「国旗」と“the Flag” : 太平洋戦争中の日系アメリカ俳句

This paper aims to define the Japanese American identity during the Pacific War, exploring haiku composed in Japanese on the "National Flag," or "kokki," at the interment camps. Given that the Issei and Kibei Nisei created the haiku within the barbed wire fences of the compounds, the actual flag within their visual field was the American Stars and Stripes flying on the post. When read in Japanese, however, "kokki" probably resonated as if it were the Rising Sun for the Japanese American haiku poets and readers. That is because in haiku imagery, emotions are expressed through words and aesthetic connotations condensed into only seventeen syllables. This succinct structure provides readers broad room for interpretation, and such room is usually fixed within Japanese culture. Due to the traditional artistic construction of haiku, these poems do not suggest negative feelings, if any, towards the United States. But since the Flag is one of the most nationalistic symbols, the dual nationality revealed in the haiku implies the inner identity conflicts among the Japanese American poets. The authors composed haiku about the flag, integrating the beauty of the surrounding environment into their writing. In the meantime, the true feelings of the poets were buried deeply underneath the Japanese language. The American beauty inspired the Japanese American poets to create haiku in Japanese, and its aesthetic form presents readers manifold layers of interpretation