Weedflower

As the bus continues its route, Sumiko is surprised to see some signs of farming in the desert: a lush green bean field and tractors digging irrigation ditches. The bus driver explains that Poston was divided into three camps that can collectively hold 17,000 people. Sumiko and her family are taken to Camp Three. Only desert surrounds it. Dust covers everything and is inescapable. Sumiko tries to calm Tak-Tak, who cries and coughs. As the family heads toward their assigned barrack, Sumiko notices some signs of home, details that were missing at the racetrack. People have small gardens and put curtains in the windows. In the barrack, Bull kills a scorpion, and Tak-Tak is fascinated as he examines its body, finally distracted from his fatigue. A neighbor named Mr. Moto introduces himself, and Sumiko cleans up the scorpion and the barrack as best as she can with a borrowed broom and mop. Although no fences surround the camp, Sumiko realizes that anyone who tries to escape would die of thirst since there’s nowhere to go. Sumiko walks around a bit before dinner and sees Mr. Moto with a caged snake. He claims that she’ll want to eat it later, and although she doesn’t believe him in the moment, she runs to his barrack after an unidentifiable dinner is served. He’s cooking the snake over a makeshift stove and offers some to her and Tak-Tak. They both like the meat and, in return for his kindness, carry buckets of water for Mr. Moto to use to start a garden. At night, Sumiko takes her cot outside the barrack and sleeps under the stars. She thinks about her dream of owning a flower shop and feels that it’s now impossible. The camp feels permanent, and she wonders how many years they’ll be required to stay.

In the morning, Sumiko asks Auntie for permission to go to the Colorado River with some other children. Auntie, who seems afflicted by the ultimate boredom, says no, and the other children say that no one asks for permission in camp. Sumiko meets a girl named Sachi, who claims that her father owned the biggest potato farm in America. Sachi invites Sumiko to see the Camp Three farm, and this time, Sumiko leaves without asking Auntie. They get cups of ice from the cook and walk to the bean field that Sumiko saw from the bus. The bean plants are somehow thriving despite the desert surroundings. Sachi and Sumiko overhear two white men talking about the “Japs” and their talent for farming. As the girls walk through the bean field, they hide from three Native American boys. Sachi is afraid of them, saying that the boys will “scalp” them if they see them.

The Native American boys have their own ideas about the Japanese in the camp. Sumiko and Sachi overhear one boy saying that the Japanese throw away food and waste it. Suddenly, Sumiko hears a rattlesnake nearby and freezes in fear as it rises and hisses at her. One of the boys speaks calmly and helps Sumiko back away from the snake. Sachi runs away, but Sumiko stays behind and talks to the boys. They all talk about her as if she isn’t there and seem to be fascinated to meet a Japanese person. The boy who helped her, named Frank, tells her that he wishes the Japanese would leave their reservation alone. As Sumiko returns to camp, she wonders where the Native Americans in the area live and is surprised that the internment camp is built on a reservation.

Sumiko finds herself with long stretches of free time and nothing to do, while everyone else in the family finds ways to stay busy. She feels the ultimate boredom closing in and sometimes wonders if she’s losing her mind. She feels so lazy that she can’t even bring herself to write a full letter to Uncle and Jiichan. One pastime she enjoys is lying under the stars at night. She sometimes places her cot near Mr. Moto’s and talks to him about the garden he’s starting or the home he used to live in. When Mr. Moto was a boy, he fell on a rake and lost his eye. However, when he tells the story, he doesn’t wallow in self-pity; he says “Shikata ga nai,” which means, “This cannot be helped” (130). While Sumiko and Mr. Moto are chatting one evening, a man known to be an inu, or spy for the white administration, walks into view. Everyone takes their cots back inside the barracks, and Sumiko soon hears the man getting beaten. The sound of the man’s groans fills Sumiko with guilt. In her mind, she leaves the camp and goes to the farm until the beating ends.

Sumiko learns that the Office of Indian Affairs runs the camps at Poston. Security is lax, and as time passes, the camp begins to feel like a town, but with limitations on where how far one can go. Jobs are available, although the pay is much lower than outside the camp. News about the war is impossible to come by, so no one knows who’s winning or how much longer it will last. Many of the children act out and run wild. Sumiko joins them sometimes but draws the line when the children steal vegetables. She receives a letter from Uncle and Jiichan that weather conditions are growing colder, and if Auntie can spare any money, they need it to buy warmer clothing. Sumiko leaves the letter and all her savings—six dollars—on the table for Auntie to send to them.

Tak-Tak and Sumiko wander to the bean field one day with cups of ice and find Frank, the Native American boy. Frank seems interested in the ice but refuses it when Tak-Tak offers him some. Frank wants to know about the farm Sumiko’s family owned, and he listens as she tells the story of how Uncle took over the flower farm when he married the owner’s sister, Auntie. Frank’s brother is interested in learning to farm, and Frank suggests that it would be helpful for him to meet Sumiko’s cousin to learn more about farming. Sumiko isn’t sure how Bull would react if he learned that she was speaking with a Native American. When the conversation lags, Tak-Tak asks if Frank is poor, and Sumiko sharply reprimands him. However, Frank responds angrily that the government took his people’s land and gave it to the Japanese Americans, along with electricity and food—even ice. He turns to go, and Sumiko wonders if he has electricity.