Thin Wood Walls

Sandy gives Joe a cold bottle of Coke to soothe himself from the heat. Joe chats with Mae, who references the Bataan Death March, where the Japanese Imperial army acted brutally and killed prisoners of war. He reflects that as long as the US is at war with Japan, Mae and other Japanese Americans will be blamed for Japanese military offenses. The Hanadas receive letters from Ray’s family and Joe’s dad. Mr. Hanada writes that he can’t wait to read Joe’s journals and is being transferred to another detention camp in New Mexico.

Joe starts school at Tule Lake. His teacher Mr. Moffitt doesn’t call any of the students by their names and says they all have the same eyes. Mike’s class doesn’t have resources, and Mike learns to type on an imaginary keyboard. Sandy takes Mike, Mae, and Joe out of the camp to the surrounding agricultural fields. The kids are thrilled to be out of the camp, but the meagerness of their temporary escape makes them sad. Sandy lets the kids pick some potatoes, and Mike gets a job farming outside the camp. While playing marbles with Mae, Joe digs up seashells and discovers that there was once an ocean where Tule Lake is.