Otokichi "Muin" Ozaki (尾崎音吉 (無音)) (November 1, 1904 December 3, 1983) was a Japanese

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short p ...

poet who lived in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

Biography

Ozaki was born to Tomoya and Shobu Ozaki in

Kochi prefecture Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Ke ...

, Japan on November 1, 1904. He moved to

when he was 12, joining his parents who were already living there in Kauleau on the Big Island. He attended Hilo High school. He got a job at the ''Hawaii Mainichi'', a local Japanese language newspaper in 1920. In 1923 he was hired as a teacher by the Hilo Japanese language school. An avid poet, Ozaki was one of the founding members of the Gin-u shisha tanka poetry club in Hilo when it was established in 1923. Ozaki also was a consular agent for the Japanese Consulate General. After the

bombing of Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Haw ...

on December 7, 1941, Ozaki was arrested by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

and incarcerated in the

mainland United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

. For the next three years he was held in internment camps in Kilauea,

Sand Island A sand island is an island that is largely made of sand. The largest sand island in the world is Fraser Island, Australia. Other examples of large sand islands are Moreton Moreton may refer to: People Given name * Moreton John Wheatley (183 ...

Angel Island Angel Island may refer to: *Angel Island (California), historic site of the United States Immigration Station, Angel Island, and part of Angel Island State Park, in San Francisco Bay, California * Angel Island, Papua New Guinea * ''Angel Island'' (n ...

, Fort Sill,

Camp Livingston Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

, and Santa Fe. In May 1944, he reunited with his wife, Hideko, and his children, Earl, Carl, Sachi, and Alice, in the

Jerome War Relocation Center The Jerome War Relocation Center was a Japanese American internment camp located in southeastern Arkansas, near the town of Jerome in the Arkansas Delta. Open from October 6, 1942, until June 30, 1944, it was the last American concentration camp ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. They were later moved to the Tule Lake camp in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and lived there until the end of the war. During this time, Ozaki wrote his poems in small letters on

rice paper "Rice paper" has many varieties such as rice paper made from tree bark to make drawing and writing paper or from rice flour and tapioca flour and then mixed with salt and water to produce a thin rice cake and dried to become harder and paper-like ...

so that he could easily take them with him as he moved from camp to camp. When Ozaki returned to Honolulu, where he worked at the ''Hawaii Times'' newspaper and joined the local tanka poetry society, the Cho-on Shisha. During his time there, he edited two poetry anthologies, one of which was by Yasutaro Soga. He also did extensive work for a charity in

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, for which he earned the Order of the Sacred Treasure. Ozaki died on December 3, 1983.

References

External links

Archival collection held by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozaki, Otokichi 1904 births 1983 deaths People from Kōchi Prefecture 20th-century Japanese poets Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure Japanese emigrants to the United States Japanese-American internees

Biography

Further reading

See also

References

External links