This poem
focuses on Janice Mirikitani's mother, who was taken to a
internment camp during World War II. In this poem her mother testifies about her
experiences in front of the 1981 Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Japanese
American Civilians.
Her testimony is given approximately 40 years after her
experiences in the internment camp. Throughout those 40 years, she remained silent about her
mistreatment. The poem incorporates small portions of Mirikitani's mother's words from her
testimony. The poem's title, "Breaking Silence," references how her mother finally
talks about her treacherous experiences, such as getting her property taken from her and being
forced into an internment camp.
In the poem, Mirikitani discusses how her
mother came to America believing it to be a place of freedom and opportunity:
We speak . . . of oceans bearing us toward imagined
riches,
of burning humiliations and
crimes by the government.
She first came to America imagining that it was a...
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