How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I couldn't understand why he was home all day, when Mama had to go out working. I was ashamed of him for that and, in a deeper way, for being what had led to our imprisonment, that is, for being so unalterably Japanese. (2.20.28)
Ouch. We're not entirely sure that the adult Jeanne doesn't still feel—on some deep level—that her father is to blame for everything that's happened to them.
Quote #8
When I first read, in the summer of 1972, about the pressure Japan's economy was putting on American business and how a union in New York City had printed up posters of an American flag with MADE IN JAPAN written across it, then that needle began to jab. I heard Mama's soft, weary voice from 1945 say, "It's all starting over." I knew it wouldn't. Yet neither would I have been surprised to find the FBI at my door again. (3.1.23)
What is freedom, especially when continued racism makes you distrust and fear your own country?
Quote #9
Some of the older folks resisted leaving right up to the end and had to have their bags packed for them and be physically lifted and shoved onto the buses. When our day finally arrived, in early October, there were maybe 2,000 people still living out there, waiting their turn and hoping it wouldn't come. (2.17.60)
Two thousand people left behind, not wanting to leave because they have nowhere to go… That's a daunting reality check. What is freedom worth if it means homelessness? Is that even freedom?