A Japanese-American is someone who has been trained in the Japanese ways of ultimate courtesy, but who has a quite independent and secret American sensibility locked into that pleasant and self-effacing exterior—like a bonsai. A tree trying to grow, but forced, through clipped roots and wired branches, into an expected shape. Like bonsai, a Japanese-American […]
Osewa ni natta
I decided early on that it was hopeless; I would never be Japanese, so why try? There was too much to know, too much to be understood that could not be conveyed by the spoken English word. I would rather be forward-looking—American. But much as I tried, I could never leave it behind. Someone would […]
How much of it is true?
In 2011, I responded to some questions from a young man in Minnesota who was taking a short story class and had read The Loom. Would you be willing to give me a short biography of yourself? In short: I was born and raised in San Francisco, the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants. My family moved […]
To Dorothy
I wrote this around 2005 for my long-time friend, Dorothy Stroup, when, in her 70s, she began suffering from Alzheimer’s. After not seeing her for a few years, an unexpected encounter with her (at Trader Joe’s) made me realize that something was amiss. She was friendly and warm as always, but I had the distinct […]
Deru kugi
The Japanese have a saying, “Deru kugi ga utareru”—the nail that sticks out gets pounded down. I did not hear this saying until I was an adult, but as soon as I heard it, I knew it was true. It was one of those unspoken rules that had ordered our lives; but not knowing what […]
Religion
I discovered religion at the age of six, when my best friend Joanne’s parents asked me if I would like to go to Sunday school with her. I would have done anything to be with Joanne. After spending the first five years of my life being the youngest and smallest in the family, always tagging […]
Bedtime Story
When I was a little girl, and my mother put me to bed, she did not tell me stories about enchanted forests or beautiful princesses. I had seen “Sleeping Beauty.” I knew “The Three Bears.” These were not the stories I wanted to hear from my mother. “Tell me the story of when I was […]
Nihonjin
At the age of six, I thought “American” and “English” meant the same thing—white people. After all, Americans spoke English. You have to understand, this was at an age when I also wondered why “onion” was spelled with an “o.” It seemed to me that it should be spelled with a “u,” except that would […]
Jiichan
I don’t remember my grandfather. Jiichan died when I was too young to remember him, but old enough to be afraid of death. He haunted my childhood by appearing in a nightmare so disturbing that I used to force myself to recall it every night before going to sleep so that I wouldn’t dream it […]
Welcome to my place…
OK, so it’s looking kind of Zen. Not much in the way of furniture. That’s the way I like it! This is going to be a place for stories—mostly San Francisco stories, since four generations of my family have lived there and walked its hills and streets. There will probably also be some Japan stories, […]