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

by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

Harry also addressed his isolation. He needed pen pals to combat his pathetic lack of mail. Terry had a large, devoted family and a girlfriend, but he joined the effort. They posted a letter to the Pacific Citizen, the newspaper of the Japanese American Citizens League that was popular among nisei readers. It appeared in March 1944 under the headline “Lonely Sergeants.” For your information I’d like to say that mail out here is few and far between. Letters from back home are what we look forward to the most out here, except for maybe going home again. As the fellows leave the camps for the outside world and the girls marry some 4F-ers because they think it’s too long waiting for us to come back, gradually our correspondence dwindles and morale lowers. So, sometimes in the future, when you have some space in the paper you don’t know what to do with, could you sort of mention in a casual way that there are a lot of lonely nisei soldiers out here living in foxholes day in and day out who would appreciate a “sugar report” or “morale booster,” especially from some cute chick. The editor promised to forward all “sugar reports” and in no time, the sugar began to flow. “Thirty to forty girls each,” Harry boasted. Some sent photos. Harry and Terry, savoring the sweetness, wrote back. Problem solved.