- We're back to the present and Naomi knows better now. Sick bay isn't a beach. "The Pool" isn't a place to swim; it's an internment camp. Grandma and Grandpa Nakane were among the thousands forced to live in these terrible places.
- Naomi stops reminiscing. What's past is past. What's more important is that Uncle is dead and Obasan is alone.
- Aunt Emily and Stephen are coming tomorrow, and Naomi asks Obasan if she wants to take a bath before bed. She washes her just like Grandma Kato used to wash Naomi as a girl. After the bath Obasan falls straight asleep.
- Now for Aunt Emily's journal. Should she be reading it? Of course she should.
- The first entry is from December 25, 1941. Aunt Emily is twenty-five and she's writing to Naomi's mom, who is in Japan taking care of their mother.
- She tells her big sister what's up in Canada. There is the Pearl Harbor bombing, which makes people even more prejudiced towards Japanese Canadians. There are also the blackouts that frighten Naomi and the curfew that keeps everyone from being out late at night. Things are starting to go crazy. Boats and fishing licenses have been taken away from fishermen for no reason.
- We see a little bit of the Aunt Emily that we've met in these letters, but she's trying not to worry. She's not angry yet. That's for later.
- Aunt Emily also talks about little things in the letter, like knitting sweaters for Emily's father. But mostly, she talks about prejudice and hardship. She hopes that Stephen and Naomi won't be affected by it, but already Stephen is being beat up by the other children.
- The next letter is from a month later. Japanese men are being rounded up and sent to camps now. They still haven't heard from Grandma and Grandpa Nakane, but they assume that they are fine and with friends. The prejudice is becoming more intense, and the family is thinking of moving to someplace safe.
- Next letter: things are getting even worse. They've fired all Japanese Canadian student nurses and they've taken all of their cameras. Now instead of only taking Japanese men, everyone is forced into camps.
- The work camps are disgusting. They have no food, no water, and no protection from the snow in the middle of the long harsh Canadian winter. Canada considers itself a fair and democratic country: this shouldn't be happening.
- By the next letter, Japanese Canadians are not even allowed to travel within Canada. The new internment camp, constructed out of livestock stables, plans to hold thousands of people for an indeterminate amount of time. Yup. Nothing will go wrong with that. We're sure of it.
- Another letter. Steven's limping, but Grandpa Kato doesn't know what's wrong with him. He spends a lot of time playing music.
- Like we guessed, the new camp is disgusting and overrun with diseases. Because there is no plumbing the floor is littered with feces, and maggots have started to live in every nook and cranny of the place.
- From March 22, 1942, Aunt Emily stops writing to Naomi's mom. She's pretty sure she will never see any of the letters so she journals instead.
- Naomi's family is thinking about moving to Toronto to escape the camps. Maybe they could get a sponsor.
- In the next entry, Uncle Dan has been arrested. They think he's a spy because he was carrying maps while driving down a road. Come on guys, carrying roadmaps doesn't make you a spy.
- On April 2, 1942, Aunt Emily writes that Grandpa Kato is sick in bed. Uncle Dan has a lawyer, but things don't look good. No one really knows what's going on
- Aunt Emily is going to turn 26 soon. She feels like an old lady, full of worry instead of joy.
- In the next entry something weird happens. Aunt Emily is starting to believe the prejudice herself. Newspapers are reporting that Japanese naval officers are living on the coast, and she wonders if it's true. She's been reading the news too long.
- Rumors are going around that Japanese Canadians will be taken as war prisoners, but Aunt Emily can't believe it. Grandpa Kato is making himself sicker by working round the clock and taking care of Stephen and Naomi's dad. Then on April 11 he goes to the internment camp. He's nauseated by what he sees.
- Aunt Emily goes to visit the camps and sees Uncle Dan. He's earning two dollars a day at the work camp, which is bad enough, but then she sees his paycheck. $11.75? That can't be right.
- Aunt Emily's friends (Eiko and Fumi) are also at the camps. They are stenographers and are forced to sleep in horse stalls that smell of manure. No matter how they clean, it still stinks.
- Then Aunt Emily finds Grandma Nakane. She couldn't even recognize her at first, since she looks so sick and dirty from being in the camp so long. But when they recognize one another they don't stop crying. Just like Naomi, Grandma Nakane doesn't know what's going on.
- Next entry. Naomi's dad has gone to the camps even though he's sick. Aunt Emily is worried about little Naomi. Is it normal if a baby doesn't talk or cry or smile?
- Now a letter from Uncle Sam. He's at a men's work camp and all the men they are desperate to hear about their families. He cried when he arrived there.
- The family is still trying to get out; they got an extension and are thinking about moving to a town in Alberta. Stephen's leg has been put in a cast and Grandma Nakane isn't doing too well.
- On May 1 they have 24 hours to get out. From now on Aunt Emily's letters/diary entries seem frantic. Grandpa Kato is going numb. People are moving all over the place, trying to get out before the time's up.
- Oh and by the way, Obasan's house has been looted. Yeah, the one full of everything she's ever owned. All that is gone.
- May 5. Naomi's father sends a letter asking about Stephen's music lessons. That would be sweet if he weren't ill and in a work camp. Since he is, it's weird.
- Just nine days later they decide on a town called Slocan. It's a ghost town, but at least they know Rev. Nakayama and it should be safe there. Aunt Emily has resigned herself to living in the middle of nowhere. But at least they'll be together.
- Or not. May 18, 1942. The permit to go to Slocan was only for the Kato family. Meaning only Aunt Emily, and not everyone else. When Aunt Emily talks to Obasan and Grandpa Kato about it, Obasan says that Naomi and Stephen should be with her. So they decide that the permit should be transferred to Obasan. The family is going to be split up.
- Aunt Emily spends the next couple of days packing and cleaning.
- May 21 is the final entry in the journal. It's the day before Naomi, Stephen, and Obasan get on a train to Slocan. They won't see Aunt Emily for 12 years.
- Whew. That was a long chapter.