Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds

by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

From December 19, 1941, on, every letter that crossed borders was slit open by government employees and perused for problematic details. By September 1942, almost one million envelopes and packages were investigated each week, including the correspondence to and from 3113 Sparr Boulevard in Glendale and 244-7 Furue in Takasu, Hiroshima. Censors blackened the objectionable portions of letters with markers or excised areas with a blade, carving the sheets into puzzles of ragged pieces. In a worst-case scenario, an entire letter could be condemned. Kinu’s three messages would have, at the very least, raised eyebrows. In rejecting adoption, she most likely alluded to the importance of filial piety to one’s Japanese parents. Adoption in the States was controversial, as well; for Harry to be adopted by a Caucasian family could have been rightly viewed by the censor as a ruse to avoid internment. Kinu’s second message about Ohio again concerned a strategy to evade incarceration. Her third thoroughly rejected her son’s desire to enlist, a demonstration of his loyalty to the United States. Her letters wrestled with fundamental issues of loyalty to one’s family and country. In theory, Kinu’s charged correspondence should have been returned to sender. In reality, her letters were probably disposed of at the overworked censor station in Los Angeles.