No-No Boy

Ichiro returns home and is caustically questioned by his mother, who takes issue with him associating with a man who lost a leg fighting in the war. Again, Ichiro attempts to talk with her, asking her what is so good about being Japanese, but it is impossible for them to have a conversation. Ichiro’s father appears, and Ichiro finds himself contemplating what his father’s life must have been like when he was younger and walking out West laying tracks for the railroad. He imagines his father’s exhaustion and degradation, the vices he must have partaken in to make life bearable, and his subsequent shame over those vices.

Around this time a letter arrives for Ichiro’s mother, a pleading and desperate letter from relatives back home in Japan. Composed by a younger sister, the letter reports the family’s lack of food, children who “are always cold and hungry. Perhaps it is punishment for the war.” Ichiro’s mother refuses to listen but Ichiro’s father reads one telling passage in which the younger sister recalls a moment when she and Ichiro’s mother were young girls, out swimming in a river together and Ichiro’s mother nearly drowned. Ichiro’s mother says that someone must have put her sister up to revealing this secret and refuses to accept the sincerity of the correspondence. She takes the letter and disappears into the bedroom.

Ichiro is disgusted by his mother’s reaction, but Ichiro’s father is concerned and is desperate for her to eat, to come out of the room. Ichiro and his father argue, and Ichiro leaves, feeling equally disgusted by his father whom he now sees as weak and devoid of a genuine identity.

Before he goes into the hospital for more surgery, Ken’s family gathers to have dinner together. Kenji’s father would like to go with him to the hospital, but Kenji will notallow it. Kenji also attempts to reassure his siblings who are worried about the surgery and angry withthe doctors whom they think should be providing him with better care. The family shares a meal and watches a televised baseball game together, trying not to speak aloud what is on their minds, namely Kenji’s health. Just before he drives away, Kenji does admit to his father that he is in worse pain than ever before. The two embrace and Ken promises his father that he will call him everyday.

Before going to pick up Ichiro, Kenji goes to Club Oriental, which he thinks is like a home away from home for him. While he is enjoying the scene, he wonders what it must be like to be white and be welcomed and accepted everywhere you go. The mood is spoiled though when some other customers begin to get upset about African Americans coming into the club. Kenji becomes depressed, thinking about all the ways the society is marred by prejudice against any number of ethnic groups—Jews, Asians, African Americans, Italians—and decides to leave,toget Ichiro, and drive to the hospital. He knocks on Ichiro’s door and can see Ichiro’s mother through the window, rearranging cans on a shelf, but she refuses to open the door for him. At last, Ichiro appears, and they set out for the hospital in Portland.

On the car ride, they talk about their families. Kenji says that he and his father get along well, and Ichiro complains about his lack of connection with his mother. He tells Kenji about a friend he met in prison, an Italian American, who always felt estranged from his immigrant parents until one evening when he talked with his parents through the night, confiding in them as he never had before, and reaching a new level of mutual understanding. Ichiro says he and his mother will never be able to do that, that she is too crazy, that she spent all night arranging cans, knocking them down, then arranging them again.

As they drive to Portland, they get pulled over for speeding and the police officer writes them up for additional offenses (drunk driving and bribery) and mocks them, asking if they can read any English. Ken crumples up the ticket and throws it out the window. Ichiro and Kenji decide to get something to eat before Ken heads into the hospital. Over breakfast, Kenji tells Ichiro that he has a feeling this is the end for him. Ichiro tries to convince Kenji that he is wrong, but his words donot make a difference.