In remembrance of the 70th Anniversary of Japanese Internment

Evacuation

by Mitsuye Yamada

(from Camp Notes and other poems)

 

As we boarded the bus

bags on both sides

(I had never packed

two bags before

on a vacation

lasting forever)

the Seattle Times

photographer said

Smile!

so obediently I smiled

and the caption the next day

read:

Note smiling faces

a lesson to Tokyo.