Blind Japanese Internee Is Thankful for Worship Right

Although James Y. Sakamoto, blind Seattle-born Japanese writer and publisher, spent Christmas in an internment camp, he still is able to find "much for which we can be thankful."

Sakamoto, writing from the War Relocation Authority Camp Minidoka at Hunt, Idaho, to Seattle friends, declared:

"Foremost of all, we are still a nation where to worship God is our individual right, where freedom rings true to conscience and where ultimate justice invariably springs from the hearts of people."

Sakamoto's letter told of Christmas in the internment camp.

"The midnight past, I attended the special Christmas Mass. Shortly before midnight, my wife and I started for the crudely improvised church about a mile away over rough terrain, muddied by a drizzling rain.

Way Is Dark

"There was no snow like last Christmas, when at midnight we had attended our first Christmas Mass (in the camp). The way was dark. We could not help but ponder what kind of Christmas it would be.

"The Mass turned out to be a beautiful affair ... the quiet dignity of the occasion added silent courage to a new outlook on the salvation of America and our lives.

"It was a quiet Christmas day for me in this rather cramped one-room apartment for our family of seven," he wrote. "My wife went to work at the mess hall of this block to care for the children's feeding.

Children Enjoy Gifts

"The children were enjoying the gifts opened for them by their mother, as was the custom on past Christmases. This year there was no tree. Yet the children's Christmas was what it intended to be and they were happy ... seemed no different from Christmas days spent at home.

"The mess hall in each of the 35 blocks that make up this community was decorated with Christmas trees and what trimmings could be made or found. I was happy to note that a patriotic touch was included in the decorations. It was significant of the community's remembrance of the boys who had volunteered and were now with the special Combat Team at Camp Shelby and at Camp Savage."

Sakamoto, a graduate of Franklin High School, founded The Japanese-American Courier, an English language newspaper in Seattle. In 1930, he organized the Japanese-American Citizens' League, which subsequently spread to 54 chapters and 15,000 members throughout the United States.