Miwa and 1,400 fellow internees sailed toward Japan. In a show of good faith to the Japanese government, the Americans chartered a pleasure cruise for the journey, serving celebratory delicacies like filet mignon and wine. The prisoner exchange occurred in the then-Portuguese colony of Goa on the southwest coast of India.
James Seigo saw the rough conditions of the Japanese ship he boarded as evidence of Japan’s stark decline during the war. He and his shipmates returned to a deteriorating Japan, with barely available food and little energy to power basic necessities. He began to believe that Japan would eventually lose the war. James Seigo was barely home in Hiroshima before Japanese officials began to interrogate him about his allegiances. His nearly thirty years of living in the U.S. raised their suspicions. When asked by the government which country he thought would win the war, James Seigo answered honestly that he thought America would win—an unacceptable answer. Once again, James Seigo found himself under accusations of treason, this time by the Japanese government. He was questioned vehemently and was even shadowed when he went about in public. In response, he increasingly isolated himself and became tight-lipped about his war predictions and personal beliefs. Unlike the past two generations of Miwa men whose intentions were to return to their homeland of Japan, for James Seigo, it was unclear if he was a man with two countries, or none at all.
We will pick up the story of the Miwa family in the next issue of Wasabi. However, if you would like to read the entire story of the Miwas, you can do so by purchasing a copy of Tadaima! I Am Home: A Transnational Family History, available now wherever books are sold. (Opposite page)
Seigo & Yoshio Miwa at Itsukushima Shrine.tiff JS MIWA BLDG close up copy.tiff (Above) Tadaima! cover.tiff JS Miwa arrest record
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