[Letter to Clara Breed from Fusa Tsumagari, Poston, Arizona, January 30, 1943]

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[Letter to Clara Breed from Fusa Tsumagari, Poston, Arizona, January 30, 1943]

Maker Tsumagari, Fusa

Date1943

Mediumpaper, ink

ClassificationsArchives

Credit LineGift of Elizabeth Y. Yamada

Object number93.75.31EP

DescriptionTranscription:
323-11-D/Poston, Arizona/Jan. 30, 1943/Dear Miss Breed,/I have given up apologizing--you see--every time I write to you it is necessary to apologize for not having written sooner. So--no more apologies for a while!/On the 28th of January my brother left for Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since then my mother and I find home lonely and missing something. If it wasn't for my pet radio I think I should go crazy with the unusual quiet. We will, of couse, in due time get used to the quiet and probably think nothing of it later. Perhaps in a few months we may move to Colorado to join my sister, but that is still vague. /Though many families are planning to join their fathers in internment camps, we probably will not be among them. The only reason for this is that I am unwilling to go. My mother will not go without me so there we are--right back where we started from. Other than being with my father I cannot see any advantage in going to an internment camp, therefore I am reluctant to go. The drawbacks are too many: once we go in we cannot get out until after the war, there would be much closer supervision of our lives, all our letters would be censored, and when we got out we would have absolutely nothing on which to fall back. The picture in my mind is to join my sister in Colorado. Her husband is doing outside work. We could stay in the center until the time that he could set up house. Of course we are leaning quite a bit on them, but in times like these we cannot help that as my father is interned. When the war ends my father would be able to join us, and we would at least have something to start us off anew. This problem has been bothering me for quite a while, but I feel that I am right in not wanting to go, though my father may not like the decision too well./I forgot to mention that my brother was granted permission to see my father in Louisiana while en route to school. He is taking a round-about way to school. He probably arrived there today and has seen my father by now. A great deal of what my brother writes and lets us know will sway our decision whether to go or stay in a relocation center. /My goodness, I forgot to thank you got sending the book "The Disappearance of Kit Shane." It was quite different from those you sent me before and I enjoyed solving the mystery with the author. I have meant to ask you whether I should return these books to you after my friends have finished reading them or not. You send me so many books that I feel that it is costing you lots of money and that they should be returned. Please let me know. If not, I will be more than happy to donate them to the library for you./How is the library now? Is it as busy as ever? The influx of population must keep you twice as busy these days. How is your mother now? I hope she is feeling much better now. /Other than working everyday I do not do very much. Over the week ends we go to see various basketball games. We have a movie every Friday night providing it does not rain. We still go to shows in the open air which is now rather chilly. The stars seem very near and every once in a while we see a falling star which is breathtaking. Moving airplanes often look like falling stars, but we can hear them as well as see them./In the daytime they often swoop down very low and try to scare us. They don't scare us anymore--just get on our nerves. Now a ruling has been issued that if the swoop down on us less than 200' we should take down the number and report it to the officials. This has helped us quite a bit but there are still some pranksters, but we don't bother with them anymore. I guess we would do the same if we were the pilots and wanted some fun. An airplane was an oddity in Santa Anita but it feels like home (S.D.!) over here./During the week it rained quite a bit. I certainly enjoyed the rain but I really hated the slushy mud. It is amazing that the water does not seep into the ground very deeply. When one digs only a foot deep it is completely dry much to our amazement!/February 2, 1942/Your letter arrived before I had finished my chatter by mail. Thanks for your very nice letter. About a week after getting the information for you the head librarian of Camp 3, Miss Shiota, came to me and told me that no news from here could be published without the O.K. of the Project Director. She said that she had not known about this ruling until she had casually mentioned it to . This lady said that most articles would be sent back to source for OK before being published--so not to worry. Anyway no one would be to blame if an issue should arise because no one knew about the ruling. In case you should want to publish anything concerning the library here I would be more than glad to get the OK for you as Mr. Head's (Proj. Director) Secretary is a very good friend of mine and she would be willing to help. This seems like unnecessary red tape but everything in Poston is connected with too much red tape. Everything in Poston takes time, too./Yes, now we have a stove with oil. We had a stove for about a month, but no fuel. The stoves do not make the room too warm due to ventilation via knotholes in the floor, but if get close to it we can feel the heat./
Yes, it seems rather queer to be out of school--in fact I rather miss it--but I'm glad I received my diploma outside. Many students who were told that they would be given full credit in spite of evacuation now find that they were given 1/2 or less credits. This causes them to either change their program with additional subjects added or to fall back a semester. Others seem to think that their diplomas from Poston will not be valid if they try to go to college. I think they (the diplomas) will be all right to get into college./I will send you the book "Disappearance of Kit Shane" as soon as possible. We (my girl friends & I) traded books with each other. She now has "The Woman You Want to Be" and "Kit Shane" while I'm reading Cornelia Otis Shinner's "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay." I got Mr. Van Dine's "Gracie Allen Murder Case" from the library today and if it isn't good Mr. Van Dine will not be on my reading list. As a general rule I don't like murder stories so it'd better be good. I really like Sherlock Holmes, though--because he doesn't go into the gory side of the murder and goes into analysis. /Well enuf rambling. I hope to hear from you soon again./Sincerely/Fusa/;1 letter and envelope from Fusa Tsumagari to Clara Breed.