Title:
Letter from Paul H. [Kusuda] to [Afton] Nance, 1942 May 22
Creator:
Kusuda, Paul H., 1922-
Subject:
"Nance, Afton Dill "
Japanese Americans-- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Description:
Handwritten letter to Afton Nance from Paul H. Kusuda.
May 22, 1942 Dear Mrs. Nance: For your charming letter, I must say, thank you very much, etc., etc. Fortunately,
I passed through (not by) Shizuo’s place, so I got your letter as soon as I would my regular mail (of which, so far, I’ve
received two pieces). It was really uplifting and “morale-building” to read your refreshing letter. “Blessed is he who
expects nothing, for he will never be disappointed.” Well, I guess I am blessed because I expected nothing and got next to
nothing. As you have discovered (by now) through my previous letter, I am disgusted with the mismanagement of this concentration
camp. So, you have a faint idea as to the way I feel. But, don’t get the idea that I am sitting around just moping and crying
and debasing the system. That wouldn’t be me! I hope that I’ll never be like that! Shizuo Hori, Chizuru Nakaji, and I
are working a little on the idea of tutoring classes for students between the ninth and twelfth years of secondary schools.
Please see the enclosures. So, you can see that I’m not giving up ------- not by a long shot. As long as I can write
letters freely, I shall continue what I consider good for the people. (Gee, I sound a little like a reformist, but that is
exactly the way I feel.). It’s good to hear that you can send text-books to the camps, but does that mean current-usage
books or obsolete books? Does that mean that the camp may keep the books after a semester is over? Are the books issued
as a large number to the camp, or are they issued to individual students? Now, it’s time to hit the hay (literally. We have
straw mattresses and wooden-canvas-metal jointed cots) since it is 10 o’clock, so I’ll have to quit and begin again or finish
this in time for the 4:15 dead-line. Gad, since I came here, I am usually asleep before 11 o’clock and while I was still attending
school, I used to stay up after one or two. Maybe, this is good for my health. But ----- there’s one draw-back, we have
to wake up so early ------ just after “dawn bells peal” (from Rimsy Korsakoff’s “Song of India”-----“Dawn-bells are pealing”).
Darn those lousy bugs floating around!! Phooey! Well, it’s off to bed I go, so just a minute, please. I’ll be back. SNORE
--- SNORE --- SNORE. SNIFFLE --- SNORE--- SNORE--- SNIFFLE--- SNIFFLE ETC. Well, here I am again. I just finished breakfast
----- my dumb, ignorant stomach is filled, but ----- no vitamins floating around. It’s 8:00 a.m. Now, I’m wide-awake, so
I shall analyze your letter. I think I know what you intend to do ----- you want to lead up to my writing an autobiography
of some sort. Well, if you succeed, more power to you. But, just to be courteous, I shall type a super duper edition of
“My Life”. Golly, I didn’t think that you were a “radically minded” person ----- but, I found out that a person isn’t
what he appears to be or something. People who are progressive (it seems to me) are the ones with their eyes open. So -----
I hope that you haven’t changed in your opinions. You asked about the schools. So, here goes: There is a nursery school
for people up to six-years. I don’t know how it is run because as yet, my mother hasn’t enrolled me. Well, that’s all about
school except that I saw a sign on a building reading “Recreation ----- boys to 14.” Schools being established? Phooey!!
Things are supposed to begin popping in the fall. Each time I go to see some person who appears to be “headman” for education,
he isn’t --- or so he says. So --- I can’t pin one man down to ask questions. I am supposed to see a person named Kidwell,
but he won’t see me ----- he’s too busy. It finally worked down to my having to write a report which Shizuo Hori and Chizuru
Nakaji checked over for me. Today, I must submit it. A copy is enclosed within this lengthy letter. What kind of a system
is it when we have to practically beg to help the high school students. We are doing this without pay. We aren’t asking
for anything except, perhaps, a place to tutor. We are all disgusted. What a lousy, filthy stinking management and curtailment
of our rights as “free-acting” people (?) ! I’ve spent two whole, hot, dusty, dry days trying to get permission, and I finally
wind up having to submit a report. Again --- phooey!! Education is not being taken care of --- yet. Everytime I see
a so-called “person in the know”, I am told that everything possible is being done. Nuts!! Frankly, but sincerely,
Paul H. P.S. Since you are so anxious to send me something, please send me some carbon paper. The two sheets
which I have now are in deplorable conditions. I shall appreciate any magazine you send me --- I trust your taste. I read
anything from “funny –books” on up the ladder of pulp and slick-paper magazines. PHK P.P.S. I shall enclose
the story of “My Life” in my next communiqué. It takes time. PHK
Publisher:
Japanese American National Museum
Date:
1942 May 22
Type:
text
Format:
1 item ( 8 p. letter) ; sheet 21 x 13 cm.
Identifier:
JANM_025
2001.175.8
Language:
eng
Relation:
Coverage:
Manzanar (Calif.);
Rights:
Copyrighted;
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to the Hirasaki
National Resource Center at the Japanese American National Museum (hnrc@janm.org).
Japanese American National Museum
Letter from Paul H. [Kusuda] to [Afton] Nance, 1942 May 22