Letter from Keikichi Imamura to Walter Millsap, 11 October 1942 Imamura discusses The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams (from which the term "The American Dream" was coined) before describing his feelings at camp. The contrast is striking: “Ever since I came to the Assembly Center (and also to this relocation center) I had a sort of spell that I cannot get rid of--a sense of depression or feeling of unspeakable heaviness has crept all over me...although I, with all my might, shun any antagonistic, ill feeling toward anything…to live a life free from such. I would not say I live a life of the passive, far from it. I try to conform the conduct of my life according to my philosophy and to make the best under any circumstances, be it harmonious or adverse. And yet there I am. Perhaps is yet much devil in me and I am going to emancipate myself the best I can in some of these days.” Walter Millsap / Keikichi Akana Imamura Family Papers, Box 1, Folder 4. WA, BRBL.

Discusses reading James Truslow Adams’ The Epic of America, which coined the term “The American Dream.”