Otokichi Ozaki

Otokichi "Muin" Ozaki (尾崎音吉 (無音)) (November 1, 1904 – December 3, 1983) was a Japanese tanka poet who lived in Hawaii.

Biography

Ozaki was born to Tomoya and Shobu Ozaki in Kochi prefecture, Japan on November 1, 1904.[1] He moved to Hawaii 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.[2] 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.[3] Ozaki also was a consular agent for the Japanese Consulate General.[4]

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Ozaki was arrested by the FBI and incarcerated in the mainland United States. For the next three years he was held in internment camps in Kilauea, Sand Island, Angel Island, Fort Sill, Camp Livingston, and Santa Fe.[5] In May 1944, he reunited with his wife, Hideko, and his children, Earl, Carl, Sachi, and Alice, in the Jerome War Relocation Center in Arkansas. They were later moved to the Tule Lake camp in California, and lived there until the end of the war. During this time, Ozaki wrote his poems in small letters on rice paper so that he could easily take them with him as he moved from camp to camp.[2]

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.[2] He also did extensive work for a charity in Okinawa, for which he earned the Order of the Sacred Treasure.[2][6]

Ozaki died on December 3, 1983.[6]

Further reading
  • Honda, Gail (2012). Family torn apart : the internment story of the Otokichi Muin Ozaki family. Honolulu: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i. ISBN 9780976149316. OCLC 757177313.
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See also

References
  1. "Family Torn Apart: The Internment Story of the Otokichi Muin Ozaki Family (book) - Densho Resource Guide". resourceguide.densho.org. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  2. Poets behind barbed wire : Tanka poems. Hoshida, George; Nakano, Jiro; Nakano, Kay. Honolulu, Hawaii: Bamboo Ridge Press. 1983. ISBN 0910043051. OCLC 10020646.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. Shimada, Noriko. "ハワイ島ヒロ銀雨詩社に展開した日本人移民の文芸活動" (PDF). 海外移住資料館　研究紀要第. 6: 1–20.
  4. "Remembrance Project - Hawai'i". remembrance-project.janm.org. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  5. "Ozaki, Otokichi (Muin) | Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii". interneedirectory.jcch.com. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  6. "Immigrant Voices: Discover Immigrant Stories from Angel Island". AIISFIV.org. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
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