Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky

by Sandra Dallas

  Tomi realized now that things with the Itanos had changed in many ways since they’d arrived in the camp without Pop. Mom made the decisions, and sometimes she asked Roy and Hiro and Tomi for advice. Before, Pop had made all the decisions and never consulted anybody except Mr. Lawrence. Mom, who rarely left the farm in California, now spent her time working in the camp. She taught the quilting class. She worked with other women making bandages for the war effort and clothes for war orphans. She was even vice president of the Tallgrass Red Cross. She was no longer the shy woman she had once been. Tomi and her brothers had their own lives, too. Without the strawberry fields to work, the three of them had developed new interests. Tomi was proud of them, but Pop wasn’t. He wanted everything to go back to the way it was before he was sent to prison.

  Well, Tomi was angry, too. She didn’t think much of a government that would put her father in jail and make him old and bitter. Maybe America wasn’t the country she had believed in. She was confused as she ran down the street to Ruth’s barracks.

  “Pop’s home,” she told her friend.

  “That’s great! You’ve always said he was fun. I can hardly wait to meet him,” Ruth replied.

  “He’s not so much fun now. He’s different. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but I don’t like it.”

  “You’ll have to find a way to make him happy.”

  “How can I do that?”

  Ruth laughed. “I don’t know. You’ll figure it out. Come on. Let’s go eat.”

  “That’s just it. I can’t. Pop says we have to eat together. He wants us to be a family, the way we were in California.”

  “The fathers were all like that when we came to Tallgrass. But they changed. Mine did. Your father will, too,” Ruth told her.

  Tomi shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s pretty stubborn. I’m glad he’s here, of course. But I think things will be different from now on.”

  They already were. They’d changed in the few hours that Pop had been back, Tomi thought as she returned to the Itanos’ apartment. She was different, too. Pop’s treatment had made her think about things she had always taken for granted. She glanced up at the American flag that was whipping back and forth in the wind. The flag always made her proud. Pop had taught her to put her hand over heart when she passed it. Sometimes, she even saluted it. But now, she walked on past it, her hands at her sides. After the way Pop had been treated, maybe that flag didn’t mean so much.

  Pop frowned at Tomi when she returned. He was not pleased she had taken so much time. “You must not keep me waiting,” he said.

  “But I had to tell Ruth I couldn’t eat with her. That would have been rude,” Tomi protested.

  “She should understand your family is more important.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And Sumiko.” Pop turned to Mom. “I don’t like you wearing pants. You must put on a dress.” Like many of the women at the camp, Mom wore slacks almost every day. They were not only more comfortable than dresses, but they protected her legs from the wind and dirt.

  Tomi exchanged glances with Roy and Hiro as they followed Mom and Pop out of the apartment. “He’ll be okay,” Roy whispered. “He just has to make sure we know he’s the boss. Once Pop finds a job here, Mom can stop working, and that’ll make him happy.”

  “Maybe she likes to work. Why should she have to stop?” Tomi asked.

  “Yeah, there’s nothing for her to do in the apartment except stare out the window,” Hiro said.

  “She’s a Japanese woman. She should do what her husband says. That’s what Pop thinks.” Roy told them.

  “I thought she was an American.” Hiro seemed confused.

  “Maybe not,” Tomi said. “Maybe we’re not Americans either.”

  The dining room was crowded, and the Itanos had to wait until people finished eating to find five places together. Pop complained about the food. It was no better than what he had eaten in the prison camp. He scowled at the noise and the children running around. There were no manners at Tallgrass, he said.

  “But we are together, Sam,” Mom told him. “Everything will be all right now.”

  Pop patted her hand and smiled. He hadn’t smiled much since he’d arrived.

  As they finished eating, Mrs. Glessner, Tomi’s teacher, stopped at the table and held out her hand. “Are you Mr. Itano? I know Tomi must be very happy you are here.”

  Pop only frowned at her hand and didn’t take it. “She would be happier if we were at home in California,” he said.

  “Sam!” Mom exclaimed at Pop’s rudeness.

  Mrs. Glessner wasn’t offended. “We would all be happier if there were no relocation camps,” she said. She smiled at Pop. “Tomi is one of our best students. You should be proud of her. She wrote a beautiful essay about the flag in the camp. It was the best in the class.”

  “Bah,” Pop said. “I know what that flag means for us. It means living behind a barbed-wire fence.”

  Mrs. Glessner nodded. “You are very angry. You have a right to be. But I hope you will not turn your children against their country. And I hope you will read Tomi’s essay.”

  Tomi looked down at her plate. She did not want Pop to read the essay. She didn’t feel so great about what she’d written. When she got back to the apartment, she would put it into the stove. Maybe she didn’t believe what she had written anymore.

  “Will Pop always be this way?” Tomi asked Mom several weeks later. Pop had criticized Tomi that morning for acting foolish.

  “We can’t goof off anymore,” she’d told Hiro.

  Mom shook her head at Tomi’s question. “I don’t know.” She had a worried look on her face. “Shikata ga nai.”

  Mom was right. It couldn’t be helped. Tomi had tried. She had shown Pop around the camp. She’d taken him to the print shop where evacuees made posters about winning the war. They’d gone to Hiro’s baseball game. Tomi had introduced Pop to men who were building a Japanese garden out of sand and rocks and plants outside the barracks. But Pop hadn’t paid much attention. Now, he was outside with two other men, both complainers, talking about the government. They squatted down under the window, and Tomi could hear their voices grow louder as they talked about their treatment at Tallgrass.

  Maybe they were right, Tomi thought. She’d complained to Ruth about the fence and the food the day before, and Ruth had told her she sounded just like Pop. “Maybe he knows what he’s talking about,” she had responded.

  “Tomi!” Ruth replied. “That doesn’t sound like you. You always look at the good side of things.”

  “Maybe there isn’t a good side anymore,” Tomi said.

  The two girls were watching a high school baseball game that day. The Tallgrass team was playing against a team from Ellis High School. People in the camp loved baseball, and they were crowded around the field watching the game. The Ellis farm boys were better at bat, but the Tallgrass players outshone them as fielders.

  The game was a close one. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Ellis was leading by only one run. Roy was one of the best hitters, and Tomi clutched Ruth’s arm when he came up to bat. “Now we’ll win,” she said.

  Roy swung at the first pitch and hit a foul ball. He let the next pitch go by, and the umpire called it a ball. Roy swung and missed on the third pitch. Then he hunkered down, and Tomi thought this time, Roy would hit the ball so hard it would go over the barbed-wire fence. As the pitch came, Roy moved back a little and didn’t swing. “Strike three, you’re out!” the umpire called. Roy dropped his head and walked away from home plate.

  The umpire was wrong. It wasn’t fair, Tomi thought. And suddenly, she raised her fist and yelled, “The umpire’s a lunkhead!” Tomi had never said anything like that before, and Ruth stared at her with a surprised look on her face. Others turned to stare at Tomi, too. Japanese girls didn’t yell at umpires.

  Tomi realized what she’d done. She glanced at a woman who frowned at her. “Well, he is a lunkhead,” Tomi said in a loud voice. “He
made that call because Roy’s Japanese. If Roy’d been a white boy, that pitch wouldn’t have been a strike.”

  Ruth grabbed the sash of Tomi’s dress and pulled her back. “Be quiet. People are looking at you,” she said.

  “So what? Maybe I’m tired of being a second-class citizen.”

  1944 | CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  POP and the ROYALS

  A FEW weeks after Pop arrived in Tallgrass, Tomi persuaded him to attend a dance where Roy and the Royals were playing. Of course, Pop had listened to the band practice in the Itanos’ apartment, but he’d never heard them perform in public. So now, Pop sat with Mom, Hiro, and Tomi at a table in the big building where the dances were held, sipping a Coca-Cola that Roy had bought him.

  Pop tapped his foot to the music. Then he said, “You want to dance, Sumiko?” He took Mom’s arm, and in a minute, they were dancing a slow dance called a fox trot.

  “I didn’t know they could dance,” Hiro said, grinning at Tomi.

  “Me neither.” She smiled, too, but the one who was smiling the most was Roy. He was playing his best that night, and Tomi knew that was because Pop was there. Roy wanted Pop to be proud of him.

  The Royals played another slow dance, and Mom and Pop stayed on the dance floor. When the band switched to a jitterbug, the two of them returned to the table. That new dance was too confusing for him, Pop said. It wasn’t confusing for Hiro and Tomi, however, and they rushed out onto the dance floor and began jerking around. They weren’t very good, Tomi knew, but that didn’t matter. Pop clapped in time to the music and grinned at them. Then the band played, “Whatcha Know, Joe?” and chanted the words: “Whatcha know, Joe? I don’t know nothin’.”

  When that song was over, the Royals played another slow tune, and Pop stood up and bowed to Tomi, took her hand, and led her to the dance floor. Then Hiro stood and bowed to Mom in exactly the same way, and in a minute, they, too, were dancing.

  It was the best time Tomi had had since she came to Tallgrass, certainly the best time since Pop had joined them. She hoped Pop was feeling better about the camp.

  When the dance ended, the four sat down at the table again and listened to Helen sing. “She has a very pretty voice,” Pop said. “But I wish she would sing a Japanese song.”

  Tomi was afraid Pop would criticize America again, but he only sat, beating time to the music, his fingers tapping the table.

  When the band took a break, Roy came over to them. “What do you think of the Royals, Pop?” he asked.

  “Pretty good,” Pop said. “But why don’t you play some Japanese music?”

  “Japanese?” Roy asked. “Heck, Pop, you can’t dance to Japanese music.”

  “There is Japanese dancing.”

  “Not on a dance floor in the good old U.S. of A.” Roy picked up Tomi’s Coca-Cola and took a sip. “Look at all these people. They’re here because they like American dancing.”

  Helen came to the table, and nodded at Mom and Pop. When she’d first met Pop, she’d held out her hand, but Pop had stared at it instead of shaking it. Now she didn’t offer to shake hands. “You like it any better at Tallgrass?” she asked.

  “I would like it better if we were home in California,” he replied.

  “Me, too, but it won’t be long now. We’re winning this war. We’ll win it even faster if Roy joins up.”

  Roy nudged her with his elbow to be quiet. “Right now, I’ve got to get back to work,” he said. He started for the bandstand, then stopped and turned around. “I’ve got a surprise for you, Pop.” He whispered something to Helen as they started across the dance floor. She nodded.

  Roy picked up his clarinet and blew a few notes. People returned to the dance floor and waited for the music to begin. Instead of launching into a tune, however, Roy said in a loud voice, “Folks, may I have your attention?”

  People stopped talking and turned to him. “We have a very special guest here tonight. My pop. He hasn’t been at Tallgrass very long, and this is his first dance. So I’m going to play his favorite song for him. He taught it to me when I was little. It’s not really a dance tune, but I think you know it.”

  People clapped and turned to our table. Pop rose and bowed to them, very happy.

  “Ready, Helen?” Roy asked. She nodded. “Okay, Pop, here it is.” He whispered something to the band. Then he played a few notes on his clarinet.

  Pop beamed at him and said, “Now a real Japanese song.” But it wasn’t a Japanese song. Instead, the Royals launched into “America.”

  As the dancers recognized the music, they began to sing, “My country ’tis of thee …” Some of them turned to Pop and nodded their approval.

  Pop recognized the song, too. The smile faded from his face. He turned his back to the band and scowled. “Bah! That’s not my favorite song anymore,” he said. Then he stood up and said, “Come on, Sumiko. We’re going home.”

  “We can’t leave now. You’ll hurt Roy’s feelings,” Mom protested.

  “I don’t care. Roy should know better and so should you.” Pop started toward the door, his cane banging on the floor. Mom gestured at Hiro and me to follow.

  “What’s wrong with him?” a girl asked Tomi.

  She started to explain that Pop had been in a prison camp where he was badly treated. But she didn’t. Pop had a right to be angry. So she said, “Nothing’s wrong with him. It’s what’s wrong with this country,” Tomi told her.

  After that, Roy and the Royals didn’t practice in the Itanos’ apartment anymore. In fact, Roy stayed away from Pop as much as he could. He even started eating meals with his friends again. “I honor Pop, but I don’t agree with him. I want to be a good son and don’t want to be disrespectful. So it’s better I keep out of his way,” Roy told Tomi.

  “Well, I do agree with him. He’s gotten rotten treatment, and he has a right to dislike America,” Tomi said.

  “I wish you didn’t feel that way, especially since I’m going to tell you a secret,” Roy said in a serious way.

  Tomi looked up, waiting.

  “As soon as I turn eighteen, I’m going to join the army,” Roy said.

  Tomi’s mouth dropped open. “Do you have to?”

  “If I don’t, I might get sent to a prison camp like Pop,” he explained.

  Tomi knew that the young men in the camp were being asked to join the army—the all-Japanese 442nd, which was known as the “Go for Broke” unit. Everyone in camp was proud of the 442nd, because the soldiers were so brave. Still, some of the men refused to join. They asked why they should fight for America when the country put their families into the relocation camps. There had been arguments and even fistfights at Tallgrass over enlistment. Tomi knew that sooner or later, Roy would have to make a decision about joining the army, so his secret shouldn’t have surprised her. Still, she hoped the war would be over by the time he turned eighteen that summer.

  “Maybe you could just get a job in the camp to help the war effort so you won’t have to join up,” Tomi said.

  “You don’t understand. I want to join. I want to fight for my country.”

  “Why? Why, after the way America treated Pop? We hardly recognized him when he came here. He left California a strong man, and now he walks with a cane. He used to be so happy, but he never smiles anymore. Look what America did to him.”

  “You’re right about Pop, but I still love this country. You do, too.”

  “I’m not so sure anymore, not after the way Pop was treated,” Tomi told him.

  “Don’t say that,” Roy said quickly.

  “It’s true,” Tomi said. “I’m sorry I sold raffle tickets to help the war effort. And I think you’re dumb to join the army.”

  “You shouldn’t say all that,” Roy told her.

  “Shikata ga nai,” said Tomi. “It can’t be helped.”

  On the day he turned eighteen, Roy told Pop he was going into the army.

  “No!” Pop exclaimed. “No son of mine is risking his life to fight for America. You do no
t have my permission. I forbid it!” He hit the floor so hard with his cane that it left a dent in the wood.

  “It’s too late, Pop. I already signed up.”

  “I did not agree.”

  “You don’t have to,” Roy said. “I’m eighteen. I can sign up on my own.”

  “You go against my wishes?”

  Roy sighed. “Look, Pop. There isn’t much choice. I can sign up, or I can refuse. And if I refuse, I’ll be arrested. Then I’d have to go to prison like you did.”

  “At least it would be for a reason. I was there just because I am Japanese.”

  “Come on, Pop.”

  Pop put up his hand. “Look at your mother. She is crying. Did you think of her?”

  Roy looked miserable, and Tomi wondered if he was sorry now that he had enlisted. “I can’t help it. It’s too late.”

  Pop stood and hobbled to the window. “This is what this country has done to us. It has split our family apart. And now you want to fight for it?” Pop shook his head and stared out the window.

  Tomi came up beside Pop and took his hand, and when she looked into his face, she saw tears.

  She didn’t hate America the way Pop did, but she didn’t like it very much.

  1944 | CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ROY JOINS the ARMY

  THE family saw Roy off at the Tallgrass gate. He grinned and waved. The Itanos waved back, even Pop, but he looked grim. Only Mom smiled, as she handed Roy a paper sack with his lunch in it. She had asked one of the cooks to make Roy’s favorite Japanese food for the bus ride.

  “Where’s Hiro?” Roy asked, as the young men started to board the bus. He looked around at the people gathered at the gate. Hiro had been with them, but he’d disappeared. Tomi craned her neck to see over the crowd, and then she spotted Hiro running from the barracks. “Gangway,” he yelled as he pushed through the crowd. He rushed up to Roy and said, “I almost forgot. Hold out your hand.” When Roy did, Hiro dropped something into it.