Tashme Poetry Society

The following introduction to this section was written by Eiji Okawa, currently a Post Doctoral Fellow with the Department of History at the University of Victoria, who graciously offered to provide a description in English of the poetical works of the Tashme Poetry Society which was written entirely in Japanese. To him the Tashme Historical Project owes its sincere thanks.

By Eiji Okawa

Introduction

Two booklets were donated by Mr and Mrs Fukeo Sameshima of Coaldale, Alberta, to the Nikkei National Museum in September of 2016. The booklets are simple and unpretentious, but as anthologies of poems composed by the members of the Tashme Poetry Society (Tashme kukai), they are remarkable records of the emotional history of Nikkei community from the internment era.

Mr. Fukeo Sameshima began to study Haiku when he was 25 years old and was devoted to haiku throughout his life. He came to Tashme from Port Alberni where he operated a shoe business. While in Tashme, he and Kazue were married, the third couple in Tashme to do so. Following internment he and his family moved first to Moose Jaw SK, later to Barnwell AB and finally to Coaldale AB. He was active in the Tashme Poetry Society and helped to produce the Society's publications. .

The two anthologies were compiled in 1945 and 1946 respectively. The 1945 edition, entitled Yamabiko or “The Echoes of the Mountains,” features 339 poems. Reikō, or “Spiritual Light” is the title of the 1946 edition, which comprises 319 poems. The poems are in Japanese, and take the form of a short stanza consisting of five-seven-five-syllables, a format that is well-known in English as haiku. Though the same format is also used in a different genre of poetry known as senryū, the poems in the anthologies are haiku that incorporate seasonal terms and themes, and invoke the elements of nature to express human emotions.

The anthologies provide a rare window to the emotions of the poets and their community during the internment era. In what follows, I invite you to explore the world of Tashme poems through the words inscribed in the anthologies. We begin by looking at the poetry association of Tashme and its philosophic approach to poetry. After that, we will turn to selective translations of the poems.

The Society

Why did they compose poems? What did poetry mean to them, and what light do their poems shed on their life in the internment camp? The best answer to these questions might be found in the prefaces to the two anthologies, seen below. Note that there are two related themes in the brief passage, one is politics and the other the poet’s subjective relation with nature and landscape.

Each anthology begins with a preface of prose and the rest is all poems. The writing is quite abstract, but we see that for the poets, the natural landscape of Tashme was inseparable from their lyrical lives. Touched upon is the idea that poetry was a way of harmonizing the soul and its creative faculty with nature, or more precisely, the awesome and unfathomable aesthetical power that radiates from mother-nature.


Philosophical Approach to Poetry

Why did they compose poems? What did poetry mean to them, and what light do their poems shed on their life in the internment camp? The best answer to these questions might be found in the prefaces to the two anthologies, seen below. Note that there are two related themes in the brief passage, one is politics and the other the poet’s subjective relation with nature and landscape.

Each anthology begins with a preface of prose and the rest is all poems. The writing is quite abstract, but we see that for the poets, the natural landscape of Tashme was inseparable from their lyrical lives. Touched upon is the idea that poetry was a way of harmonizing the soul and its creative faculty with nature, or more precisely, the awesome and unfathomable aesthetical power that radiates from mother-nature.

The preface to the “Echoes of the Mountains.”

Cornered as we are by war into this tight valley, the people in our community are struggling to hang on to their souls. They are suffocating in idleness and distress. When we first arrived here, we felt oppressed by the cold mountains that surround us, which seemed to confine us into this miserable space. But soon we realized how much we are healed and rejuvenated by the blessings of nature, which manifest in the fog that scurries down the mountains in the morning, the setting sun that casts a glorious rouge on snow-covered ridges, the seasonal changes of the landscape, and so on. Indeed, the poems in this collection are the voices of the mountains and the people, and the echoes of our deep joy and gratitude toward the beauty of nature that inspires us.

The 339 poems featured in this anthology have been selected from the two-thousand-plus poems that have been composed by the members of the Tashme poetry society during the period of a little more than two years since the formation of the society in January, 1943. The poems represent the crystallization of the passion and dedication of our poets. Here, we wish to present them to the friends of poetry for their review and appreciation.

The idea of the power of mother-nature is expressed a little more clearly in the preface to the “Spiritual Light.”

The Tashme haiku research society emerged out of the muddy soil of the established poetical circle, hampered as it was with lethargy and malaise. The said society believes that the kernel of poetry composition is the sharpening of the emotions, and the essence of poetical creation is the organization into verses of the emotions that are one with, and are unified by, the magnificent beauty of nature. With these convictions, and with the aim of elevating our poetical spirit, we have been advancing ourselves in the pursuit of poetry. Our work along the way may reveal our flawed ideas that are inevitable during the transitional period in which we live, and some of the verses may be judged as being unworthy or heretical. Nevertheless, all of our poems are nothing but expressions of our “spiritual light,” that is, our pure and intense passion for the way of poetry.

The 45 haiku poems by the Nisei, featured toward the end of this anthology, are works of the Nisei poetical society. In spite of the fledgling state of that association, its members have grasped the gist of our poetical philosophy, which is to “embrace the beauty of nature through the beauty of the heart.” We believe that their poems, which are completely pure with no spot of defilement, represent a great milestone for the Canadian poetical circle.

As seen here, the society stressed the importance of sensibility toward the beauty of nature. To be a good poet, it was deemed necessary to establish a (mystical) union with nature and landscape. That is why the poems were “the voices of the mountains and the people.”

What this indicates is that for the poets, the geography of Tashme was not inert but an animate landscape that pulsated in unison with the human heart and soul. Reminiscent of Julie Andrews’ enchanting refrain in the musical, The Sound of Music (“the hills are alive with the sound of music”), the hills of Tashme were alive with a lyrical vision and haiku verses.

At the same time, poetry was not separate from the violence that was perpetuated against the poets and their community. And here, too, landscape played a role. The mountains that surrounded them were initially likened to the oppressive force that confined them in the camp. But for the poets, the same mountainous landscape soon took on a different role and began to give them solace and inspiration. Not only that, it healed the pains and anxieties caused by the forced displacement. Why? The passages do not speak on this issue directly, but we can infer that lyrical composition, which involved a subjective identification with the elements of nature, had cathartic effects. It freed their emotions from the harsh reality, and allowed them to elevate their inner being to a liberating state.

The anthologies are collections of poems that were composed in Tashme. The poems are organized by the four seasons, which reflects the importance of the seasons in the haiku tradition, but there are poems dedicated to the New Year as well as special events and notable themes. Because aesthetic sensibility to the elements of nature is important to haiku, the landscapes in and around the camp site play prominent literal functions in the verses. The poems embody the complex emotions and feelings of the poets that were expressed through allegoric references to the landscape of Tashme.

The text was written entirely in Japanese, and the poems are not easy to translate. Also, the poets often played with words and infused culturally nuanced meanings into the succinct and rhythmic structure of the verses. What this means is that the subtle messages that the poets worked so hard to connote are easily lost and distorted in translation.

Moreover, we are dealing with a highly specialized texts from a very specific time. They were composed by amateur poets who relished in their lyrical pursuits, and who wanted to share their works with members of the Japanese poetical circle in Tashme and in Canada more broadly. Hence, making sense of the texts requires a certain level of literacy in the repertoire of cultural knowledge and historical experiences that were shared among the poets of the day. Because the anthologies provide no commentary or analysis of the poems, readers are expected to appreciate them through their own interpretive skills.

Some caveats are due. First, the anthologies were produced during the catastrophic era of mass uprooting, when Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes and communities in the coastal region of British Columbia by the Canadian government. The texts allow us to examine how poetry was influenced by political forces of oppression, and how poetry helped the people in Tashme to cope with the events of the day. Second, the anthologies represent a tip of the rich Japanese-Canadian poetical culture during the decades that span before the 1940s. At least we should assume that the poetical culture of Tashme was not an isolated phenomenon but a part of a larger poetical culture that had its roots in the prewar era. And third, what I am providing below are my translation and comments. The precious texts from Tashme can surely be translated and read differently by others. That said, I attempt to let the poets speak by featuring their writings to the best of my translation skills.


The Poems of Tashme

In practice, poems were as much about the quotidian life within the context of the forced internment as the affective qualities of nature. They mirrored the ordinary events and happenings that unfolded in Tashme. The following are selective translations of some of the works of the Tashme poets.

夏の朝
口笛の子に
出会ひけり

Natsu no asa / kuchibue no koni / deahikeri

One summer morning,
I met a youngster,
Whistling along
(by “Quiet Person,” Yamabiko, Summer, 3)

若葉陰
激流岩を
相鬩ぐ

Wakabakage / gekiryū iwa o / ai semegu

The rapid current,
Duelling with rocks
In the shades of fresh-green leaves
(by “Luminous Peak,” Yamabiko, 3)

日のさ中
ごみ焼く人に
蠅の群

Hi no sanaka / gomi yaku hito ni / hae no mure

A swarm of flies,
Surrounds a person
Burning trash in the middle of the day
(by “Wave at Sunrise”, Yamabiko, 3)

行く夏を
惜みて仰ぐ
夜空かな

Yuku natsu o / oshimite aogu / yozora kana

Gazing upon the night sky,
In sorrow
Of the summer gone by (by “Mountain Gust,” Yamabiko, 4)

夏川や
藻草をくぐる
魚二ツ

Natsu kawa ya / mogusa o kuguru / uo futatsu

Two fishes,
Swimming through weed,
In the summer river
(by “Plum Moon,” Yamabiko, 4)

向日葵に
砂浴の鶏の
二ツ三ツ

Himawari ni / sayoku no tori no / futatsu mitsu

Two or three chickens
Bathing in sand
By sunflowers
(by “Guest Boat,” in Yamabiko, 5)

向日葵に
笑ひかけたき
朝心地

Himawari ni / warahi kaketaki / asagokochi

Sunflower,
My morning heart
Smiles to you
(by “Fat Potato,” in Yamabiko, 5)

二の腕に
汗を拭ひぬ
洗濯婦

Ni no ude ni / ase o nuguhinu / sentaku fu

The woman doing the wash
Wipes her sweat
On her upper arm (by “Victorious Moon,” Yamabiko, Summer, 23)

日盛の
光を返し
シャブル踏む

Hizakari no / hikari o kaeshi / shaburu fumu

The shovel I kick
Into dirt
Reflects the midday sun
(by “Pine Moon,” Yamabiko, Summer, 23)

割り込んで
焚火に小さき
手を翳す

Warikonde / takibi ni chiisaki / te o kazasu

Budging in
To place my little hands
Above the bonfire
(by “One Leaf,” Yamabiko, Winter, 7)

戸開くれば
寒月凛と
肺に沁む

To akureba / kangetsu rin to / hai ni shimu

The cold moon
Soaks my lungs
Through the open door
(by “Southern Fish,” Yamabiko, Winter, 11)

ストーブ背に
胎動感じ
毛糸編む

Sutōbu ni / taidō kanji / keito amu

The baby moves
In my womb
Knitting affront the fireplace
(by “Mountain Breeze,” Yamabiko, 12)

バンの牛
古草踏んで
牧へ散る

Ban no ushi / furukusa funde / maki e chiru

A cow on a van
Kicks old grass
Onto the farm
(by “One Leaf,” Yamabiko, Spring, 14)


Snow on Pine

As seen above, the poets of Tashme were everyday artists who transformed the banality of life in internment into inspirations for lyrical creations. Yet they were living through a dramatic era of epochal significance. Let us recall that in the preface to the “Spiritual Light,” the poets had written that they were in the “transitional” time. Their prewar pattern of lives were long shattered, and they were confined in a remote artifice of a “camp.” But the preface was written on February 21, 1946, that is, after the end of the horrific war. What might have been on the poets’ minds at the time?

There are 18 poems in the “Spiritual Light” on the theme of “pine on snow.” That was the poetical theme of the new year of 1946 as announced by the Japanese imperial family, which was related to the emperor’s call for the people of Japan to “bear the unbearable”—defeat, that is. By any yardstick, the end of the war was a major historic event, and it had direct relevance to the Japanese Canadians who were interned under the pretext of wartime national security. What kind of future did the poets of Tashme foresee or imagine? How did they express their sentiments toward the war’s end and Japan’s unconditional surrender? Indeed, some of the poems they composed under the said theme give us indications of their prospects and ambivalence toward the changing times.

雪の松
初日の光(カゲ)を
こぼし居り (込山客船)

Yuki no matsu / hatsuhi no kage o / koboshi ori

Snow on pine,
Casting the shadow,
Of the new sun
(by Komiyama “Visiting Boat”)

高らかに
初陽を得たり
松の雪  (竹田孤村)

Snow on pine,
Shone by the new sun,
High in the sky
(by Takeda “Lonesome Village”)

In the first poem by “Visiting Boat” (Kyakubune, it’s a penname), there is a word play. What’s translated as “shadow” in the original consists of the kanji character “light” (hikari) that is marked with “shadow” (kage) in katakana, which, of course, is not a conventional reading of hikari. But clearly, what is being “cast” (“spilling,” though inelegant, would be another viable translation that would carry the nuances of the original, koboshi ori) is not the ray of the New Year’s sun but its shadow. Keeping in mind that “snow on pine” was an imperially sanctioned theme, “Visiting Boat,” I think, was insinuating a subtle critique of the emperor.

The second poem is different. The poet, “Lonesome Village” (Koson, a penname) is expressing the glittering hopes for the new era, which is captured by an image of an exalted pine shimmering under the fresh sunlight. These two poems present us with a good example of the immense flexibility of the simple format of the haiku poem to construct dense and varied meanings.


Poem of sorrow

Poetry was also a way to cope with tragic events. Below is a poem by “Lonesome Village,” composed after a body of a child was recovered from a river. (Yamabiko, 22).  Factually, there were two children who fell into the Sumallo River, swift flowing in the spring, which flowed through Tashme and drowned.  Their bodies were found downstream by volunteer searchers who organized and took action almost immediately after the children went missing.  They were a three-year-old boy on May 20 1944 and a three-year-old girl on Apr 29 1946.

寒き焚火
Samuki sakibi
“Cold Bonfire”

非常警報
人沸きたたせ
夏天へ

Hijō keihō / hito wakitatase / katen e

People are stirred
By the emergency alarm
That reverberates into the summer sky

夏天へ
死體見つけし
笛寒く

Katen e / shitai mitsukeshi / fue samuku

The cold sound of the whistle
Reached the summer sky
When the body was found

死屍据て
草に焚火を
いらだてる

Shishi suete / kusa ni takibi o / iradateru

Laying the body
On the grass
Then light the fire

死屍据て
焚火が寒し
木下闇

Shishi suete / takibi ga samushi / koshitayami

Laying the body
The fire is cold
In the shades of the trees

いたいけな
死屍硬直
青草冷ゆる

Itaikena / shishi kōchoku / aokusa hiyuru

The stiffened young body
Chills the green grass

死屍硬直
青草揺りて
水音鋭き

Shishi kōchoku / aokusa yurite / mizuoto surudoki

The body is stiff
The green grass sways
And the water sound is sharp

夏天へ
命奪へる
水音鋭き

Katen e / inochi ubaeru / mizuoto surudoki

The sound of the water
That has taken life
Reverberates into the summer sky

緑陰に
看護の焚火
煙らする

Ryokuin ni / kango no takibi / kemurasuru

The smoke from the pyre spreads
Into the shades of green leaves

Note how the body was handled. It was lain on grass, and cremated on an open fire. The service must have been performed by the community in a joint effort. To grieve the death, we can imagine that a funerary ritual in a Buddhist or Christian was performed. But for the poets, composing verses was a way of ritualizing and memorializing the dead. Though the mood of the poem is rather stoic, the metaphor of the “cold fire” that consumed the stiffened young body, while the smokes and fumes spread, conjures up the despair over the tragic loss.


The Power of Poetry

As a way of bringing our brief excursion into the poetical culture of Tashme to a close, I’d like to make a brief remark on the significance of poetry in the context of internment. For the poets of Tashme, poetry may have more than a hobby or a thing to do for leisure. It gave them the avenue to express their emotions and vitalize their heart and soul during the dreadful internment years. It also facilitated a cultural adaptation to the environment of Tashme. At first, that environment appeared hostile. The cold peaks of the mountainous terrains resembled the political force that persecuted them, but in time, the same terrains became the wellspring of their creativity. Being ripped from their homes and community along the coast, the poets engaged with the landscape of their site of internment with cultural and lyrical sensibilities. In so doing, they developed attachment to the new environment, lived a culturally rich life in spite of the political violence perpetuated against them, and shored up the strength to remain resolute amid the harsh and suffocating reality.


Booklet One – Echo of the Mountains

Booklet Two – Spiritual Light