51 pages • 1 hour read
Kiku HughesDisplacement
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “The Wastes”
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary
Content Warning: This section deals with wider issues of racial discrimination and injustice, including unjust incarceration and inter-generational trauma. It contains references to racially motivated murder.
The community receives only a couple of days’ warning before moving to their permanent camp at Topaz, Utah. Though Kiku hopes that she and Aiko will be able to share a room again, Aiko doubts it, and they say goodbye to each other before boarding the train. On the train, all the windows are covered with paper so the passengers cannot see the route they take. Kiku thinks this is pointless and paranoid but feels powerless to do anything about it. After a long train ride, they reach their destination, and “emerg[e] into a landscape like nothing [they]’d ever seen” (139). The Topaz Relocation Center in Utah is barren and flat, with a strong wind and dust that makes it difficult to breathe or see. All the buildings are wooden, hastily constructed, identical, empty, and offer no insulation from the bitter cold.
Kiku does not get to stay with Aiko again, and instead lives with a family of three women: a mother named Haruko Yoshimoto, and her daughters Sachiko and Emiko. Haruko’s husband, a teacher, is not with them, as he was arrested just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Yoshimoto family do not know where he is or if they will ever see him again. Ernestina and the rest of the Teranishi family are once again next door. Kiku listens to her grandmother’s violin practice every night through the wall.
The food is bad and the water is nearly undrinkable. The barracks are identical so it is easy to get lost. There is no insulation to protect them during the cold Utah winter. Without Aiko’s company, Kiku is lonely and depressed. When the Yoshimoto family receives news that their father’s hearing did not go well and he has been sent to a different camp, Kiku does not know what to say and mostly avoids them.
Eventually, school resumes for the children. Sachiko Yoshimoto is in a class with Kiku and May, and they make friends with two boys: George Kimura and Seiji Sato. Kiku feels she has a group of friends just like at home. Their teacher is Mrs. Yamada, a Nisei from Berkeley, who is one of the few with teaching experience. The students complain that they need to learn about constitutional amendments and civil rights, even while they clearly do not have civil rights. They do not even have free speech, as they are not allowed to talk about Executive Order 9066.
With Christmas approaching, the community finally receives supplies to winterize their homes, including small stoves for heating. Kiku notes that while some Nikkei celebrate Christmas, many—including those who are Buddhist—do not. Christmas brings a visit from the Quakers, however, who bring gifts. Kiku recalls that her mom said Ernestina spoke highly of the Quakers later in life. Though Christmas passes by with little fanfare, everyone celebrates the New Year. They make mochi and play games. Kiku remembers her family’s New Years celebrations, which are a mix of Japanese traditions and invented family traditions. She reflects that, though they were disconnected from much of their Japanese heritage, they had made a culture for themselves, which she cherished.
The government announces that they will allow some incarcerated Japanese men to enlist in the Army. First, everyone must fill out a loyalty questionnaire. Only those who fulfill the requirements of this questionnaire will be allowed to enlist. Kiku and her friends debate the merits of enlisting. George believes it is unjust that the government should lock them up, and then expect them to swear their loyalty and volunteer to be killed in the war. Seiji, meanwhile, believes they are just as American as any white man going to war, so they should volunteer. Sachiko wishes she could enlist purely in hopes that it would help protect her family.
The questionnaire is controversial because of two questions. The first asks if they are willing to serve in the military on combat duty, which not all young men are willing to do. The second controversial question asks that they swear allegiance to the US and “forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor” (171). Many fear this question is phrased to trick them into admitting they had ever been disloyal, as it implies that they did at one point have any allegiance to the Japanese Emperor. The Issei, who do not qualify for US citizenship, fear that agreeing to this statement will make them stateless, with neither Japanese nor American legal status.
Those who check “no” on both questions are called the “no-no boys” (172). Though they are labeled irresponsible troublemakers, Kiku now views them with deep respect. On the other hand, she understands why people answer “yes” to both questions, as nobody knows what the consequences for resistance might be and everyone is afraid. Kiku turns 17 just as the questionnaire comes out, and when it is her turn to answer the controversial questions, she answers “yes.” Even knowing fear is reasonable, she feels guilty afterward.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary
Later, Kiku visits Aiko for the first time in a long while. They meet out in the empty fields beyond the barracks building, out of earshot. Aiko explains that she is leaving Topaz; she answered “no” to both loyalty questions and is therefore being sent to Tule Lake with the other no-no boys. Feeling guilty, Kiku admits that she answered yes to both, because she was afraid. Aiko reassures her that she has good reason to be afraid, and she is not to blame for any of it. Finally, she asks Kiku to be safe and to draw everything she sees, saying: “they can scare us but they can’t make us forget” (183).
Life in the camp continues as usual. The community once again plants gardens. There are dances, and Ernestina plays the violin for music. Kiku and May dance together. One night after a dance, they kiss each other good night. Then, news spreads that the guards have shot and killed an older Issei man, James Wakasa. As rumors spread, Kiku remembers stories from her mom about what happened. The family story is that James Wakasa was deaf and, chasing his dog who had gotten loose, could not hear the warnings to stop. However, the official story claims that he was trying to crawl under the barbed wire fences to escape. Still other stories claim he was out collecting arrowheads in the dirt. No matter the truth, tensions rise in the camp. The administration makes it worse when they try to bury the story about the shooting, and then refuse to allow a funeral. In response, all those in the community who work for the various administrative offices, as well as the farmers, announce a workers’ strike until they are allowed to hold a funeral. Even the students refuse to go to classes.
Nine days after James Wakasa’s death, the community holds a funeral for him, not far from the supposed location of his death along the barbed wire fences. Though he was a bachelor without family, 2,000 people come to mourn his death, bringing the community together in an expression of loss and frustration. Even Kiku cries, though she did not know him. She realizes that she never knew her great-grandparents or Ernestina, or any of the people in the camp either, yet “their experiences, their traumas still shaped [her] in ways [she] was only just beginning to understand” (201). James Wakasa’s death had such an impact that the story survived via her grandmother, to her mother, to her. She says, “it was still haunting our family. Our whole Nikkei community” (201).
She also realizes that the attempts by the administration to hide the facts of the death are similar to the later attempts by the government to hide the truth about the camps. After the funeral, a group of Nikkei landscapers build a memorial dedicated to James Wakasa but the administration quickly removes it. Kiku reflects that “a memory is too powerful a weapon” (203); if a community can remember and refuse to let a trauma stay buried, then they “can make sure it is not repeated” (202).
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary
As summer arrives, the Nikkei see the fruits of their efforts to “transform the barren landscape into something more livable” (207). They harvest vegetables grown from their own labor. George Kimura announces that he will be leaving because he and his father have gotten a sponsorship in Chicago. A white man who owns a construction company has hired them to work for him. Meanwhile, Seiji is planning to enlist in the army. The girls could also have opportunities to leave the camp before the end of the war, if they receive sponsorships to go to college on the east coast. However, Sachiko does not want to leave her family, and May is only interested in returning to San Francisco, though the administration will not let the Nikkei return to the West Coast. Kiku is even more frightened by the idea of leaving the camp—to enter the world of 1943 where she knows no one—than of staying, despite the conditions. She recalls that her grandmother would not return to San Francisco following the war but would settle in New York City instead.
By now, Kiku has been in the past for over a year. She has given up hope of returning home, but now that there is talk of leaving, she once again feels desperate to go home. She writes of her experiences in the past and says that Ernestina will be leaving as well: she has received a sponsorship to go to Juilliard. Kiku is determined to speak to her just once before she leaves. However, the next day, as the Japanese school seniors celebrate their graduation and Kiku tries to speak to Ernestina, the mysterious fog returns. Suddenly, Kiku is lying in the grass in Seattle, in the same place and in the same clothes as when she had left, as if no time has passed at all.
Part 2, Chapters 6-8 Analysis
In another act of “displacement,” Chapter 6 begins with the transition from the Tanforan Assembly Center to the camp that would become the permanent home for many Japanese Americans for the duration of the war: Topaz Relocation Center. As with Tanforan, Topaz is depicted in shades of tan and brown. The birds-eye views in panels on pages 139 and 141, as well as the sweeps of tan and gray wind cutting across the pages, again help to portray the camp and surrounding area of Utah as barren, desolate, and windswept. The camp is isolated, with nothing but dry windy plains and distant mountains around them. The images make tangible the isolation and abandonment of the Japanese American community in these incarceration camps.
Kiku is likewise isolated at first. She no longer lives with Aiko, but with a new family—The Yoshimotos, from whom she initially feels distant and disconnected. However, she finds a connection to the community through the sound of Ernestina’s violin practice next door. Once again, this visual motif appears, seen both in the violin itself and in the musical notation that drifts across the page (146). For several later panels, musical notes fill the background and once again run across the panels on pages 216 and 217, as Kiku feels increasingly drawn to her grandmother. The music is symbolic of connection and family ties, and also of Resilience and Resistance, as the notes are visually able to connote physical freedom on the page, just as musical expression is an act of freedom and escape.
This section of the novel reiterates the theme of Resilience and Resistance as the Nikkei community rebounds from the abrupt changes wrought by the move from Tanforan to Topaz. They restart the school and slowly rebuild the lives they had begun to carve out of the harsh conditions in Tanforan. The students in particular try to create a sense of normalcy. Kiku gathers a group of friends that is no different than the kind of group she might have at home in her own time. They play games, attend classes, disagree with their teachers, act out, and attend dances, all like any teenager of any time. The narrative shows the fragility of this community by introducing the disagreement amongst the Japanese community about the loyalty questionnaire, and the expectation that Japanese men should serve in the military. Though Kiku’s voice-over narration explains the questionnaire and the controversies behind it, the dialogue between George, Seiji, and the other friends, also portray the controversy, lending a personal immediacy to the larger historical context. This is one example of the counterpoint to resilience, which is resistance. Those who answer no to the loyalty questionnaire show a level of resistance that feels so threatening to the administration that many of them are removed from the larger community. Aiko, for example, is removed from Topaz and placed in Tule Lake, marked as a troublemaker merely for saying the word “no.”
Both Resilience and Resistance appear in other ways throughout this section as well, such as repeated use of the orange flower motif. Orange flowers appear when the farmers once again plant gardens and vegetables, in the chapter heading for Chapter 7 and, most importantly, in the final image of the memorial in honor of the murder of James Wakasa. The death of James Wakasa is one of the most pivotal moments of the graphic novel. The rumors, lies, and speculation around his death stoke renewed fear in the Japanese community, as it implies that no amount of compliance will necessarily keep them safe. It also inspires renewed resistance to their unjust treatment, such as starting a workers strike when the administration refuses to let them hold a funeral. Most importantly to Kiku, it also rekindles a sense of community in the wake of the conflict and tension over the loyalty questionnaire. In the face of shared trauma and grief, the entire Japanese community comes together in both mourning and defiance. Kiku believes this kind of collective memory is a powerful tool, echoing Aiko’s defiant sentiment when they parted, expressive of Generational Trauma and The Power of Memory. The novel also explores the distances between the generations as, while it allows Kiku to share in her grandmother’s experiences and feel close to her, it denies the satisfaction of interaction. It is only as Kiku’s friends start planning to leave—for enlistment or for sponsorships—that she once again thinks of the missed opportunities to connect with her grandmother. By the time she summons the courage, it is too late; or the “rules” of the displacement disallows her attempted contact.
Playing with the established windiness of Topaz, and Kiku’s inattention to the fog that had once signaled her displacements, the graphic novel gives visually prefigures subsequent action. On page 212, Kiku walks through a swirl of brown, tan, and white that may be wind, or may be fog. It is only on page 219 and 220 that Kiku herself finally notices the rising fog and realizes that she has been displaced again. Suddenly she is home again, in the exact same place and time she had left over a year before.
