Weedflower

“Except for Bull, the family spent the rest of the day combing the house for anything that seemed Japanese in a disloyal way, whatever that meant.”

After learning about the Pearl Harbor attack, Sumiko’s family immediately starts burning anything that associates them with loyalty to Japan. Sumiko’s reaction highlights her family’s innocence. None of them is sure what might be considered disloyal because they are all loyal to the US. 

“Sumiko knew one of the things that made her different from the rest of the family, one of the things that made her more American than her cousins, was that she didn’t feel haji, or shame, quite as much as other Japanese did, maybe because she hadn’t attended a lot of Japanese school. All the Issei were steeped in the culture of haji.”

Kadohata highlights shame as an aspect of Japanese culture by contrasting Sumiko’s reaction to Mr. Ono’s arrest with everyone else’s. Sumiko is more Americanized than the rest of her family, so she doesn’t feel shame like the rest of the family or recognize what may cause another Japanese person to feel shame. This quote exemplifies how Kadohata infuses Japanese language and culture into the novel as well as Sumiko’s identity as both Japanese and American.

“Bull, who had probably never given a speech in his life, said a few soft words about what he called the world of change. In the world of change you accept the changes that can’t be helped. You suffer so you can learn, and you learn so you can be a better person in your next life.”

Bull’s quiet speech coincides with his calm and collected personality. It also serves to highlight the theme of acceptance. Bull recognizes that the best path forward in such a trying time is to accept the circumstances life has brought and try to learn from them and make the most of them. Many Japanese American characters in the novel seem to share this mentality.

“Sumiko would sit at her window at night and think about the puzzle of those words: The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken. She’d memorized the line. As far as she could tell, what the general was saying was that since not a single instance of Nikkei sabotage had occurred, that confirmed such sabotage would take place in the future. So if the Japanese behaved themselves perfectly well and didn’t break any laws, their good behavior could be taken as evidence of bad intentions. But she also knew that if they did break laws, their bad behavior would also be taken as evidence of bad intentions. Either way, they were doomed.”

Sumiko ponders the illogical nature of a quote from an American general. Her musing and simple explanation of the quote shows the ridiculousness of the suspicions that Japanese Americans faced. This general condemns them even though they’ve done nothing wrong. Through Sumiko’s logical reasoning, Kadohata shows the absurd and racist mentality toward Japanese Americans.

“Sumiko went outside many nights and knelt among her peach kusabana. She filled her lungs with the smell of cloves and dirt. Amid all that was going on, she managed to feel calm out there among her flowers.”

The weedflowers are significant to Sumiko throughout then novel; although they aren’t a flower that many people favor, they’re Sumiko’s favorite. Her view of the stock illustrates her love of gardening and how she stands out from others. Here, Kadohata shows that being among her favorite flowers brings Sumiko peace, even amid trying circumstances. 

“Leaving this way made Sumiko love what she’d always loved—the colors, the smells—but it made her also love what she thought she’d hated. For instance, she’d often hated the drafts in the bathhouse, but now she remembered how delicious and precious the last vestiges of warmth in the tub had seemed.”

Kadohata highlights Sumiko’s changing perspective at multiple points in the novel. Only when Sumiko is leaving a place does she recognize how much she has taken for granted. Sumiko’s realization reminds readers that one doesn’t always appreciate one’s life—both the good and the bad—until it’s taken away. 

“She hurried up and saw what they saw. It was something amazing: normal life. Cars drove, people walked, trees swayed in the wind. A couple of the kids on the roof started crying. Sumiko just stared in amazement.”

When Sumiko climbs to the racetrack rooftop and views the area beyond the confines of the camp, she’s overcome with the normalcy of the view. Kadohata shows the separation that the camps created between Japanese Americans and the rest of the nation. Even though the camp is in a town, its inhabitants are completely cut off from day-to-day life. 

“1. They wanted us to leave California.

2. They wouldn’t let us leave California.

3. They wanted us in the racetrack.

4. They don’t want us in the racetrack.

5. They want us in Poston, Arizona.

6. ???”

Kadohata uses a list structure at various points in the novel to show Sumiko’s thoughts and feelings. This list furthers Kadohata’s theme concerning the illogical nature of the US government’s decisions and attitudes toward Japanese Americans. The government constantly changes its mind and institutes new policies that the Nikkei must follow, and all these changes have life-altering consequences for Sumiko, her family, and the entire Japanese American community. 

“The staring made Sumiko feel haji, as if she’d done something wrong, but also a little anger, because she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. She knew—because Jiichan had once told her so—that the haji she felt was from her Japanese side and the anger she felt was from her American side.”

This passage highlights the blend of Japanese and American culture that is Sumiko’s heritage. Kadohata develops the reader’s understanding of aspects of Japanese language and culture, such as haji, but also shows how Sumiko’s personality incorporates aspects of her American identity. Furthermore, Kadohata shows how the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II produced an unfounded guilt; even though they’d done nothing to suggest disloyalty to the US, Sumiko’s family and people are treated as enemies of the nation. 

“The driver explained that Poston—officially called the Colorado River Relocation Center—was divided into three camps that would ultimately hold several thousand occupants each, for a total of more than seventeen thousand.”

Kadohata seamlessly incorporates historical facts into the flow of the narrative. She educates the reader on names, locations, and statistics without creating a separate history lesson or deviating from the story. Her skill in this regard makes the novel both educational and entertaining. 

“Seeing Tak-Tak’s face so alert made Sumiko actually feel happy that there was a dead scorpion on the floor. ‘The guts have yellow in them,’ Tak-Tak said. He lifted his glasses and looked more closely. ‘There’s a piece of blue too.’”

This passage highlights Tak-Tak’s love for animals as a core part of his identity and also shows Sumiko’s sense of responsibility and love for her younger brother. When they arrive in Poston, Tak-Tak is weak and exhausted; seeing the dead scorpion catches his interest, and Sumiko is relieved to see some energy return to her brother. In addition, the scorpion represents the new environment in Poston; along with the heat and dust, they now have threats from desert animals like scorpions and snakes to consider. 

“For Sumiko, her whole life, from the day she was born, had been a lesson in how to change your lot by accepting it and learning from it.”

Sumiko has faced hardship throughout her life in the loss of her parents, the hard work of living on the farm, and the responsibility of taking care of Tak-Tak. Sumiko sees the Japanese community doing its best to accept the situation in the internment camps and knows that she must try to do the same. This quote highlights the theme of acceptance and the Japanese value of learning from suffering. 

“Sumiko felt the ultimate boredom closing in on her. The ultimate boredom wasn’t dread of the next year or of what the government might do next; it was dread of the next hour, the next minute. You could lose your mind at any time.”

Sumiko’s awareness of the endless, empty hours she spends in the camp helps develop Kadohata’s motif of the ultimate boredom. Although the weather and separation from one’s old life are causes for suffering, the threat of going crazy from boredom is a less obvious yet potent consequence of camp life. Through Sumiko’s struggle with lethargy and maintaining her logic, Kadohata depicts the mundane nature of life in the camp. 

“Once when Sumiko had asked Jiichan how sad it had made him when her mother died, he’d said, ‘Shikata ga nai.’ When your house burned down, when someone you loved died, when you heart was broken, when you suffered any tragedy, but also when you merely broke a toenail, that’s what the Japanese said. This cannot be helped.”

Kadohata uses the Japanese language to illustrate the concept of acceptance of hardship as an element of Japanese culture. For trials both large and small, Japanese culture emphasizes the idea that fighting against circumstances outside of one’s control is fruitless. 

“Sumiko started to get used to it. And she found she kind of liked being bad. She wasn’t bad bad, but when she didn’t feel like it, she didn’t sit with Auntie and Tak-Tak during meals. And she stayed out late a few times, just sitting around with Sachi and the other kids.”

Kadohata adds roundness to Sumiko’s character by showing that she isn’t perfect. Although she’s well-behaved overall, she occasionally enjoys the freedom and independence of life in the camps. Back on the farm, the family carefully observed dinnertime and bedtime under Auntie’s watchful eye, so it’s natural that given the chance for freedom, she’d want to take it. In addition, the time that Sumiko spends with other kids in the camp shows the unruly behavior of children in the internment camps. 

“Ichiro and Bull scoffed at the idea of leaving. Ichiro was especially furious. ‘I lose everything I’ve worked for, my father and grandfather are arrested, and they want me to pick crops to help a white man make money?’”

When the government offers to relocate the Japanese from the internment camps to various menial jobs around the nation, Ichiro’s angry response is understandable. Kadohata provides readers with the Japanese point of view to show the unattractive nature of this offer. In doing so, Kadohata shows the life-altering and unfair treatment that Japanese Americans received; everything they worked for was taken away. 

“Friendship was really different from the way she had envisioned it all these years. It seemed a lot more complicated. She’d thought friends just hung around together and held the same opinions on just about everything.”

Kadohata asserts the change in Sumiko’s view of friendship. Before she had friends, Sumiko thought that friendship meant agreement and easy companionship. However, knowing Frank teaches her that friendship is a challenge. Two people rarely agree about everything, and she and Frank have more differences of opinion to navigate than average friends do because of their differing cultural backgrounds. This quote relates to the novel’s theme of friendship and its complexity. 

“Seeing the boys taunt the girl shook Sumiko up, because she was starting to think Frank wasn’t so bad. In fact, she almost liked him. If people pulled at her skirt and called her names, she wondered if she would have the courage to hold her head high like that girl. Whenever she’d thought of having friends, she’d thought about how they would act toward her. Now she saw that if she and Frank were friends, she had responsibilities.”

When Sumiko sees how friendship with a Native American boy affects how others treat the Japanese girl, Sumiko questions her friendship with Frank, wondering if it’s worth the cost of ridicule. Before she had friends, Sumiko didn’t think about the cost of friendship. Kadohata demonstrates that true friendship is self-sacrificing—and often involves difficulty. 

“‘Do you like it?’ Sumiko felt kind of shy to be showing him her garden. ‘It’s hard to see how pretty the flowers are in the dark.’ ‘I can see,’ he said. ‘It looks like…you.’ Sumiko suddenly felt pleasure from that remark, like a tingling warmth through her whole body. It looks like you.”

Kadohata suggests a budding romance between Sumiko and Frank—and shows the genuine nature of their friendship. Frank cares about Sumiko’s flowers because he cares about her. He associates the appearance of the flowers with Sumiko’s appearance, further solidifying the weedflower as a symbol for Sumiko. 

“Because she had protected Frank, she felt like he was now officially and definitely her friend.”

Sumiko wondered previously if she’d have the courage to stand up for Frank among the Japanese camp community, and when the moment comes, she protects him. This relates to Kadohata’s theme that friendship isn’t always difficult or simple—but is always meaningful. Sumiko’s bond with Frank is stronger now that she has stood up for him. 

“They were silent for a moment. Everybody in American said ‘Japs’—everybody. Even some Japanese said it. But hearing it from Frank sounded awful.”

The term “Jap” appears several times throughout the novel to show the racism that Japanese Americans faced at this point in US history. People used the slur flippantly, yet it clearly degrades Japanese people and culture. Sumiko is particularly hurt to hear Frank using the term since he’s her friend, and he immediately feels embarrassed and apologetic. 

“It seemed amazing to Sumiko that the government would round up all the Japanese, throw them in camps, and then let the men out to join the army for no other reason than that they wrote “yes-yes” to two particular questions on a form. If all it took to prove your loyalty was to fill out some form, why hadn’t the government given them the form before putting them in camps?”

The questionnaire that every Japanese adult must answer acts as both another historical aspect of the internment camps and a means of depicting the illogical and conflicting actions of the US government. Sumiko’s question explains the idiocy of the actions against the Nikkei in simple terms: The government could have avoided relocating thousands of people and the suffering it put them through if it had simply used a questionnaire to determine their loyalty from the beginning. 

“If Henry was killed in the Pacific, that meant he was killed by Japanese soldiers. She felt guilty as if his death were her fault; and she felt defensive, in case he really thought it was her fault.”

The complexity of Sumiko’s emotions matches the complexity of the relationship between Japanese Americans and their fellow Americans. When people are hurting after the loss of a loved one, it’s human nature to look for someone to blame. Kadohata shows the misplaced nature of people’s hostility and the tendency to blame an entire people or group for an action only one or a few committed.