Letter - July 7, 1942

Elizabeth Bayley Willis Papers. Box 1. Manuscripts and University Archives, UW Libraries.

Camp Harmony
A-6-46
Puyallup, Washington
July 7, 1942

Dear Mrs. Willis

It's been quite some time since I've written you. Sorry that I didn't write sooner but I've had a down and out feeling with a cold for the past week. On top of that it's been so hot that it was uncomfortable to stay inside and write. A cold in the summer is very hard to get rid of.

We've had to clean out our rooms and mop them. Our straw or hay mattresses had to be refilled and what a time the hay fever victims had. The day was very hot and it felt like an oven inside because the roofs are made of black tar paper which absorbs a great deal of heat.

I hope you are enjoying yourself at Agate Point. It must be wonderful to go swimming in the cold salt water and then to lie on the warm sand. How I wish I could do that! I hear you are having good weather and so are we but lately it's been too hot and we can't do anything to avoid the heat except sit in the shade of the barracks which isn't very good.

My journal was just getting started when I forgot about it. I'm pretty far behind now and don't feel up to writing it. As you said it may be important to historians if it is good enough but it's quite a job and pretty hard to keep it up in these conditions.

What I wouldn't give to be back in Seattle next September to continue my studies at Garfield. Many of the boys say this too. Some of them who were not good students and didn't like school even say this. It is my belief that everyone here would like to go back to their normal life.

But recently I've read quite a bit about taking away the U.S. citizenship of the American born Japanese and to deport them after the war. The Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West are trying to do this, and from what I read they are in dead earnest. Our citizenship is very dear to us and I hope this thing never occurs.

Until I write again I remain,
A pupil
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