Beneath the monotone surface of writing lurk powerful emotions, suppressed and bound to explode at any minute. I think Otsuka has great success using this writing technique because I can really connect her writing style – which is personified in personality of the family members - in its composed, calm, cool, collected, and almost unaffected nature to the nature of the Japanese people in general. This ‘suffer in silence’ type of being, in which a person is almost in complete control of his/her emotions, is very representative of the Japanese people. Although it appears that the family members become inured to it all, that they will be released from their ‘prison,’ and life will go back to normal. “We would join their clubs…We would listen to their music…We would never be mistaken for the enemy again!” But was just far too impossible; the magnitude of the entire situation and its side effects inevitably go on to affect each member in profound ways.

The repressed and bottled up emotion finally erupts in the final ‘Confession’ chapter of the book. We get our first exposure to the father from the 1^st person vantage point when he cries out that he has finally given up his futile defense and his resistances to admitting guilt to something he didn’t necessary do. Why does he admit guilt?…Because the truth didn’t even matter. Based on his nationality and appearance he would always be guilty until proven innocent. “I’m your worse fear – you saw what we did in Manchuria, you remember Nanking, you can’t get Pearl Harbor out of your mind.” In fact, every Japanese person was guilty by mere association, and this wasn’t short term, these were lingering effects that were to haunt all Japanese people living in America. The father would certainly never be the same and it’s accurate to say the second half of his life was ruined.

In the mother’s many fruitless attempts to get a job she was offered work in a dark and isolated room to keep her hidden from the population. She declines and remarks “I was afraid I might accidentally remember who I was and…. offend myself.” The son, originally wanting to identify with Americans, has no choice but to realize his true nature. “I’m a Jap, I’m a Jap,” he declares. If he didn’t fall back on his Japanese heritage then who could he be? He will now probably carry a strong anger and resentment toward Americans for the rest of his life. The Japanese people left their country, put all their stock in Americanism, were shunned, and now they really had nothing and nobody but themselves. The fact that none of their names are ever mentioned is because they represent the many thousands of other nameless individuals and families that are in the exact same situation. Any attempt to get any kind of closure from the injustices committed to the Japanese wouldn’t happen for a very long time, or maybe never at all.