Literary AO3: The Buddha in the Attic

Transit: The husbands had "white picket fences and...

...neatly mowed lawns" --AD

Transit: The boat was...

.."filthy and dim"

Shock at encountering White Americans vs monocultural Japan: "How many gods...

...did they have?" "was it true that they drank the milk of cows?"

"Be humble. Be...

...polite. Appear eager to please" -- the advice the picture brides receive w/ dealing with white people

The English phrases the picture brides learn on the boat:

"Hello" "Beg pardon" "please pay me my wages"

What happens to the husbands/brides after WW2/Pearl Harbour?

Japanese men are arrested without warning, taken in the night (post 9/11 NY) "only people who belonged to our race were on the list"

"Overnight, our neighbours began to...

...look at us differently" --Hostility towards Japanese people after WW2 Pearl Harbour

"Suddenly, to find ourselves...

...the enemy"

"They spent their days now living...

...in the new language"

"all the old words we had taught them...

...began to disappear from their heads" "they refused to use chopsticks"

"Mostly they were...

...ashamed of us" --japanese children and mothers "our heavy accents"

"they gave themselves new names we...

..had not chosen for them and could barely pronounce"