I asked Miss McKim to please say “Auld Lang Syne” to Tomibe San for me and to tell him I will long remember the two evenings when he conveyed to us the spirit of Japan, and that if each person is, in a sense, an ambassador from his native land, then he has done his country a great service in here. In a way it is a relief to have him go before hostilities for guerrilla revenge will make no discrimination, no concession. All Japanese will be alike to them. In Manila he may escape death at the hands of Americans, but not among the mountain people, and I would not want to see it.
Sister tells us that once in a discussion with Miss McKim about the cause and start of the war, Hayakawa said, ‘”We had to strike first or America would have.” He was educated in Japan but born in the Philippines. Nakamura who knew Americans from close association in the Philippines, “We had to strike then or never strike at all,” knowing that his country had reached a height of strength. The visiting General said, “When Japan strikes, she strikes.” Here speaks Japan without outside influences, self-contained in an age-old spirit of conviction and inner belief. It was inevitable growth under present world economics. All three answers are part of the whole reason for War.
Jerry is sorry about two things in our three years—one, that it was the Japanese who finally gave us Family Unit and cleared out the hospital to make it what it should be and not ourselves who cleared it up; second, that they had to order us to make a garden for our own good. Both we should have done ourselves willingly, but so many opposed that our Committee couldn’t put it across.
Summary of weight reports for Committee: The average adult lost 15.2 pounds compared to prewar weight, as of August 15. The average loss between July 1 and August 15 was 1.3 pounds. There are 144 men and 176 women. Children, including 139 between the ages of 1 and 20, gained .2 pounds in [a] six-week period.