by Vincent Yee
Hiroshi felt an immediate yearning for her as his heart skipped a beat, perhaps even two, when the beautiful woman before him just simply seduced him. He found her to be absolutely resonating of seductive grace and he was tantalized by her every movement and thought how unsuspectingly easy it was for a man to be ensnared by a woman’s feminine charm.
Minami placed the fingertips of both of her hands onto the table and raised herself over it. Hiroshi immediately reciprocated as he leaned in and the moment was sealed with a sensual kiss between the newly wedded couple.
Her lips were supple and warm as Hiroshi kissed them. He found that the very being of his existence wanted Minami as they continued to kiss over the table. Minami gently searched out with her tongue and tasted Hiroshi’s lips as his own tongue met hers. Minami almost giggled until the sensation of his tongue started to consume her. Then Hiroshi did the unexpected and placed his left hand gently on the back of her neck, locking her lips to his. Minami slipped her arms around his neck as he started to rise from the table. Minami did the same until they were both standing up over the table.
Hiroshi placed his right hand onto her left elbow, supporting it gently as he stepped over the table. Minami was not prepared; she took a step backward and before she knew it, Hiroshi had crossed over the table onto her side. He pushed Minami slowly backwards as she teetered back. He pressed her up against the scroll with a dull thud and started to kiss her with a growing passion that he had never felt before. Minami broke away from his kiss and whispered, “Not on the scroll–Father wouldn’t be happy.”
Hiroshi buried himself into the side of Minami’s neck and in a muffled voice said, “Sorry.” Hiroshi then pulled her away and moved her along the wall to the other side of the window and in a muffled voice he asked, “Better?” as he pressed his body into her.
Minami turned her head back to Hiroshi with her eyes closed and whispered, “Forget the damn scroll.”
Hiroshi then reached down for her hands and interlaced his fingers into hers and in one smooth arcing motion, brought her hands up over her head and held them there. Minami felt entirely helpless as she endured his growing desire for her. Hiroshi glided his hand down toward her sash and slowly worked it free. The ends of the sash fell to her sides and her robe fell open. Hiroshi pulled back and gazed into his wife’s eyes, which had just fluttered open. There were a few strands of hair splayed across her face, and her breathing grew heavier. He looked down as the parted robe revealed her true beauty. He watched her breasts heave up and down in heated excitement. He admired the curves that outlined her hips and her slender silky legs. But there was something more as he held her up against the wall. He felt an unexplainable surging desire for her. It was almost as if he was admiring Minami for the first time all over again.
Minami was held captive by the intensity of Hiroshi’s passion, and when he gazed back into her eyes, she felt as if her body went lithe from his searing passion. She wanted Hiroshi more than anything, to be with him, to love him and to be a part of him. But at that moment, mere words of love were the last things on her mind. Hiroshi slipped his right hand down as he continued to hold her arms above her head. He gently caressed the slight curves of her breast, watched as his fingers glided down along her torso and then he slid his hand behind her waist. Minami was subdued in anticipation of Hiroshi’s next move. He leaned in, placed a warm kiss onto her lips, and delved his tongue into her mouth. Minami twirled her wet and warm tongue against his when he released her wrists. She allowed her arms to fall around his neck as he slipped his other hand around the back of her neck.
He pulled her forward as they were still locked in a passionate kiss. He broke away from the kiss, and as Minami gasped for air, he scooped up her legs, cradling her in his arms toward the mattress. Minami at first giggled and kicked her slender legs a bit to protest but soon stopped. She looked up at Hiroshi and reached up to him and laid a few kisses on his neck. She had never felt so desired before and settled into his strong arms.
Hiroshi gently laid Minami onto the center of the mattress and as she settled in, Hiroshi stood up, quickly tugged on the drawstring of his pants, allowing them to fall around his ankles. Minami laid there with the robe partially covering her, draping gently over every single curve and hiding everything that made her a woman. Her eyes glistened back at him sensually as her chest heaved up and down. Hiroshi then settled on top of her with his full body weight. They gazed into one another’s eyes. Hiroshi was so seduced by her wondrous eyes, he felt as though he could fall into them. Minami wrapped her arms around Hiroshi’s neck and admired his gaze. She whispered, “I love you.”
Hiroshi stared back into her eyes as he brushed aside a few strands of hair from her cheek. He kissed her gently and pulled away to see her eyes flutter for a moment. Then he whispered back, “I love you too.”
Minami suddenly reached up to kiss him and drew in a long breath. Hiroshi kissed her back intensely and then made love to his wife.
S E V E N T E E N
Hiroshi and Minami settled into their new roles as husband and wife soon after their wedding. Minami moved in with Hiroshi and didn’t waste time in arranging his side of the barrack. Minami’s mother expressed the most sadness, as her oldest daughter was leaving, but soon got over it with the realization that Minami wasn’t far away.
Minami’s new routine every morning was to greet her new parents-in-law, and instead of waiting for Hiroshi at the water pump, they would go together. They would first arrive at Minami’s parents’ barrack, where they would fetch their water pail. Upon their return, Mr. Ito would usually be by the window waiting for them and would graciously thank Hiroshi for the water as he watched them walk away.
Minami found the new routine a bit sad. She started to feel a little homesick. As much as she loved Hiroshi, she also loved her family, and she couldn’t help feel that perhaps she had abandoned them. But she was married, and she needed to be with her husband and live up to the responsibilities of a wife. It comforted Minami to know that Hiroshi was very attentive to her family as well. Minami’s guilt started to ease when she realized that she still saw her family several times a day.
Life, it seemed, had returned to normal. Then the Loyalty Questionnaire appeared. It was after her morning class when one of the other teacher assistants mentioned it. Minami got her hands on one before leaving the school and read the questionnaire on the way to lunch. The questionnaire asked Japanese Americans to affirm their loyalty to the United States government. Minami fumed over the request and thought it was offensive. She was an American citizen and she was being asked to confirm her patriotism? She had to wonder whether or not the questionnaire was being distributed to every American in the nation. Once again, she felt the sting of being singled out due to her ethnicity and did not like it one bit.
Minami could see many people loitering around the main entrance of the mess hall in agitated discussion. She presumed that the questionnaire had caused a great stir. Hiroshi was leaning up against the wall, not too far away from the main entrance, in his usual work clothes. She noticed that he was reading a piece of paper, undoubtedly the questionnaire. His expression seemed tense and focused. Minami walked right up to him, but he didn’t even notice.
“Ahem… no welcome for your wife?” asked Minami coyly.
Hiroshi looked up and with a smile, leaned in and gave Minami a kiss. “Sorry, I was distracted,” said Hiroshi as he folded the questionnaire and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans. He reached out for Minami’s hand and walked toward the main entrance.
“Did you read the questionnaire?” asked Minami curiously.
“Yeah. Looks like it’s been making its way through the camp pretty quickly,” replied Hiroshi.
They waited in line. The mess hall seemed louder than usual, as people were eagerly talking and ignoring their lunch. Hiroshi spotted their families in their usual corner of the mess hall and waved to them to let them know that he and Minami were coming. Hiroshi believed that the
y had seen him, since Minami’s father waved a hand in the air.
“Wow, listen to everyone,” said Minami. “I think I just heard someone say that the army is trying to find all the traitors with the questionnaire.”
“Uh-huh,” said Hiroshi.
They picked up their trays and moved along the line as they each picked up a plate of rice with a side of thinly sliced meat and some green peas. Both Hiroshi and Minami thanked the cooks, who nodded back in appreciation.
Minami noticed that Hiroshi seemed a bit distracted and looked up at him. His demeanor was quiet and distant. “Everything okay, Hiroshi?” she asked.
“Hmm… oh yes, everything is fine. I’m just thinking about that questionnaire.”
“Yeah, when I first read it, I found it really offensive.”
Hiroshi nodded in quiet agreement as they walked back to their usual seats in the mess hall. Minami greeted everyone with a smile. She sat down next to her in-laws while her parents and siblings sat across from her. Mr. Ito looked at them as he turned away from Mr. Satoh. His expression changed from a serious one to a more pleasant one. “Ahh… welcome. I didn’t even see you two come in.”
“Didn’t you see me waving to you while Minami and I were waiting in line?” asked Hiroshi as he unfolded his napkin.
“I guess I didn’t. I was in a discussion with your father and… oh, have you seen this?” Mr. Ito said as he reached down for the questionnaire and held it out toward Hiroshi.
“I have one already,” said Hiroshi.
“And did you read it? What did you think?” asked an eager Mr. Ito.
Everyone turned to Hiroshi to hear out his thoughts but Hiroshi simply shrugged and looked away, “I’m not sure yet.”
Minami couldn’t help interjecting her own thoughts. She turned to her father, “It’s offensive, and Hiroshi thinks so too. I mean, they’re asking us to justify that we are Americans. I didn’t know that we weren’t Americans to begin with. When was my citizenship ever taken away? Because no one told me!”
Mr. Ito pounded the table with his fist in agreement. “You’re absolutely right! Are they asking the German Americans or the Italian Americans to sign this? I’m sure they’re not!”
Mr. Satoh nodded in agreement and nodded at Minami as well. Mr. Satoh was the strong silent type, which made him the perfect friend for Mr. Ito, who was quite the talker once he got started. The two fathers had become quite good friends over the last few months.
Minami pulled her copy of the questionnaire out as she swallowed some rice and got the attention of her father with a wave of her hand. “And listen to this. Hmm… where is it? Ah, here… question number twenty-eight.” Minami cleared her throat and in an even tone read from the questionnaire, “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and foreswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power or organization? Yes or No?”
“I think that’s implying that we may have already committed ourselves to Japan and they want us to re-examine our loyalty,” concluded Minami.
Mr. Ito then nodded once more in agreement and looked over at Hiroshi, who was listening to the conversation as he ate his lunch. “Hiroshi, you’re pretty quiet over there. You’re lucky you married my daughter, she can definitely speak for the both of you.”
“Dad!” stammered Minami playfully. “I don’t talk a lot, do I?”
Her question got everyone’s attention, including Hiroshi’s, and everyone let out a laugh.
Minami looked embarrassed. “Okay, okay… but you can’t blame me for speaking out about this.”
Mr. Ito grabbed his cup and banged the bottom of it on the table and nodded in Minami’s direction. Then he picked up the questionnaire again and got everyone’s attention with a wave of his hand. He cleared his throat. “Number twenty-seven. Are you willing to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” He slammed down the questionnaire and bluntly said, “That’s a stupid question for any American to respond to! Any American who answers ‘no’ has shit for brains!”
Mrs. Ito then dropped her fork and stared at her husband while cupping her hands over Yoshi’s ears. “Not in front of Yoshi!”
Mr. Ito lurched backward with an apologetic expression and smiled. Yoshi simply continued scooping peas into this mouth as if nothing had happened.
Hiroshi then broke his silence. “Aren’t all Americans supposed to fight anyways?”
Mr. Ito replied gravely, “Yes, that’s what living in a country and being a man is all about. You’re supposed to fight for your country, but this questionnaire questions us. It’s not right to ask us this, and it’s not right to treat us like this.” Mr. Ito’s face tensed up and he continued, “I should know. What they put me through in North Dakota was not fit for any human being…”
Everyone listened to Mr. Ito as his voice trailed off, but he quickly recovered. “I have to wonder sometimes about the intent of our government that says it values freedom but then it locks up its own people and questions their loyalty. Now where is the fairness in that? Me, Minami’s mother, and your parents, we’re not citizens, but we do consider ourselves American. But the rest of you, you are American by birth and no one, no one should ever question that!”
There was a pause as everyone reflected on Mr. Ito’s words and then Hiroshi added, “It’s almost un-American, isn’t it?”
Mr. Ito pounded his cup on the table once again and nodded in Hiroshi’s direction.
Hiroshi continued his stare at Mr. Ito, nodded and went back to finishing his lunch. Minami watched Hiroshi and took notice of his serious tone and added one more dreaded thought, “But if we don’t say ‘yes’ to the questions, then they’ll think we’re really Japanese spies and send us back to Japan.”
Mr. Ito replied, “Doesn’t look like we have much choice in the matter. I wonder who wrote this stupid questionnaire?”
Yoshi mumbled through a mouthful of food, “Shit for brains.”
Everyone suddenly laughed and the tension broke. Mrs. Ito shot Yoshi a disapproving look and admonished him firmly for swearing. The family went back to their lunch. Throughout the mess hall, everyone else was having the same discussion.
Hiroshi slowly walked Minami back to the school, since they had some time before her next class. She was starting to really enjoy teaching. It was never a career option that she had envisioned for herself.
“You were pretty quiet back at lunch,” said Minami as she held Hiroshi’s hand.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I don’t know why, but that questionnaire is just eating away at me,” replied Hiroshi.
Minami squeezed his hand reassuringly, “We all have to sign it and though it questions us as Americans, we’ll all sign it and answer those two questions with a ‘yes.’ It’s humiliating but what choice do we have?”
“You’re right, Minami.”
Hiroshi dropped off Minami at the school and they held each other for a little bit, stealing another moment together. Then they went their separate ways as Hiroshi headed back to a building in block seven that needed help with a leaky roof. He decided to take a detour, and his thoughts drifted back to the fact that close to four weeks had passed since he married Minami. He longed to simply take her away. He felt a bit ashamed that he couldn’t whisk her away on some honeymoon like all newlyweds do.
Hiroshi had emerged out of a block and arrived at the road that led to the main gate of the prison camp. He was about two hundred feet from it and he simply stared out into it until the haze from the sun blurred the view in the distance. It was the road to freedom, but a barbed wire gate blocked it with two watchtowers standing as sentinels on either side. He began to think about his parents, Minami’s parents and her siblings, and how they were all denied the very tenet that the United States was built on, freedom. Were their parents destined to grow old and die on the very prison
camp itself? Would Minami’s sisters mature into young women on the camp? Would little Yoshi continue his unruly outbursts for the remainder of his time on the prison camp? How long would it be until they were set free and the suspicions of a racist country lifted? It all seemed hopeless.
Hiroshi’s meandering thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice.
“How’s the honeymoon, son?” asked Captain Doxers as he strolled up to Hiroshi.
Hiroshi turned to meet him but Hiroshi knew him as coach. The coach extended his hand out and for a moment, Hiroshi hesitated but shook the coach’s hand firmly.
“It’s not much of a honeymoon; the desert really isn’t an ideal place you know,” replied Hiroshi with a hint of resentment.
The coach nodded his head in mutual agreement. “It’s a shame, son, that you’re in this predicament. It’s simply not fair. But look on the bright side, you did get married and it looks like you got yourself a fine woman there.”
“Thanks, coach. She is something,” said Hiroshi with a hint of appreciation.
“Did you hear about the call out?” asked the coach.
“Call out?”
“Yeah, the call out. Seems like the army is willing to give you boys a chance. There’s already one called the 100th out of Hawaii. I think you’ll be hearing a call out for volunteers from the camps to join another all Japanese American fighting regiment.”
Hiroshi nodded. “Yeah, we kind of got wind of it with this questionnaire. But I guess I have some resentment about this whole thing. Wouldn’t you find it tough to be part of an army that is also holding your wife and family hostage?”
The coach was silent as he pondered Hiroshi’s words. Then he spoke. “You know, son, when they wanted to form these relocation camps, I was all for it. I felt deeply that it was the right thing to do, and that none of you Japanese Americans could be trusted. But now that I’ve been here for a year and witnessed what you did for the team last year, I began having some second thoughts. I got to know many of you. You’re just regular people like myself. Hell, I’ll say it, you’re an American son, and there’s a whole lot of ignorant sons of bitches here who need to see beyond the face. Many of us did wake up from our prejudice, though there are still some who are suspicious and feel that they are doing a ton of good by holding all of you here in this god-forsaken desert. But as for myself, I’m now simply following orders, not because I believe it’s the right thing to do.”