Burnt Shadows

Part 3 opens in 1982 in Karachi, Pakistan, where Hiroko and Sajjad live with their 16-year-old son, Raza Konrad Ashraf. Raza is supposed to be studying for his college entry exams but is really looking at pictures of electronics sent to him by one of his cousins. Raza finds it difficult to fit in as a half-Japanese teen in Pakistan and wonders why Hiroko isn’t more like the traditional Pakistani mothers of his friends. Raza leaves to get ready for school while Hiroko reflects on 35 years of marriage to Sajjad and admires the fox painting in their living room, a gift from Sajjad and a reminder of the kyubi they said on their wedding day. Sajjad comes to the kitchen looking for Raza, and Hiroko asks him not to put too much pressure on Raza about the upcoming exams.

Sajjad imagines how his relationship to Raza would be different if Sajjad and Hiroko had been younger parents. Hiroko had a miscarriage early in their marriage, and they decided not to try again because of her fear of the lingering effects of radiation. Hiroko unexpectedly became pregnant at 41, and now Sajjad worries for Raza’s financial future as he approaches retirement.