Clearly, this is not a laughing matter at all, and this part of Mr. Murata's foreword shows that the Japanese had been inhibited so much that they did not know what to do with themselves outside of U.S. custody.
If one is to read Kiyoaki Murata's foreword, he will see that Mr. Murata is a very forgiving and optimistic person. He stated that his time incarcerated was spent teaching Japanese to the American-born Japanese, which greatly helped him improve his English. However, many of the incarcerated people did not see their strife as a positive experience. Here is an excerpt written by Jeanne Wakatsuki from her book "Farewell to Manzanar," where she describes a little about what happened when she got back from Manzanar:
Mama picked up the kitchenware and some silver she had stored with neighbors in Boyle Heights. But the warehouse where she'd stored the rest had been unaccountably "robbed"-of furniture, appliances, and most of those silver anniversary gifts. Papa already knew the car he'd put money on before Pearl Harbor had been repossessed. And, as he suspected, no record of his fishing boats remained. …
