- The High-Heeled Shoes, A Memoir
Who is Tony?
Pansies are nice flowers
Men wearing high-heeled shoes is an odd sight
Was Tony the man in the high-heeled shoes?
- Seventeen Syllables
It is very difficult to learn another language.
It sounds like the mother had two different personalities
Was Mr. Kuroda the man the mother was previously seeing?
- The Legend of Miss Sasagawara
Is this story taking place inside an internment camp?
This sounds like a quiet and mysterious person.
- Wilshire Bus
Usually when people are being racist towards Asian people, they are told to go back to their own country even though some Asian people’s own country is America.
I feel like the scenario described in this story happens often and that is unfortunate.
- The Brown House
Mr. Hattori was trying to get rich fast.
Sounds like a gambling addiction.
- Yoneko’s Earthquake
It sounds like Marpo could do a little bit of everything.
I do not know where this story takes place, but on March 10th 1933, there was an earthquake in Los Angeles.
- Morning Rain
“Where her (the father) worked as a gardener for a well-to-do family.” (Page 57)
It sounds like he works for them and he then gets a place to live.
“I think some manju would be nice.” (Page 58)
What’s manju?
- Epithalamium
“He had phoned and threatened, still drunk, to go away forever if she did not marry him that very day.” (Page 60)
He doesn’t sound like the best person anyway if he gets drunk and starts demanding things.
“Yuki remembered the bull sessions back in San Francisco.” (Page 66)
What is a bull session?
- Las Vegas Charley
“Time when the Army had conducted those atom bomb tests in the Nevada desert.” (Page 71).
I don’t understand how they could do these test because I feel like the shockwaves and the radiation would reach the people no matter how far away the testing is being conducted.
When the man pulled a knife on Charley, I feel like incidents such as that occurred often just after the Second World War.
- Life Among The Oil Fields
“My mother has given me four pennies to take to school”. (Page 86)
Currency rates sure have changed over time and the years.
“One of my jobs was to remove the glass from the lamp and blow my breath into it, so that I could wipe off the soot inside with a wadded newspaper.” (Page 91)
It seem so strange with how primitive life was in America when in the next passage her mother said they had electricity in rural Japan, so America should also have had it.
- The Eskimo Connection
“But, alas most egos were covered with the thinnest of egg shells.” (Page 97).
I like this analogy.
“She pieced together enough to learn that he was the third of seven children with two older sisters and four younger brothers.” (Page 97)
Having large families in an Eskimo community makes sense because the more family they have, the more help they can get hunting food and surviving.
Food and clothes cannot be given to prisoners because drugs or weapons could be hidden within these items that the prisoners would then be able to use.
- My Father Can Beat Muhammed Ali
Based off the title of this story, I think the father is a boxer.
“Don’t you remember how he beat the sumo wrestler by making all kinds of rules and regulations in his favor?” (Page 105)
His opponent was not a sumo wrestler, just a regular professional wrestler, and this fight is viewed as the forerunner to current MMA. The fight was also ruled a draw, not a win for Ali.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_vs._Antonio_Inoki
- Underground Lady
She sounds like a homeless beggar.
It is sad that her neighbors burned down her house, sounds like it was a hate crime.
- A Day In Little Tokyo
I feel like Little Tokyo will be a market or a part of a town like Chinatown.
This sounded like a fun adventure through an endless universe of exciting new avenues.
- Reading and Writing
English is the main language in America, but I feel like America has the highest amount of different languages of any country because we have a vast array of people.
“She had first married at 14 and had a daughter who was now 15.” (Page 123)
That is very young to be getting married.