displayed the ser- vice flag that Harry’s employers had hung in their window when Harry enlisted in the U.S. Army and went to war in 1943. I could not be more grateful that Harry was a packrat. From his disorderly den in San Jose emerged his teenage Japanese di- aries, ribbon- tied packets of 1930s letters from friends in the United States, and his Japanese military- training text. He also had a small trove of American and Japanese propaganda and captured letters. I had first been drawn to this story because I knew little about the internment. When Harry and I visited Seattle and Los Angeles, fellow Japanese Americans at coffee shops would casually ask him, “Which camp were you in?” This was an im- mediate, indelible bond that few outside this group were aware of.