Sachi
Rohwer Relocation Center, Arkansas
September 29, 1942
A far away war
Angry words pelt like bullets
The battle brought home
It seemed like forever that they’d been on that stupid train. Sachi’s body hurt, and she was bored, bored, bored. At first, she could get comfortable on the hard seat by changing positions, but after four days, every position hurt. And she was darned tired of sitting next to Nobu. Tired of sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Tired of using the stinky toilets on the train. Tired of seeing armed guards walk up and down the aisle, looking at her like she was doing something wrong. Her head pounded and smelly bodies pressed around her until she couldn’t breathe.
She stretched and whined. “When will we get there?”
Nobu huffed and rolled his eyes. “How many times do you have to ask?”
“Children!” Mama glared over her shoulder.
Nobu held a finger to his mouth. “See what you did? Now be quiet. It’s the fourth day. We’ll get there soon, so quit asking.”
“Soon, soon, soon. That’s what you always say.”
A loud squeal of metal against metal hurt her ears, and her body swayed forward. Brakes! She leaned over her brother to look out the small opening of the window.
Nobu groaned and pushed her. “It’s too hot. Get off of me!”
What a grouch. Good thing they’d finally arrived—he was really getting on her nerves.
Farther down the track, she saw a sign above a tiny building that got bigger and bigger as the train moved closer. It didn’t look like much more than an old wood shack. And there were soldiers with guns lined up in front. McGehee, Arkansas.
The clacking on the track clicked slower and slower. She held a hand over her eyes to shield the bright sun as she looked out the window to see what kind of place McGehee was. It didn’t look like any place she’d ever seen in California. A tiny little town. Not even a town, really, just a few small, shabby buildings on a two-lane gravel road. The old, dusty cars parked in front of the buildings looked like they hadn’t been driven in years. She even caught a glimpse of a horse pulling a cart, just before it turned a corner.
As the train slowed, the breeze that came through the window—warm as it was—went stagnant. A buzz of activity swept through the hot and sticky air. Whispers rose to an excited hum. Feet shuffled on the floor. Suitcases banged and knocked as they were pulled from under seats, jerked off racks. Children cried.
“We’re here!” Sachi said, jumping out of her seat. “Finally, we can get off this stupid train.” She grabbed the doll Kate had given her before she left California.
Nobu pulled two suitcases from under the seat. Mama struggled with a big one from the rack above her.
A soldier walked to the front of the car. “Rohwer! Rohwer Relocation Center! When the train comes to a complete stop, get off and wait beside your car until you are given further instructions.”
The man in the khaki uniform clutched his gun tight. No smile, either. Maybe he was ready to get off the train, too.
Everyone piled into the aisle, shoving, pushing. It made her sad to see Japanese people acting that way. She realized she wasn’t the only one who thought it was a long ride.
Grabbing Mama’s skirt, she felt her way down the steps of the car. She couldn’t wait to get outside to breathe fresh air, so tired of smelling stinky people.
Sunlight at last. But no breath of fresh air. It was too hot, like standing over rice when Mama cooked it. No breeze. And what was that strange buzzing that filled the air? Zoooweee. Zoooweee. She heard it everywhere. Was it birds? Bugs? Whatever it was made it seem even hotter outside.
Everybody pressed against the train car, its shade the only escape from the sun that beat down.
She looked across a big field of cotton. There it was. Rohwer Relocation Center. Rows and rows of rectangular black buildings, lined up perfectly. Is that where they would live? It looked even uglier than Santa Anita, but some of it looked just the same. Barbed wire all around. Guard towers with soldiers who wore guns over their shoulders.
There were a bunch of people from the town standing around staring at them, just like people in California had stared when they entered Santa Anita. Only these Arkansas people dressed different from Californians. Some wore overalls. Some were barefoot. But strangest of all? Colored people stood together in one cluster and whites stood together in another. But they all stared like they’d never seen Japanese people before.
A large crowd of Japanese people stood behind the barbed wire, some searching, some smiling, some just staring. She’d never seen so many buildings, all lined up like black building blocks behind the Japanese people who waited. Couldn’t they have picked a different color? Not very pretty for a house. How many were there, anyway? She started counting.
Before she’d counted the fourteenth barrack, an awful, loud squelch startled her. She covered her ears and looked around and found the same uniformed man that had given instructions on the train, holding some kind of horn in front of his mouth.
“Attention,” he called through the horn. “Welcome to Rohwer Relocation Center. Wait by your train car until your number is called.” The horn squealed again and he walked to the front of the train.
The sun was hot and the shady area where they waited by the train was shrinking and people pressed together more tightly. Sachi walked over to where Mama sat on her suitcase. “What do you think our new home will be like?”
Mama fanned herself with her hat. “I have no idea, Sachi. We will have to wait and see.”
She looked around. “Where’s Nobu?”
“He said he was going to look for Kazu.”
Nobu had Kazu here. She had nobody. She missed Sam all over again and opened a book he’d given her, even though she’d already read it a hundred times. Reading it didn’t help any. But she pretended to read it anyway, hiding behind it to watch the people that watched her.
The Arkansans paced, impatient and restless, never taking their eyes off the Japanese internees. It reminded her of pictures she’d seen of lions stalking prey. She wondered what they would do if the soldiers weren’t standing between them. She didn’t want to look at them. They scared her. Yet, she couldn’t seem to turn away.
“Go on, get on outta here!” one old man dressed in overalls yelled. “We don’t want your kind ’round here.” She didn’t know what was uglier, the scowl on his face or the way he spoke.
She pulled the book over her eyes. What had they done to make him so mad? Her heart pounded so hard her fingers throbbed as they held the book.
She peeked again. Maybe that mean old man would go away.
A movement caught her eye. By the tree near the gate. A colored girl was hiding behind it. She peeked around the trunk, then hid again. She looked a little older than Sachi. Why was she hiding? The girl stared right at her, but pulled behind the tree trunk every time Sachi looked at her.
Slowly, she peered around her hiding place again. Her skin was even darker than the bark.
Sachi lowered the book and put it on her lap.
The colored girl smiled a funny, crooked smile, then waved hello.