The rare Tule Lake Stockade Diary was written in 1943-44 by kibei, Tatsuo Ryusei Inouye. At age thirty three, he bravely answered “no, neutral” to the loyalty questions based on his principles. He went from Poston to Tule Lake and arrested. He kept track of the quantity of food daily and protested the brutality, racism, and starvation that he endured in the stockade.

The military humiliated the innocent men. It led to a seven day hunger strike during a freezing northwest winter.

As a judo man, his word was his bond so he was furious when the hunger strike failed after some men gave in. But most of all, he felt that the Japanese solders were suffering more without complaint.

All of this occurred while his young wife and two traumatized daughters were separated from their father by five fences deep in a remote section of the concentration camp. They exchanged letters expressing their love for the family.

Terry Brian Ryusei Takeda’s dedications says, “My grandfather’s secret diary is a gift from our family to all people who have experienced the trauma of unjust forced family separation.”

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.