Tankas 

letters and letters

Other side of the fence they go

Wish you all were here

I am having a good time

Hope to hear from you again

The prisoned japanese were writing letters to each other through the fences. They are communicating and telling each other how badly they miss them and to be with them. " Wish you were all here " (pg),.

Nazis and Japs kill them!

From the distance im hearing

Cold towel on me

Wonder whats going on over there

Just bombed out cities of europe.

The yellow man was sitting inside cause it was too hot out side with a towel on his head. He heard kill nazis and the japanese, he was aware what people were thinking but was also wondering whats going on in europe, he opened up a magazine " he saw bombed out cities in europe" (pg).

Eating dogs and cats

For breakfast and for dinner

These are the Chinese 

These are the few thing i know

Until i met a Chinese 

The boy only knew about the Chinese by stereotypes and by only negatives until he met someone who was Chinese who owned an laundrymat  The Chinese were treated different from the Japanese.

Hes coming with us

Need questions from your husband

Slippers no shoes on

come on, come on, in the car

Taken away door after door.

Everyones father is being taken in for questions by the police, all in their slippers " if only they let him put his shoes on things would be a little different, but there was no time for shoes" (pg), They did not care they wanted themin  and they took them in.

The school is open

were held in unheated barrack

So cold could not feel

So called white puffs came out

He shouted his name

The school is held in an unheated barrack probably in the concentration camp, but it is in poor condition especially for kids in that "school". "so cold white puffs came out his mouth" (pg),.

We are finally home

The house smelled and the walls peeled

But we did not care

Our furniture was missing

But it did not bother us

They are finally home but the house smells and walls are peeling and their furniture is missing, people have been intheir homes probably renting their house, but it did not bother them. They glad just to be home " it did not bother us.... We were lucky to be home" (pg),.

Now we ran into

Some people on the streets turned 

Gorgous day they said 

Its been ages said the lady

We had been gone away from home.

"once in a while someone would stop and ask where have we been" (pg), Shows me that their neighbors have noticed them being gone away from home but also hiding the fact that they had been kept prisoner in a concentration camp by saying " Gorgous day" (pg),.

We would change our names 

And if our mother called out

We turned away 

And pretended to not know her

we would never be accused.

The kids changed their Japanese names and personality to seem like an American so they would be criticized. "we changed our names" (pg), shows that they changed their personality.

Glass breaking near me

Awaking me instantly

Gas lamps were broken

Sweating and a very dry throat

I did not know where i was.

Violence is around her. There is fear and there is confusion, There is a better place to be than where she is at, at the moment. " glass breaking near me.. gas lamps were broken" (pg),.

The door was held open

My father never write me 

But that is a lie

Father has been writing me

Every week since his big arrest.

Her father had been arrested because of the fact that he is Japanese, since all Japanese and Japanese americans have been accused for pearl harbor. While he is in jail he writes his daughter every week but it seems forever for the daughter " My father never writes be but that is a lie" (pg),.