Dan Toru Nishikawa Memoir #2 (excerpt)

by Dan Toru Nishikawa

(English translation of original handwritten Japanese text)

The author is describing his time at the Honouliuli Internment Camp.

I recall another interesting incident. One day, Major general Army surgeon from Shafter headquarters came to our camp for his inspection. After his inspection, he visited me in the stock room and asked if there was any complaint.  I immediately informed him, “Whenever our patient came back from Tripler Hospital, he had his diet menu with him. For some patient, it was a soft-boiled egg, an apple or a celery every meal. However, there was no way we could prepare the menu at our kitchen.” Then, he said that fresh eggs, vegetables, and fruits were supposed to be delivered to us everyday. He asked how our ration had been delivered to us. I told him, “Our ration had been delivered to us by a truck every day.  We have full of chili con carne, egg powder, ((pokken?)) beans, and cane syrup as you see in the compound.”  He said, “Something wrong. Your ration should be the same with that for MP.  From now on, you must ask them to give you a list of delivered items, and make sure you receive all the items on the list.”   Around 10 o’clock on the same day, our ration for the next day was delivered. When I asked them the item list, soldier in charge told me there was no such list. As soon as I told him that an inspector from the headquarters ordered us to ask for the list, they hastily reloaded the packages on the truck and left. When they came back again, items were very different from the previous ones; they included fresh eggs, vegetables, oranges, and choice meat. Since then, we continued to receive fine ration items. At that time, we came to realize that we had been treated outrageously for more than a year starting at the Sand Island.

Source:  Dan Toru Nishikawa Memoirs #1 and #2, by Dan Toru Nishikawa 
Publication:  Unpublished manuscript, 1980
English translation by:  Ari Uchida, JCCH translator
Page #:  7 of Memoir #2
Call No. in JCCH Resource Center:  H 940.5317 NIS
Note:  A link to the full text (in PDF) of the translated Memoirs is in the JCCH online catalog record.

MLA citation:  Nishikawa, Dan Toru. Dan Toru Nishikawa Memoirs #1 and #2. Trans. Ari Uchida. [Honolulu], 1980. MS. Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i. The Untold Story: The Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i. Web. [date of access]