The Buddha in the Attic

With the advent of the Second World War and the Japanese Army’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the women’s husbands begin to disappear on the suspicion that they are enemy traitors. There is talk of a list, and the Japanese American community speculates on how traitorous you have to be to get on it. Although German and Italian Americans also originate from Axis power nations, only Japanese Americans are on the list.

The women do not know where the men have gone. As more men disappear, the women embark on a more contained existence, keeping children home from school and removing their names from mailboxes. They even stop talking as they cross each other in the street, fearing that onlookers suspect them of exchanging secrets. The women lose business and are “unprepared […] suddenly, to find [them]selves the enemy” (85). They have to sacrifice the souvenirs, letters, and photos they brought with them from Japan in case the police search their houses. The women reproach themselves for “so long […] clinging to [their] strange, foreign ways” that have made Americans “hate [them]” (87).

One section of this chapter assumes the perspective of the Americans who are against the Japanese.