Burnt Shadows

Chapter 32 opens with Hiroko’s memory of arriving in New York: The immigration officer, seeing her place of birth, assures her that she will be safe in America. Hiroko appreciates the irony of moving to America for refuge from nuclear war. Hiroko’s taxi driver from the airport is a Pakistani man, and she asks him if Pakistan has tested nuclear weapons yet. The taxi driver, Omar, is surprised to hear a Japanese woman speaking Urdu but reassures her. Omar tells Hiroko about the taxi strike, and Hiroko marvels at the solidarity between the Indian and Pakistani cab drivers, but Omar says, “why should we let these governments who long ago let us down stop us […]?” (294). Now, Hiroko appreciates the diversity of New York City and still calls Omar whenever she needs a cab.

Hiroko calls Yoshi Watanabe from a café to celebrate the de-escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan. Yoshi, who is dying of cancer, tells Hiroko that he believed he might survive if nuclear war did erupt. Hiroko, disturbed, rushes out of the café and calls Kim, who meets Hiroko at a nearby pier. Hiroko tells Kim she wishes that the world were a better place, and Kim considers how she can no longer hide in her work since she is now expected to consider bomb threats and possible security breaches in her designs. Hiroko tells Kim that she wishes she had told her story to more people but that she struggles with placing the 75,000 who died in Nagasaki within the context of the 72 million who died in total in World War II. Kim tells Hiroko that it is more meaningful to Hiroko because it happened to her personally, and Hiroko, furious at Kim’s minimizing of the events at Nagasaki, storms off. 

While translating between Steve and a group of Afghan men who are pledging allegiance to the Americans, Raza receives a phone call from Ismail, Abdullah’s brother. Despite Steve’s displeasure, Harry covers so Raza can take the call.

Ismail tells Raza that Abdullah is alive and that he is sorry for getting Raza caught in the mujahideen camp. Raza is shocked that Abdullah isn’t furious with Raza for convincing him to go to the camp in the first place. Raza learns that Abdullah is a taxi driver living in New York as an undocumented immigrant and recently ran from the FBI, who traced him to his apartment. Terrified of being detained under the new Patriot Act for being undocumented and Afghan, Abdullah needs help leaving the United States. Raza uses Harry’s phone to call Kim and asks her to help Abdullah. Kim, however, tells Raza that if Abdullah is innocent, he should just turn himself in. Raza, knowing that the FBI could detain Abdullah indefinitely, asks Kim again to get Abdullah across the Canadian border. Kim hangs up the phone, not understanding Raza’s concern. 

Raza decides he must travel to New York to get Abdullah across the border himself. Although nervous about telling Harry, Raza hopes he will agree to help. Raza heads outside, where Harry is playing cricket with the TCN. The ball lands near Raza, who signals to the players that he will retrieve it. As Raza picks up the ball, he sees a smiling Harry gunned down by a stranger in the guard tower.