"Evacuation" by Mitsuye Yamada

[pirate-poet.livejournal.com]

Evacuation
Mitsuye Yamada

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.

from Camp Notes and Other Poems

Background on this poem can be found in this article (see page 2).

Comments

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the background on this.

[pirate-poet.livejournal.com]

I wanted to post a link to the photograph as well, but I haven't been able to find it online. :(

[moireach.livejournal.com]

I just spent a few minutes looking and me neither. :/ I wish the Seattle Times had their full archives online like the NYT. I did find the full text of the caption, if it's helpful for your searching: "Note smiling faces attesting to good treatment at the camp; a lesson for Tokyo."

[pirate-poet.livejournal.com]

I was at an exhibition opening this evening where a print of the photograph is on display. It was really striking to have it on the wall next to the poem... I'm going to go back tomorrow and see if I can find more information about it. It's got to be somewhere online!...

[moireach.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds really powerful. You could always take a picture of the picture, to post here!

[pirate-poet.livejournal.com]

If they allow photography in the gallery, I'll try!
This is the exhibition: http://kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/Challenge

[alwaysashipper.livejournal.com]

This is excellent. Thanks for posting.