How To Pack for Internment (150 Pounds)

In 1942, the Government of Canada allowed Japanese-Canadian adults to bring 150 pounds of luggage when they were taken by train to live in internment camps for the next three years.

• Ask an elder. Ask someone old.
• Learn to fold
•  
• clothes you can wear for more
• than one season, for
•  
• more than one life. Same for shoes,
• shirts. Whatever you choose
•  
• must last for a week, months, years
• perhaps. It appears
•  
• even hope must
• fit in a suitcase. Don’t trust
•  
• where you’re taken, where
• you’ll be sent. Enemy Alien, don’t dare
•  
• ask. Take 150 pounds
• in total. And, yes, it sounds
•  
• heavy, the weight of one person divided
• by law. Just keep children provided
•  
• with toys, games, a gentle lie
• so they won’t see panic packed in your eye
•  
• when they look up and ask
• where are we going? It’s your task
•  
• to wrap truth like a kimono around them. Make
• it look artful, careful to take
•  
• the best measure and length
• of the future. It’s the strength
•  
• of the passengers who smiled and waved
• that impresses most, saved
•  
• by their grace, if not their skin,
• their ticket in
•  
• to the train track
• for boarding. Only the trains came back

Photo accessed from the Archives of Ontario