Teeth
Mr. Inukai, a dentist, sent a box of cantaloupes to the people staying at the hostel. I assume that Mr. Inukai was also incarcerated and was setting up his dental practice after returning to Oakland. This letter was kept by John Yamashita who helped operate a hostel at the West 10th Methodist Church for people returning to Oakland and looking for housing and for employment. He was employed by the War Relocation Authority for this work. Other churches and Buddhist temples in the area and around California were also helping to resettle Japanese Americans. [Read more about Japanese Americans returning to the West Coast at Densho Encyclopedia here] and about "resettlement" more broadely here. The WRA also set up trailer parks to house people looking for housing.
Kay testifying at Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (1981)
Kay wrote the following testimony for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians:
"At the time of Executive Order 9066, I had platinum braces on my teeth. I had only been able to make one payment when I had to tell my orthodontist that I would have to leave for the Assembly Center. With tears streaming down his face, he clipped off the braces and fitted me with a retainer. He asked me to find a dentist as soon as possible, and to drink lots of milk. But there was no milk and no dentist. In a short time the retainer did not fit and I eventually lost all of my teeth. I could relate the whole experience and prove that we lost everything! But that is the story of almost every Japanese American and certainly the people the weld over in time of war! The irony of our situation is that the evacuation need not have happened with the attendant suffering and agony."
"At the time of Executive Order 9066, I had platinum braces on my teeth. I had only been able to make one payment when I had to tell my orthodontist that I would have to leave for the Assembly Center. With tears streaming down his face, he clipped off the braces and fitted me with a retainer. He asked me to find a dentist as soon as possible, and to drink lots of milk. But there was no milk and no dentist. In a short time the retainer did not fit and I eventually lost all of my teeth. I could relate the whole experience and prove that we lost everything! But that is the story of almost every Japanese American and certainly the people the weld over in time of war! The irony of our situation is that the evacuation need not have happened with the attendant suffering and agony."