b'automatic writing, poets attempt to free their imaginations to reveal deeper truths. 12One might try, for instance, to write without thinking too muchi.e., to let words flow out, as Makuuchi put it. We can observe one word leading to another in the beginning of this poem, as if the sound of each leads semicon-sciously to the next:The Restitution, the Reconstitution of the ConstitutionRestimulated my childhood memories . . . The sequence of words with the suffix tion and first letters Re are associative in an automatic way. Historically, the Restitution refers to the $20,000 paid to each former incarceree living in 1988. This payment, authorized by the Civil Liberties Act, was meant as partial compensation for property and other losses sustained by Japanese Americans during mass removal, during which most had only days to liquidate their businesses, homes, and other belongings. Restitution as an act of justice, however late and incomplete, effects the Reconstitution of the Constitu-tion. Both the Restitution and the Reconstitutioncapitalized to emphasize their importanceRestimulated the speakers childhood memories . . . The ellipses suggest a continuation of thought not recorded on the page, as if not everything on the speakers semiconscious mind could be captured consciously. The poem restarts in a more rational mode on the indented third line, in which Makuuchi applies the term P.O.W. to his experience. This blunt naming of himself as a prisoner of war is a far cry from the governments preferred euphe-mism, evacuee, as if Uncle Sam were protecting Japanese Americans. Indeed, as former incarcerees have noted, the machine guns were not pointed outwards at potential danger but inwards towards them. 13In spite of evoking this pitiful image of a P.O.W. from 7 to 11 years old, the speaker seeks to address the reader not as if he were limp[ing] / into your consciousness / on crutches of self-pity. Instead, he seeks to emphatically share experiences. The key wordFIGURE \x08 Fairgrounds Called Concordia CHECKLIST #29here is emphatically. Makuuchi strides into the readers mind with the force of a confident protestor or assured prophet. elderly incarceree who is shot when trying to reenter camp after leaving to shop Many poems in From Lake Minidoka to Lake Mendota and Back to the Northwestat a nearby store. These poems and others unflinchingly describe the inhumane Sea emphatically share memories and call out the racism of incarceration.treatment that Japanese Americans endured. For instance, in Our 4th of July, Makuuchis speaker reflects on how he and his communityunlike German Americans and Italian Americans, whose countriesIn the typescript of From Lake Minidoka to Lake Mendota and Back to the Northwest of origin were also Axis powerswere unceremoniously tagged and numbered, /Sea, Makuuchi also interspersed photocopied versions of some of his prints rounded up like horses and stabled. These lines baldly represent the factin order to illustrate his memories of and attitudes towards incarceration. For that Camp Harmony was built on a converted horse-racing track and fairgrounds.example, the print entitled Fairgrounds Called Concordia juxtaposes the head of Camp Harmony Fairgrounds Escapee succinctly tells the poignant story of ana young Japanese American girl with those of two cattle (fig. 46). Skulls in the 116 117'