Poets Behind Barbed Wire

Poetry. Edited and translated from the Japanese by Jiro Nakano and Kay Nakano. This anthology of tanka poems, translated from Japanese into English, paints a deeply personal profile of life in the Wartime Relocation Camps during WWII. The short (31 syllable) traditional Japanese poetry form, tanka, offers an economical account of the inner lives of four internees, whose work was originally published in camp magazines and later in anthologies and Japanese newspapers in Hawai'i. The collection includes illustrations by camp artist George Hoshida and the featured poets—Keiho Soga, Taisanboku Mori, Sojin Takei, and Muin Ozaki. Winner of the 1985 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award.