Unwritten Note - Jodi Hottel

[Lawrence Robinson]

Unwritten Note

The news is on everyone’s lips
like flies gathering on excrement:
President Roosevelt has ordered

our removal. Will we be 
taken from our homes like vermin?
I know it must be a misunderstanding,

gossip spread in these
harsh times. I choke 
on acrid laughter.

It is not possible.
After all, I served
my chosen country in the Army,

in the Great War. So I go to see
my longtime friend and sheriff
of Monterey County.

Is is no joke, Hideo. You’ll have to go.
He can’t look me in the eyes.
When he finds my body hung

in this rented room, with
my certificate of honorary citizenship
expressing honor and respect

for your loyal and splendid
service to the country,
he will understand why

I could not allow 
this noble country to tarnish
its honor, or mine.

	- Jodi Hottel



On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 empowering the U.S. Army to designate areas from which "any or all persons may be excluded." No person of Japanese ancestry living in the United States was ever convicted of any serious act of espionage or sabotage during the war. Yet these innocent people were removed from their homes and placed in relocation centers, many for the duration of the war. In contrast, between 1942 and 1944, 18 Caucasians were tried for spying for Japan; at least ten were convicted in court.
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