The dentist’s hours are three to four, his dental chair is an Epsom Salt tin, his fillings are temporary, only guaranteed as far as the gate.
The Women’s Committee is surely amusing. They don’t really want suggestions. The nicknames for them are not bad, the Dragon being one. The chairman lines us up to clap the cook just as the Japanese line up for applause. Peggy spoke a word for the toilet cleaners, who were given real claps.
One man says this camp has given his daughter the equivalent of a college education, She has always had everything but now she has learned to carry heavy trays, wait on table, wash floors as well as sleep on one, wash clothes, tend babies and mend—as well as to go hungry, feel thirst, to know fear, to give and take with many. One has to keep a certain detachment or the small things get one down. Otherwise, it is a play, a book, a great drama, history—where one can learn to take a part.
Nakamura says we will be shipped home in two weeks. He oozes relief at the thought.