The Camp. Poem by Elle McKay

**This is about Japanese internment, it was a bonus assignment but I liked it so here it is. =)


I saw the poster
So I tried to join, it looked like fun,
most of all it looked like money.
Money I hadn’t had for, well
as long as I remember caring about money.
Seventeen
Tall
Muscular
The air force?
No problem.
OH, but
They didn’t take me
No, they didn’t take me
Not for flat feet
Not for glasses
Or heart problems
Or broken teeth
Like the usual.
I had heard the stories
in the Great War,
the First War,
the War to End All Wars,
one toe missing
and they never took you.
Here I am,
all in one piece.
My mother is proud of me
for being so healthy.
My dad would be too, but he isn’t here
They took him away
I don’t know where
Probably in a town
Where everyone is excited about the victory
the fame
the honour
of war,
to work like the rest
of the fishermen.
War isn’t a time for victory,
It’s a time for
hatred
against
people.
Not just any people,
But a country’s own citizens.
I was born here,
I told them,
They could look it up,
I was born here.
But they didn’t care and
Not only did they reject me
From the one job
I could possibly get,
They gave me a form
And said,
Fill this out
It’s important.
So I did,
hoping maybe
That by some insane chance,
This form would get me into the army
Or the navy
Or something, anything,
But it didn’t.
I filled out the form and
They took it back.
They said to go to the train station,
2: 30
Saturday.
One suitcase, only
One.
Bring your mother. And your dear little sister.
And we went
And they put us on a train, and I
asked where we were going.
They said someplace special,
Safe.
I noticed
no one on the train
was white.
Or black.
All the same ethnicity,
and I asked where
Once more.
For a chance to know.
And they said,
well.
You’re not going home for a while,
I’ll tell you that.
And it clicked
And all my friends
Relatives
all went too
I had heard
about this place
These places.
And in a dying effort
as the train
started the engines
and the doors were closing,
and the whole population of the train looked ever more
lost,
I said
Please,
I’ve never even been to
Japan.