Japanese-American Internment Experience Found Poems by Laura Price https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3 G Block en-us 2021-03-25 16:43:45 UTC 2026-03-20 22:31:03 UTC hello@padlet.com The most valuable thing you can lose is your freedom When you are the enemy you lose your freedom And I have the face of an enemy https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358602975 2021-03-26 19:01:42 UTC https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358602975 Suspicion https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358616172 Born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship,
I am a loyal American.
 
Yet I have the face of an enemy.
 
We are an enemy race,
"Americanized"
Our “racial strains undiluted”.
 
Departed...for an unknown destination,
Tommy guns kept at a twenty-four-hour vigil,
Behind a fence like a criminal.
 
Because I have Japanese ancestors,
I wasn’t considered an American anymore.
 
So much we left behind,
But the most valuable thing I lost was my freedom.
 

]]> 2021-03-26 19:05:40 UTC https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358616172 Constitutional rights a meaningless phrase. So much left behind. Orphans herded onto the train. No beds, unable to sleep. Salted liver and smelly outhouses. Guns pointed towards us. https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358617136 2021-03-26 19:06:00 UTC https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358617136 https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358621218 I am a loyal American,
Yet I have the face of an enemy.
Democracy can be an illusion,
And constitutional rights a meaningless phrase.
They said that after all these were but words and could not possibly insure loyalty.
That by permitting himself to be placed in a concentration camp, he would be making his sacrifice.

Why were the guns pointed towards us,
Rather than away from us?
Maybe I wasn’t considered an American anymore.
My citizenship wasn’t real after all.
So much we left behind,
But the most valuable thing I lost was my freedom.
]]> 2021-03-26 19:07:05 UTC https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358621218 https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358627655 The Japanese race is an enemy race. The racial strains are undiluted.  
 
People who were like vultures swooped down on us going through our belongings offering us a fraction of their value. 
But the most valuable thing I lost was my freedom. 
 
I am a loyal American, yet I have the face of an enemy, behind a fence like a criminal. 
 
Democracy can be an illusion and constitutional rights a meaningless phrase. 
]]> 2021-03-26 19:09:01 UTC https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358627655 I am a loyal American yet I have the face of an enemy As tears stream down my face I stared out our little window, unable to sleep Of one thing I was sure, the wire fence was realI no longer had the right to walk out of it And it was because I had Japanese ancestry They said by permitting himself to be placed in a concentration camp, he would be making his contributionI am a loyal American yet I have the face of an enemySo much we left behind but the most valuable thing I lost was my freedom. https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358637116 2021-03-26 19:12:09 UTC https://padlet.com/laura_price5/b1vtl871oz09tbv3/wish/1358637116