No Gun smoke, but it was a battle

"Evacuation"

As we boarded the bus

bags on both sides

(I had never packed two bags before

on a vacation

lasting forever)

the Seattle Times

photographer said

Smile!

So obediently I smiled

and the caption the next day

read:

Note smiling faces

a lesson to Tokyo.

-       Camp Notes (Pg.13)

Mitsuye Yamada is considered a remarkable and courageous Asian American poet. She is a writer, whose personal emotional evocative rendering of her experiences as a prisoner in a Japanese American detainment camp during World War II contributed to her reputation in late 20^th century America. Her poems mainly focus on racial discrimination and multicultural identities. Her earliest and most famous works should be the “Camp Notes” section, which detail the daily degradation of concentration camp life, and the hardship of discrimination faced by ethnic minorities.

In “Evacuation”, Yamada was told to “smile” (line 9) for a photographer. She described her reaction as obedient to smile. Afterwards, the caption the next day read that “Note smiling faces/ a lesson to Tokyo” (line 13-14). First of all, by reading this part, I think the poem capture the experience of internees, like Yamada, as subordinate, or even to say criminal.  Here, for better understand this poem, I want to refer one paragraph of “All-out Victory” from “Only what we could carry”, the Japanese American Internment Experience introduction. It said that, “We have lived long enough in America to appreciate liberty and justice. … and we have the courage of our convictions to back up our words with deeds of loyalty to the United States government!” By reading this, I strongly believe that those Japanese American Internees love their country of the U.S.  However, because of their ancestral country and their similar in facial characteristics to the enemies, the American government ruthlessly neglected of their patriotism and regard them as prisoner. Yamada described her reaction as obedient because including herself; all of the internees had been all forever traded without respect. It also reflects that the experience of internees were tough and never free.

Additionally, the newspaper runs the photo with a caption reading “note smiling faces/ a lesson to Tokyo” (line 13-14) seems to show off their victory of carrying out “Executive Order 9066”, which authorized the “relocation of Americans of Japanese descent. ” However, at the same time, Yamada accented of her smile might also mean that she despised the treatment from the US government to the internees.

"A young evacuee of Japanese ancestry waits with the family baggage before leaving by bus for an assembly center in the spring of 1942." by Clem Albers, California, April 1942.

http://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/

By publishing Camp Notes and Other Poems, Yamada wanted to increase the public awareness of discriminatory treatment suffered by Japanese Americans during World War II and in the ensuing decades. And after doing online research, I’m happy to notify that since “Camp Notes and Other Poems” first released, it generally elicited critical praise for both its culturally significant content, and for Yamada’s adept balance of personal source material with her poetic evocation of emotion.

Writing poems is Yamada’s weapon, and she evoked people to be against of the racial discrimination to they Japanese-American. It was a battle. However, there was no fire, no smoke, but Yamada’s poems.

Now let's look at these 2 pictures about  Executive Order 9066:

...................

However...U.S. Closes Final WWII Internment Camp

Brotherhood

Buddy and Rico used to be really good friends. Like I titled of my diary, they were tight like brothers, and there might be better getting going. However, before “Rico” being told, our narrator Buddy thought that Rico ruled their bros. More specifically, Buddy held that it was Vietnam killed him; it was Vietnam made their Fantastipo die the death. Why would Buddy say like this about his best friend? What had happened related to Vietnam (the name of a country) and Rico (the name of a person)? What’s more, if the “Brotherhood” is still there?

In my view, the conflict rose between Buddy and Rico may mostly due to Rico and Buddy’s various individual characteristics and their different standpoints of life. As Buddy elaborated himself, “I was more the thinking type unlike Rico” (Pg. 20). For example, Buddy would think of his future more. He mapped his future through getting an education and finally going to college. By contrast, Rico’s rarely thinking characteristics and little caring about his future were described in this story through a boxing guy named “Tommy”.  Tommy said Rico had “pro” on boxing. As a pity result said by out narrator that, “He (Tommy) was the first one to point him to a future, but the map, it turned out, was Tommy’s.” (Pg. 20) Once Tommy yelled at Rico, and people counted that “it wasn’t the first time Tommy had yelled at Rico for losing control for fighting instead of sparring. “ (Pg. 21) Although as a fight manager, Tommy was seemed to make a lot of money from this; Tommy loved Rico’s talent more than he loved pork chops. Tommy yelled at Rico because he thought Rico himself had decided it was over, and he chose his way without thinking seriously, and left with a bang.

Here why he left with a bang? I’m not sure but I guess it should be something related to the Vietnam. Yes, the war happened early in Vietnam. Rico admitted to Buddy that he would go to Vietnam for the war. Again, without caring about himself and his friends, Rico made this decision. What was worse, Rico realized that he wasn’t that necessary one to go for the war. But he just wanted to go out of town to make his future happen, or he even didn’t have future at all. One sentence, I think may prove this. Rico said, “For us, Vietnam had no moral ambiguities; the government called, and we went, Simple as that.” Well, since it was simple, there should be ways to solve that problem. …Silent…(.?.)

Like what I said, Rico could only make his future and value by leaving out of town. The reference resources are numerously available on page 26 of “Charlie Chan is dead 2”. Although Buddy tried to stop him for many times, Rico’s persistence eventually made Buddy rise and begin to take the first steps of his backward shuffle towards the door.

Lastly, are Buddy and Rico still good friends? Of course Yes! As Buddy described himself in the story that, “He (Rico) must have known I’d surrendered, and that giving up wasn’t easy.” Rico also reacted kindly by regarding themselves as, “you know, tight like brothers” (pg. 26)

Rico’s decision of leaving was set up yet and would not change at all. Buddy cared about his safety or even say his everything. Nobody knows that how long would Rico set apart from Buddy- the best friends, tight brotherhood. Maybe a couple of months; maybe a couple of years; maybe never ever… With and without hoping, Buddy backed through the doorway and imagined Rico as a picture in a frame. Henceforward, Rico has been a seam of Buddy’s memory - motionless, wordless, leaning forward, and head bowed.

That is about my brotherhood story. I hope you like it.

HOMEBASE

In today’s blog, I wanted to be creative by representing myself as another student who will support Shawn Wong’s point that his story, Homebase, is definitely a story about mother and father, at least for the most parts.  Personally, I can see that Rainsford’s mother plays a huge role in Rainsford’s growing.

In the story, the author mentioned his mother several times and how much she affects his life. For me, I think the biggest role that his mother plays in Homebase is her influence to Rainsford, especially, within those seven years.

Rainsford admires his father pretty much like a hero and we can see it when he describes his father as his “love and hero” (p.40) On the other hand, another big role that his mother plays in the story is being the only woman that his father loves. Even though Rainsford didn’t actually see it while his father is still alive, he can still feel it from the letters his dad wrote to his mom. He felt exactly how much his father loves his mother when he saw the “Dear Darling” (p.20) in the letter headings, along with the scenario in “The Great Waltz” (p.29) As the most important woman of his “idol”, this could be an addition to the love of his mother.

Rainsford’s mother is being characterized as a very independent, traditional, and strong woman. For instance, after Rainford’s father died, “she did not want to be the object of everyone’s pity, the mother of a fatherless child…” (p.34) Think about it, how hard is that for a Chinese woman to independently raise up her child in a foreign land without the help of anyone? Also, how many women would take all the pain herself and leave as little pain as possible to her son. She supports her husband as a wife and protects her son as a mother.

Mother knew that one day she will leave her son, so she tried to teach him how to be independent and make sure he is ready to face his world at anytime. Rainsford recalled that his “mother taught me[him] how to iron clothes” (p.32) , “she taught me flower business until I was able to assist…”(p.34), “She always let me make those floral arrangements”(p.35), “Three mornings a week she had sent me with the driver…”(p.35) she even taught me how to “shake hands” (p.44) She taught Rainsford from doing household stuffs to operating flower business to meeting with new people.

Rainsford’s mother also strongly influenced his manners and conducts. For instance, she keep saying “cobbler’s son has no shoes” (p.36), and this is a very traditional Chinese story, similar to “Meng Mu San Qian”, the one that I mentioned from my response of “American Born Chinese”. What she have done is more than the above, besides teaching him knowledge, survival skill, manners and conducts, she also arrange him to live with his uncle and aunt after she died (p.34)

Lastly, I personally believe that Rainsford’s mother has a very significant position in his heart. He used his mother to compare with other ladies, such as his aunt. For example, he compares “my[his] aunt is somewhat like my[his] mother.”(p.45) Without his mother, he would have learned a lot of things and that will strongly affects his life now, so I still think his mother plays a very significant role in his life.

Gish Jen

Name:              Gish Jen (Chinese: 任碧莲)

Gender:            Female

Born:                Long Island, New York

Occupation:     Novelist

Nationality:      American

Period:             Current

Genres:             Novel

Notable works:

                          Typical American

                          Mona in the Promised Land

                          The Love Wife

                          Who’s Irish?

Background

Gish Jen is a second generation Chinese American. Her parents emigrated from China in the 1940s, her mother from Shanghai and her father from Yixing. She grew up in Queens, NY, then Yonkers, then Scarsdale.

She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1977 with a BA in English, and later attended Stanford Business School, but dropped out in favor of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Where she earned her MFA in Fiction in 1982.

Honors and awards

• 2009 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member
• 2006 PBS American Masters Program on the American Novel, featured writer
• 2003 Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2003 Fulbright Fellowship to the People's Republic of China
• 2001 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship
• 1999 Best American Short Stories of the Century
• 1999 Lannan Literary Award
• 1995 Best American Short Stories of 1995
• 1992 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
• 1991 National Book Critics' Circle Award Finalist
• 1988 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• 1988 Best American Short Stories of 1988
• 1986 Radcliffe College Bunting Institute Fellowship

 Video Share 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p93mHPpF6Gw

Chinese American

“Who’s Irish?” is one story, told by an old immigrant Chinese grandmother; it is also a story of gaps, which includes gaps of communication, gaps of cultural differences, gaps of ages, as well as gaps in family relationships.  

The old Chinese lady described her family throughout the whole story. Long time ago, she and her husband had owned and operated a restaurant. Her daughter is Natalie. She married with an Irish man, and gave birth to a little girl, named as Sophie. I say this story of various gaps due to, except this old lady emigrated from China, her daughter Natalie and granddaughter Sophie were born in the United States, and grew up without much or even any Chinese Experiences.       Events come to a crisis when the 3-year-old willful Sophie hiding from her grandmother- the old Chinese lady, in a playground foxhole.  The Chinese old lady tried to use a stick to chase Sophie out of there, however, her daughter unexpectedly yelled at her and let her put down that stick like a crazy. To the end of this story, the daughter took her mother around to look at apartments and asked her mother to live by herself.

After briefly reviewing of this story, I guess there must be many complaints among Chinese/Asian readers. This is because; China has been always raising our traditional virtues such as respecting the old, and supporting our parents. However, in this case, things like Natalie asked her 68-year-old mother to take good care of her 3-year-old daughter without payment, Natalie yelled at her mother for protecting her daughter, or even Natalie asked her mother out of her house to live by herself, will be definitely condemned by the society of China. What was worse? The old lady originally came from China, and better Known of Chinese traditional cultural. As an injured, I can imagine how sad she might felt like. From my this point of view, I think I have explained 3 big gaps in this story – gaps of cultural differences, gaps of ages, and gaps in family relationships.

In addition, in China, young people have their voluntaries and obligations to support their parents. To support their parents, they need to provide their parents costs of living regularly. Not only for financial, young people should care about their parents all the time, which is a more important requirement. In China, although we don’t have a law to require young people support and live with their old parents after the young get marred. But as I said above, it’s our Chinese traditional virtue to take good care of their parents. Additionally, in “Who’s Irish?”, author Gish Jen, also gave an emphasis on this family issue that on page 181 of this novel book, she mentioned that “In China, daughter take care of the mother”.

To end my diary, I would like to imagine a letter written by Sophie to her grandmother, after she growing up, which also shows my best wishes to this story.

Dear Grandma,

Happy Labor Day! I hope you are feeling well and enjoying yourself.

I’m living in Beijing, China right now. Three years ago, I met a Chinese man in New York City; we fell in love with each other and finally got married. One year later, we decided to move back to China and set up our new home. Living in China for almost two years, I have learned a lot about China. My husband, Wang, is also an unexpected change to my life. He’s been always telling me about Chinese traditional culture and tried to make me better understand about the differences between Chinese and American cultures. So, I suddenly realized that what you taught me when I was little did mostly benefit to my life. Without you, I would even never know how to control of my treacherous emotions. Meanwhile, I also feel really sorry to you that I wasn’t your obedient grandchild, and always broke your heart when I was little. Please forgive me.

It's so nice to talk to you. I think I'll write you again soon. 

Love,

Sophie