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1 Happy New Year

Northern California, 1941

For the Higashi family, New Year ’s was the best day of the whole year.
Keiko, the daughter, looked down the long table. “In all my 15 years,
our New Year ’s food has never looked so beautiful!” Keiko told her
mother.

Keiko’s favorite foods were laid out to see and to smell. Every food had
meaning. Lotus roots, for a clear future. Dark green seaweed, to bring
joy. Black soybeans, as a wish for good health. Grilled whitefish, as a
prayer for success. Bright pink shrimp, for a long life. White and gold
eggs, shaped like hearts, to bring good fortune.

“Take a picture!” Keiko begged her father.

“Everyone stand around the table,” Papa said. He pointed his little box
camera at Mama and Keiko. “Tatsu, get into the picture!” he called to
his son. “Stand behind your mother and sister. You are taller than they
are.” Tatsu did as his father asked.

Just as Papa was about to take the picture, Mrs. Finn from next door
walked in. “Get into the picture!” she said to Mr. Higashi. “Give me the
camera. I’ll take a picture of all four of you.”

Papa stepped in beside Tatsu. The camera flash went off.

“What a beautiful family!” said Mrs. Finn.

“And a happy one!” Papa smiled. He put his arms around the other
three.

“Come and eat with us,” Mama told Mrs. Finn.

“No, no,” said Mrs. Finn. “I just came to wish you a Happy New Year!”

Mrs. Finn left some special cookies she had made. Then the four
Higashis sat down at the table. Each of them put their hands together
and said, “Itadakimasu.”*

The meal began with hot soup and rice cakes. The food kept coming for
hours.

When the meal was over, Papa had something to say. “We have come a
long way,” he began. “Today, we are a lucky family. We have a good life
in America. We have everything that we need. We have so much to give
thanks for. On this day, we wish for a long, happy, healthy

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life.”

He went on to tell the family story. Keiko and Tatsu had heard the story
many times before. It was a long story. But it was a good one. They did
not mind hearing it one more time.

_________________________________________

* The Japanese word itadakimasu means “I humbly receive,” but when

relating to food, it is often compared to “Let’s eat,” “Bon appétit,” or
“Thanks for the food.”

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2 Papa’s Story

Papa told about how he left Japan. He went to Hawaii as a young boy.
In Hawaii he cut sugar cane. It was back-breaking work.

Then he came to northern California. He picked vegetables and fruit —

beets, grapes, grapefruit — all year long. He worked hard.

He saved up money to get married. But in those days there were few
Japanese women in California. So Papa had his picture taken. He sent
the picture to his family back in Japan. They sent him a picture of a
young Japanese woman. The marriage went on the books in Japan.

The “picture bride” came to America. Papa met her as she got off the
ship with many other young women.

Papa and his bride were lucky. They liked each other. They had two
children. Tatsu, the boy, was first. Keiko, the girl, was second.

As a young family man, Papa had big ideas. He wanted to grow

strawberries. Many American farmers thought that strawberry farming
was too hard. Japanese workers did not think it was too hard. Papa saw
a chance to make money. However, California law did not let Japanese
people own farmland. So Papa leased some land.

After Tatsu was born, Papa had another idea. Children born in America
were U.S. citizens. As citizens, they could own land. So Papa bought
some land in his son’s name.

A few years after that Papa had yet another idea. He could see that
some farm workers needed a place to live. So he leased a big house.
He turned it into a boarding house. Mama was the one who ran it.

The boarding business did very well. The family lived in five nice, large
rooms on the third floor.

With the strawberries and the boarding house, the young couple made a
good living. But California had many laws against the Japanese who
lived there. In some places the Higashis were not welcome. Still, by
New Year ’s Day 1941 the Higashi family had a very good life.

Papa said it was important for Keiko and Tatsu to hear this story every
now and then.

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3 War with Japan

One day in early December Mama was home alone. Mrs. Finn came
running into the house. She was crying.

“Did you hear the news?” she asked Mama. “Japan has bombed Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii!”

“Oh, no!” cried Mama. “I can’t believe it!”

It was December 7, 1941. It was the day the United States got into
World War II.* And it was the first day of a long, hard time for the
Japanese in America.

The newspapers and radio said that anyone from Japan was on the
wrong side of the war. Some people said that the Japanese in America
were working for the Japanese government. As days and weeks went
by, these bad feelings only grew worse.

“Be home by 8:00,” Papa told Tatsu and Keiko one morning.

“Why?” they both asked at the same time.

“It’s the law for everyone from Japan,” Papa explained. As he spoke, he
took the box camera out of the drawer.

“Are you taking our picture?” Keiko asked him.

“No,” he said without looking at her. “I must turn it in at the police

station. We may not own a camera now. No short-wave radios or guns,
either, if we had them.”

One day at dinner Mama wasn’t eating. She looked upset.

“What’s the matter?” Papa asked.

“Today I heard something at the market,” said Mama. “Everyone from

Japan might be sent away while the war is on.”

“But Tatsu and I are U.S. citizens!” cried Keiko. “And you and Papa are
our parents. They can’t send us away, can they?”

No one had an answer to Keiko’s question.

Then in April the bad news came. In ten days all Japanese and
Japanese-Americans had to leave their homes. They would go to camps
far from home. They could take along only what they could carry. They
were told they were being sent away for their own safety.

“Our home is the safest place,” said Keiko. “I want to stay here.”

“You may be right,” said Papa. “But we will do whatever the U.S.
government tells us

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to do. We must show that we are with the Americans.”

On May 1, the Higashi family was told to report to a church. From the
church, they would be taken to the first camp. They would stay there
until the main camp was ready.

They had only ten days to sell or store their things. Only ten days to
close their businesses. Only ten days to say goodbye to the good life
they had built.

_________________________________________

* II is the Roman numeral for the number 2: “World War Two.”

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4 The Race Track Camp

Mama put a sign in the front window. FOR SALE: HOUSEHOLD GOODS.
People began to knock on the door. One man carried out the sofa and
chairs. Another took the beds. Someone bought the table where the
Higashi family had enjoyed New Year ’s dinner. Everything sold for much
less than it was worth.

The same thing happened at the strawberry farm. Papa had to sell
everything for next to nothing. He had to take what he could get in only
ten days.

Keiko watched her home become empty. She packed her favorite books
in her camp bag. That night she slept on the floor.

Mama packed old letters and pictures in big boxes. “The church will
store some things while we are gone,” she explained.

“Will we ever come back?” Keiko wondered.

“Of course, we will,” said Mama. “I don’t think they will keep us for long.
We’ll be back soon.”

Keiko had never known her mother to be wrong. She wished she could
believe her now. But it was hard for Keiko to feel sure about anything
now. She felt picked from the vine like a strawberry, thrown into a truck
and sent away. She did not see how anything could ever be all right
again.

On May 1 Mama cleaned the whole empty house. She left the broom
standing against the back door.

Mama, Papa, Tatsu, and Keiko carried their camp bags to the church.
They joined a crowd of other Japanese people. They all boarded a bus.
Keiko got a seat next to a window. The long line of buses took the
people to a race track. It had been turned into a camp for the Japanese
people.

The buses rolled into the race track. Keiko watched as armed guards
closed the gate behind them. The gate was covered with barbed wire. A
chill went down Keiko’s back.

Only a few weeks ago horses were racing here. Horse stalls were all
around the track. There had been a horse in each stall before and after
the races. Now the stalls were tiny rooms, one for each family.

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5 Camp Life

The Higashi family walked into their stall. One small light hung from the
top. There was a plain army cot for each person. There was no other
furniture.

Down the track there were a men’s washroom and a women’s

washroom. Mama and Keiko went to see the women’s washroom. Mama
took along her teapot. She had brought along a hot plate to heat water
for tea.

The washroom had toilets and showers with no doors on them.

“Where is the tub?” Mama asked, looking around.

“There’s no tub,” said Keiko.

“How do you use this?” Mama asked, pointing to a shower. “How can a
person take a bath this way?”

Keiko had used a shower at school. She would show Mama how it
worked. She turned one on. The water was so hot, it left a mark on her
arm. “Glad it’s not cold,” Keiko said.

Mama filled her teapot. When she returned to the stall, she made a cup
of tea.

“We must go to dinner before five o’clock,” said Papa that afternoon.
“Everyone take your own dish.”

Mama took the dishes from her camp bag. The family headed for the
mess hall. Each person got a small pile of beans and one piece of
bread with no butter.

Tatsu finished his dinner in no time. “I’m ready for more,” he said. But
that little bit of beans and bread was all the food anyone could have.

“Here, take mine,” said Keiko. “My stomach hurts. I’m not hungry.”

On the way out of the mess hall the people had to wash their own
dishes. By the next morning they were hungry enough to eat the dishes.

“I’m trying to take things as they come,” Tatsu said. “But it’s hard to do
that in this place.”

“We won’t be here long,” Mama told him. “You just wait. The new camp
will be very nice.”

A few days later Mama and Keiko went to wash clothes. They got in line
to wait for a wash tub. They waited and waited until each woman in
front of them did her family’s wash. At last, it was their turn. Keiko

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turned on the water. Nothing came out. All the hot water had been used
up.

Then there was the day the army police came. They took away Mama’s
hot plate. They took away everyone’s hot plates.

Tatsu and the young men didn’t like what was going on here. “You know
what’s happening?” Tatsu said. “Those army police are keeping our
things for themselves.”

The young men got together in a crowd. “Dogs!” they shouted at the
police. “Kill the police!” someone shouted. The young people ran about
and threw things. They beat up one policeman. Soon, more police came
running. They moved the crowd by swinging their guns. Some of the
young men fell to the ground. The police dragged away others and beat
them with their guns.

Tatsu was lucky. He had stood near the edge of the crowd. He was able
to run away without getting hurt.

This was the first time any of the Japanese had stood up against the
government. Because they did, the police kept a tight watch on them.

Five months later, word came that it was time to move to the new camp.
Everyone looked forward to a better way of life. On the last day at the
race track they had a big party.

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6 To the Desert

Along with everyone else, the Higashi family boarded a bus. Keiko sat
with Mama. Tatsu sat with Papa. The long line of buses took the people
to a train station. The train took them far out into the desert toward the
new camp. With every mile they went, the air became hotter. The sun
beat down harder.

Keiko took her mother ’s hand. “Mama, tell me this is just a bad dream,”
she said softly.

“I wish I could,” said Mama. “They told us at the race track camp that
the new camp will be better.”

“Is the new camp in the desert?” Keiko asked.

“It might be,” said Mama. She looked out the window. The more she
looked, the less green she saw. Almost everything in sight was sand
and sky, with spots of low grass here and there.

“I never knew that any place on Earth could be this hot,” Mama said.
She wiped her face. “Maybe we will learn to like the heat.”

Keiko could not see how anyone could like this weather.

The train stopped at a small desert town. Buses were waiting there.
Everyone got off the train and boarded the buses. The buses drove a
few more miles until they reached the camp.

“Here we are!” said Papa, trying to sound glad. “We’re in Arizona now.
This is Poston.”

The buses arrived at the Poston camp just as a dust storm was kicking
up. The air became thick as if filled with smoke.

Heavy bits of sand flew into Keiko’s face. She couldn’t keep her eyes
open. She held her face with her hands. She couldn’t see her bag, right
in front of her. Keiko and the others could not even see the barbed wire
fence that wrapped around the whole camp.

A few at a time, the people walked to the main hall. Army police were
posted all over the grounds. There was noise all around. There was the
sound of hammers still pounding nails into the long, black buildings
where the people would live. There was a buzz of car motors
everywhere they turned. And the wind, full of dust, tried its best

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to be heard above everything.

Back home, Keiko had felt almost like a woman. Here, she held on to
her mother ’s dress like a small child. Together they made their way
across the grounds.

Inside the main hall there were too many desks to count. The noise of
people’s voices took the place of the blowing wind outside. But the wind
did not stop. Papers blew around as workers grabbed for them.

The Higashi family waited in line. At last, it was their turn. A woman
behind a desk asked Mama and Papa what kind of work they had done
before.

“We ran a farm and a boarding house,” they told her.

“We have plenty of your kind of work here,” said the woman. She did not
smile.

An army man took everyone’s fingerprints. He pressed each thumb onto

an ink pad, then onto paper. Another worker checked each person, head
to toe. Another gave them a list of camp rules.

Then they climbed up into open trucks. The blocks of buildings were too
far to walk to. Again Keiko felt like a tiny strawberry, thrown into a truck
and sent away.

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7 Dust Everywhere

The truck dropped them off at their apartment. It was one small room. It
was in a long building covered in black tarpaper. There were rows and
rows of these barracks. A dirt road ran between the blocks of barracks.

Papa opened the door. The apartment was covered with piles of sand
and dirt from the dust storm. Papa looked at the floor. It was made of
boards, and it was not painted.

“Is this little room for all of us?” Tatsu asked.

“There are four cots,” said Papa. “One for each of us. No one is special
here.”

Mama picked up a blanket from one of the cots. She shook out the dust
that covered the blanket. “And one blanket for each of us, too,” she
added.

Tatsu walked to the back wall with one foot in front of the other. Then
he walked from one side wall to the other. “It’s 20 by 25 feet,” he said
when he was done.

“We’ll make the best of it,” said Mama. She went to get a broom. She
swept out the piles of dust. Then she and Keiko shook out the blankets.

“That’s a waste of time,” said Papa. “The wind is still blowing. We’re
just going to get more dust in here.”

“I have to do something!” said Mama.

“First things first,” said Papa. “We need chairs. And a table would be
nice. Someone said there is some scrap wood at the end of the block.
Come on, Tatsu. Let’s go get some wood. We’ll make our own table and
chairs.”

“I just want to take a shower,” said Keiko. She walked down the track to
the women’s washroom. But the water had already run out. Keiko’s
shower would have to wait until tomorrow.

The dust storm did not die down until after sunset. When the wind
stopped, it seemed very quiet. Then the sound of people, talking and
moving, came from all over. The noise came in over the walls. It came
in under the door. Some people sounded angry. Children cried. Every
noise carried into the Higashis’ apartment. They fell asleep only
because they were

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so very tired.

Keiko woke up before the sun was up. Her eyes popped open when she
felt the cold morning air. “How can it be so hot in the afternoon and so
cold at night?” she wondered.

But that was how the weather was there. Often during that summer
there were dust storms like the first one. Keiko hated the dust. When
winter came, it was cold most of the time. Even when the buildings were
finally finished, even when the school opened, even when Poston
became more like a home, Keiko never did get used to the weather.

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8 New Friends

The U.S. government said it would be a good idea for the people in the
camp to start a co-op. Papa was one of the first to join the group. Co-op
members put in their own money to start small businesses at the camp.
They would work together and share profits. They opened a dry goods
store, a beauty shop, and a radio repair shop. They even started a
movie house.

The co-op made money from the start. Papa was happy to run a
business again. So when the group asked him to head the co-op, he
answered “Yes!” right away.

Keiko made friends with some girls around her age. They did homework
together and talked a lot. And there were dances for the young people.
Keiko and her friends never missed a dance.

Tatsu was too old for the school dances. But one night he had nothing
to do. Keiko asked him to come along to the dance. That was the night
Tatsu fell in love. She was Keiko’s friend. Her name was Yoko.

Mama always swept up after the dust storms. She kept the apartment as
clean as she could. Sometimes she worked in the camp bank.

In many ways, the camp was a city. After all, 20,000 people lived there.*
They held jobs. They made friends. They had babies. They raised
children. They kept the place going.

Yet the water was always running out. A bad smell hung in the air all the
time. Flies carried dirt from apartment to apartment. Many people got
sick. Life went on and stood still at the same time.

A little taste of home came in the mail now and then. Mrs. Finn sent her
special cookies every few weeks. “It’s nice to know that someone out
there is thinking of us,” Mama would say every time a box came.

Once, Mrs. Finn sent a flower bulb. Keiko found a place for it, just
outside the apartment door. She watched the spot day after day. She
waited for a green shoot to pop up. It would be a long wait. This was,
after all, the desert.

________________________________________

*There were ten large “relocation camps”

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during World War II. The one in Poston, Arizona, housed 20,000 people
and was officially known as the Colorado River Relocation Camp. The
others housed from 8,000 to 16,000 people. All were in the western
United States.

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9 A Question of Loyalty

That winter, a man from the War Department came to Poston. It was his
job to sign up everyone with the U.S. government.

He called a meeting. He told the people about a list of questions they

would have to answer. Two of the questions were hard to answer.

Question 27 asked if they were willing to fight in a war for the United
States.

“Why didn’t you let us join the army before?” shouted Tatsu. “Why do
you want us now?”

Question 28 asked them to give up all loyalty to Japan or any other

country.

Papa stood up to speak. “I am loyal to the United States,” he said. “But

I am still a citizen of Japan. You will not let me be a U.S. citizen. How
am I to answer questions of loyalty?”

“If we say we are loyal may we go back to California?” asked another

man.

Over the next few days each person was called in to answer the loyalty
questions. When each person in the Higashi family went to the office,
they all answered “Yes” to every question. Anyone who answered “No”
was sent to a different camp.

The young men were asked to sign up for a new army unit. Every man
in the unit was Japanese-American.* “I hope they take me,” Tatsu told
his family.

“What about Yoko?” Keiko asked her brother. “Don’t you want to stay
here with her?”

“I cannot stay here,” said Tatsu. “I am angry that our government has
treated us so badly. But the United States is my country. It is the only
country I know. I will fight for my country. It is the best way to show my
loyalty. I must join the army.”

In a few weeks Tatsu said goodbye to his family. He asked Yoko to wait
for him. Then he and his friends left the camp. They were on their way
to an army fort for basic training.

Keiko was sad to see her brother leave. She waited during the long
winter for spring to come.

________________________________________

*Most of the Japanese-American volunteers in WWII served in the

442nd

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Regimental Combat team and its 100th Infantry Battalion. For its size,
this was the most decorated battalion in U.S. history. It won a
Presidential Unit Citation, and these young American heroes won 9,486

Purple Hearts and 21 Medals of Honor.

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10 The Star Flower

Keiko kept her eye on the spot where she had planted the flower bulb.
Every morning she saved water in a cup and gave it to the bulb. Sure
enough, when the weather got warm again, a green shoot popped out of
the ground.

“Look, everyone!” Keiko shouted. “The flower is growing!” She fed it

with tea bags and food scraps. She waited for a flower to come out.

One night, Keiko, Mama, and Papa were eating dinner. It was a warm
night. A great many flies came into the mess hall. They landed on the
food for a second or two. Then they flew off to land on another dish.

Mama pushed a fly off her dish. “Do you know how dirty these things
are?” she said. “Only heaven knows what they carry around on their
little feet.”

Papa laughed. Mama was always thinking about keeping things clean.

But the next morning, when Mama felt sick, Papa was not laughing.

“I’m going to take you to the doctor,” he told Mama. “Come on!”

He held her hand. Slowly, they walked together to the doctor ’s office.
They waited together for over three hours. “Let’s leave,” said Mama.
“The doctor is too busy to see me. I don’t need him as much as the
others do.”

“Don’t be silly,” Papa said. “We will wait.”

They waited another hour. By that time, Mama was so sick, she could
not sit up. At last it was her turn to see the doctor.

“Take these pills,” said the doctor. “If you don’t feel better in a few
days, come back and see me again.”

Papa had to carry Mama back to the apartment. On the way, Mama said,
“I’ll never go back there. I’ll be all right.”

But Mama was not all right. She was very sick for the next two days.
She had chills and a fever. She had bad stomach pain. “I’m putting you
in the hospital,” Papa told her.

Mama never made it to the hospital. On the third day, she died.

Keiko cried softly. Then she went outside to take a walk. As she
stepped into the

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light, something caught her eye. Her flower had opened up. It was
white, with gold stripes, and it was shaped like a star.

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11 Sad News

Papa wrote a letter to Tatsu. He told him that Mama had died. But he
could not mail it until a woman at the post office had read it.

“Very well,” she said when she finished reading. “You may send it to
your son in Italy.”

The next day, a hard knock came to the apartment door. Papa opened
the door. It was an army man. He had a hard, cold look on his face.
Papa froze in place.

“I am sorry to tell you that your son Tatsu has been killed in the line of
duty,” the man said. “He served his country well.”

Papa looked at the man as if he hadn’t heard this very bad news. He
closed his eyes. He didn’t say a word.

“How will we go on?” Keiko cried to Papa. “First we lost Mama. Now
Tatsu. What have we to live for now? They put us in this ugly place.
Then they took away our loved ones. It’s not fair.”

Papa did not have words to make Keiko feel better. “Life is not fair,” he
said. “And nothing about war is fair. We can only hope for better after
the war is over. These times have not been good to us.”

Papa carried on with his work at the co-op. He acted as if nothing had
happened. But Keiko could not hide her sadness.

There was trouble at the co-op, too. Some men in the camp felt that the
co-op leaders were too friendly with the camp leaders. Their anger grew
to hate of all Americans. They began to feel more loyal to Japan than to
the United States. They threw a stink bomb into a co-op leader ’s
apartment. As head of the co-op, Papa did not like this.

One afternoon, Keiko and Yoko were walking back from school. They
saw some men making knives from scrap metal. “You tell your father to
watch out for us,” they told Keiko.

Keiko told Papa what the men had said. “I wish you wouldn’t go out at
night,” she told him. “I get afraid for you. And I am afraid to be home
alone.”

“Meetings are at night,” said Papa. “I’m head of the co-op. I have to be
there. You try not to

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worry. No one will hurt me.”

One night Papa was coming home from a co-op meeting. As he was
walking, two men jumped out from behind a building. Papa heard them
getting close to him. He tried to walk a little faster. He couldn’t walk fast
enough. One of the men hit Papa over the head with a big pipe. Papa
fell down.

Keiko began to worry when Papa didn’t come home. It was late at night.
She was afraid to go looking for him. She had no phone to call for help.
All she could do was wait till morning.

As soon as the sun came up she went outside. She walked down the
block toward the building where Papa had his meetings. As she turned
the corner she saw Papa’s papers lying on the ground. But Papa was
not there.

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12 Starting Over

Keiko found Papa in the hospital. She visited him every day until he was
well enough to leave the hospital. Then she took care of him back at the
apartment.

Right after Papa got out of the hospital, big news came. The war was
over! It was time to leave the camp! Keiko could not pack fast enough!
She put everything in boxes and bags. And then she dug up her
beautiful star flower to take along with her.

Papa was not in a hurry.

“We have been away for almost three years. Won’t you be glad to get
out of here?” Keiko asked her father.

“Yes and no,” he said. “I have enjoyed working for the co-op. I may
never again like my work so much. And I have made dear friends here. I
am sorry to leave all this.”

“You are still strong,” Keiko said.

“Not as strong as I once was,” said Papa. “I am not a young man. What
will I do now? Where will we go? We lost our home. Our farm, too. We
don’t have money to start all over again. I have tried not to think about
this day. Now I must.”

Keiko felt sorry for Papa. He had always been so strong and full of
ideas. Now she could see that he was growing old. “Things will work
out,” she told him. “I just know it.”

“You sound like Mama,” Papa laughed.

Some of the camp people went to the East Coast to start over. Papa
and Keiko headed back to California. They stayed in a church house
until Papa found work in a little store.

Keiko studied to become a teacher. She lived with her father while she
went to school.

It was Keiko who first heard about a new government plan. They could
get money for the things they lost when they were sent away. “We sold
everything for so very little,” she said. “I think we should try to get our
money back.”

So they tried. She and Papa filled out the forms. It took some time to
find out how much money they would get. At last, they heard. They got
only about 15 cents for each dollar they

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had lost.

“That’s not much,” said Keiko.

“It’s better than nothing,” said Papa.

A few years after that, in 1952, the U.S. government changed the law
about the Japanese. Now the older people*, born in Japan, would
become U.S. citizens after all.

“Are you going to do it?” Keiko asked Papa.

Papa wanted to think about this. Becoming a citizen was something he

wanted but could not have for a long time. But he had lost so much,
even his wife and son. He had been sent away. He had come back as
an old man. He had changed.

“I have no hard feelings,” said Papa. “I know that we did what we had to
do. After everything that has happened, I would like to die a United
States citizen.”

And so Mr. Higashi became a U.S. citizen. Keiko threw a party. She
invited his friends from the camp who lived nearby. Mrs. Finn, their old
neighbor, came too. Keiko’s friend Yoko helped to cook.

Keiko laid out her favorite Japanese foods. Lotus roots. Seaweed and
soybeans. Fish and shrimp. And white and gold eggs shaped like
hearts.

“This looks like New Year ’s!” Papa said when he saw it. “But it’s not
New Year ’s.”

“This is for our new life,” said Keiko. “It’s for a long life and good
health.”

And that is what they had. In a few years Papa was running his own
store. When he couldn’t walk anymore he ran the business from a
wheelchair.

Keiko finished school. She found a teaching job. She got married and
had two children. Papa lived with Keiko’s family.

Sometimes Papa and Keiko talked about the camp. But not much, not
often. And they never forgot Mama and Tatsu. Maybe it was the star
flower that brought them to mind. It bloomed every year, right on time.
Every year, there were more flowers. And every year, the flowers were
more beautiful than the last.

____________________________________________

*First-generation Japanese immigrants to the U.S. were known as Issei.

Their offspring born in the

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U.S. were called Nisei. The third generation was called Sansei.

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