While reading the first leg of the book, I found it fascinating the way Ozeki broke up the structure of the book, blending Ruth’s own close reading of the material with the POV of Nao’s diary. Through this, we get to be inside Nao’s head and also Ruth’s, and it gives us a chance to interpret Nao’s words before Ruth even gets there. What gives Ruth such a drive to discover the truth behind this diary? It seems to me that Ruth has found a strong connection with Nao – a certain, desolate familiarity perhaps?

Nao is a very depressed person who has felt like time has slipped completely from her. At the tender age of 16, we find a person who has already given up on life. She is separated from the life she loved (in Sunnyvale) and has become this invisible, anonymous person. I feel Ruth might sympathize with such feelings, as she too is cut off from the life she loved (in New York) for a place where it seems, at least to me, that she might be too settled in. Her own concept of time loss corresponds with Nao’s, but Ruth’s loss is symbolized in a memoir that seems determined to remain unfinished. I also found a sense of “burden” placed upon both women’s shoulders. In Nao’s case, her father is suicidal and bares much of the weight for what happened to the family, which obviously affects Nao because she deeply worries about her father. Ruth had her own parental “burden” with her mother having Alzheimer’s, but since her mother’s death, has felt like perhaps she has done nothing worthwhile with her life since that “burden” passed. I’m eager to see how this connection develops but so far this is my take on it.

Coming from a class that focused primarily on the Japanese American experience of WW2, it was pretty refreshing to hear about the experiences of other Asian Americans through the horrid events of the war. Of course, there were common themes that these Asian American communities experienced – unfair work conditions, blatant racism, less pay, etc. – but it was enlightening to read about some other perspectives as each group really went through their own struggle. I didn’t really know too much about the Korean experience, but learning that they were pretty ecstatic about the Pearl Harbor bombing and how it brought the United States into the war was kind of an eye opener because it’s a point of view you didn’t see too often. I also have to comment on the bravery showed by S.Chandrasekhar who, as quoted on pg. 368, compared America’s current dealings with Asian Americans with that of the Nazis – our enemy. Instead, he uses the Nazi ideology as the primary reason why they must combat the then-current immigration policy. Comparing America to that of our enemy, especially during war time, seems like such a major deal but  people are just too interested in the facade or image that America is supposed to represent, which in this case is Lady Liberty with her thumbs in her ears.

Chapter 11 – “Strangers” at the Gates Again

Moving on to the second wave, which ties closely with the Civil Rights Movement, shows more active and responsive Asian Americans. We also saw an influx of people immigrating to America post 1965, all in search for something more. In the case of the Vietnamese and Cambodians, the relocation to North America wasn’t something desired, but when left with no choice the path forward was clear – and even then, if you didn’t die from starvation or a bullet, the journey to America was torturous indeed. Reading about the Pirates who boarded these ships to rape and pillage is horrible. The way the women described it, there is a definite darkness that lies beneath here – an ugliness of mankind that needs to be fought against. I could hardly imagine what the journey and conditions were really like.

Chapter 12 – Breaking Silences

The Asian Americans are now starting to emerge more into the light, and as we reach the 1980s, we see a completely different point of view. Asian Americans became the “model minority”, a group of people put on a pedestal because of their academic achievements. All of sudden, it seemed like everyone was now acknowledging the mistakes of the past and thus the media began to paint a much better picture of Asian Americans. This reinforced a stereotype about Asian American students, and it’s something we still see to this day. The racism and hatred still burns unfortunately and reading about those horrible murders – largely due to “mistaken” ethnicity – shows an ignorance that we saw time and time again throughout our history. I hope that these racist views continue to decay further and further as generations progress.

Chapter 13 – One-Tenth of the Nation

As Asian American populations began to settle, acceptance of the cultures appears to have become more seeded in American culture. Racism persists, and through the L.A. Riots we saw a new level of vitriol when many Korean businesses were burnt to the ground. This exposed so much about the tensions between African Americans and Korean Americans, something which I had heard about but didn’t really know too much about. Both communities have had their fair share of suffering here on the soils of America, which brings me to a quote on pg 465 (chapter 11 again) in which a Hmong refugee stated “Only when I came to the country of America I had to beg”. For a long time, America was painted as a place of opportunity and equality, but time and time again has proven that as great a country the United States can be, there is still so much more to go when it comes to race and prejudice.