Summary: Pages 124–154

After nine months in the camp, George Takei’s family was told they would relocate to Tule Lake due to their answers on the questionnaire. Mama explained to George that people were crying because they might not see one another again. George looked out the train window at the barracks that were his home. Nancy cried as the train pulled out, echoing all of their fear of the unknown. The train arrived at Tule Lake on May 14, 1944. This camp was a maximum-security camp for “disloyals.” George explained to Henry that they had to come here because Mama and Daddy are no-no’s, though Henry didn’t understand what this meant. George tells the reader that those who responded no and no were sent to Camp Tule Lake if they didn’t want to go to Japan. Tule Lake was the largest, most notorious, and cruelest of the 10 internment camps. It eventually held 18,000 prisoners, half of them children.

In Tule Lake, the Takeis lived across from the mess hall, delighting George, but the clang of the bell annoyed Mama. Mama was also unhappy to be far from the latrines. One night George tried to hurry Henry to the latrines, but Henry didn’t make it. Mama began to save coffee cans for bathroom emergencies. George liked the proximity to the mess hall because it allowed the family to get front-row seats for movie nights. He learned that the movies had the power to transport him far from the camp. Sometimes the movies were missing audio, so a benshi, an artist who provides voices and sounds, provided the soundtrack. Daddy again became the block manager. He was very busy.

Young men in the camp began to revolt, wearing headbands with the Japanese flag and chanting “wah shoi!” They felt betrayed when the government named them enemies and wanted to show them what kind of enemy they could be. The camp command saw all prisoners as radical “disloyal Japs.” Even Mama and Daddy were considered radicals because of their no-no answers. Soldiers arrested suspected protest leaders, but they often got the wrong people. Prisoners turned on one another, leading to physical fights and insults—they began calling each other “inu,” or dogs.

George, Henry, and Daddy also witnessed guards taking a man to the stockade. George wanted to help, but Daddy told them they needed to get home. George continued to be haunted by the trauma and feelings of shame from events like this for years. He notes that shame is cruel because while perpetrators should feel it, it’s usually victims who feel it most. Unlike many in his generation, Daddy had been willing to talk to his children about internment. George recalls an angry conversation he had with his father as a teen, when he’d asked him why he allowed the family to be imprisoned. George had begun to feel that the Japanese internees had been too passive and accused Daddy of leading them to prison. To this day, George feels pain as he remembers this conversation.

In another conversation, George and his father had talked about the time that, among a shouting crowd, the two were separated as guards with batons broke the crowd up. Prisoners had been protesting the arrest of a radical. George realizes that, through exercising their right to assembly, they had been participating in democracy.

Returning to the camp narrative, George explains that some outsiders understood the camps were unjust and wanted to help. A Quaker missionary named Herbert Nicholson brought a monthly donation of books. But not everyone liked this, and he was jumped by armed men at one visit. Many believed he wouldn’t come back after the attack, but he did. Nicholson devoted his whole life to advocating for Japanese Americans.

By July 1944, George could see that something was wrong. A few months before, Attorney General Francis Biddle had proposed H.R. 4103, which would give imprisoned Japanese Americans the “right” to give up their rights as citizens. When the House voted on it in February 1944, it passed 111 to 23. It went to the Senate in June. Senators in favor of the bill hoped the United States would be able to exchange these disloyal citizens for Japanese prisoners of war. The bill passed and was signed into law. The law targeted the Nisei in particular.

One day in October, Mama and the children heard a man expressing how America treats them poorly and that they should stand up and take pride in being Japanese. Mama and Daddy talked about what they should do; it seemed like everyone thought they should go to Japan. On December 18, 1944, the papers said that the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal to imprison loyal Nisei in the camps. The camps would be closed in the next year. People were confused and afraid, knowing they had nowhere to go outside of the camp. George heard some men arguing at the fence. One was excited to go “home,” but the other said their homes aren’t there anymore. The fences that imprisoned them were also keeping them safe.

Not many Japanese had renounced their US citizenship at this point. Guards told them that if they did, they would be able to stay in the camp, where they were safe. Mama appeared before a judge to renounce her citizenship. She hoped this would protect her family. After a few months, the family learned this had been a devastating miscalculation.

Analysis: Pages 124–154

Being “no-nos” has set up many Japanese Americans to be in a difficult situation. Moving “disloyal” Japanese Americans to a crueler camp is punishment. The fact that they don’t want to be sent to Japan shows that their loyalty lies with America, though America has treated them poorly. The fact that half of Tule Lake’s inhabitants are children underscores the idea that most of those housed are not radicals, the label the government has assigned to those interned. George makes it clear that the internees have faced a series of choices about how to respond to the US government’s demands and that these choices are made without a clear understanding of the ramifications. Some have chosen to be no-no’s, which gets them moved to a worse camp, and Mama is put in a nearly impossible situation in which she feels she must renounce her citizenship or face the separation of her family. The American government has once again betrayed the ideals of democracy. George foreshadows future hardship for the family due to their miscalculation and shows how great harm was caused for Japanese Americans as they were left to guess at the government’s motivations, an unfair chess game.

Just like the first camp, George’s experience in the new camp is very different from that of adults like his parents. While Mama laments the less savory parts of the camp, George finds things to love. His interest in the movie creates a connection that will eventually transform his life. He understands in a small way that actors can have an impact on others. Still, George is becoming increasingly aware of what is happening in the camp. Conversations with Daddy are an important way that George’s sense of identity develops, particularly when it comes to distinguishing right from wrong and how to balance standing up for his beliefs vs. staying safe. He also begins to explain the long-lasting effects of the trauma he experiences in the camp, as well as his struggle as a teenager to reconcile Daddy’s actions with his beliefs about the power of protest in democracy.