The Chikamori Legacy (The Sanitized Version)
Prologue - "Seeds of Dissent" Part I (Author's Note: "This is the clean, sanitized version with no links back to my blog - meaning no contraventions against rules) Vancouver, BC, Canada - 1988 ...
Forum Discussion
Chapter One: “Love and Loss” = Part I
At Home
https://i.imgur.com/OlBPPn2.jpg
“Grandma…?”
https://i.imgur.com/OyEbg3n.jpg
Yumi looked at her teenage grandson, how tall he was…. And broad-shouldered, he’d become. And he still counted River among his friends in school. She smiled as her grandson came over and knelt beside the arm of her armchair that she seemed to increasingly spend more time in as the days went on. Her days were passing and soon she knew she would reunite with her husband. “Nani desu ka, Haruo-kun…” she tried not to let her fatigue show but there were days when the fatigue just did not abate.
https://i.imgur.com/xIdHg5m.jpg
“I graduate this summer and River graduates next summer. And well, I’m not sure if I want to go to university like River wants to. I’m waiting an year and taking some remedial courses to get my grades up, but it’s not helping.”
https://i.imgur.com/f13enRC.jpg
“Hmmmm….” Grandma Yumi’s tone was comforting. Admiringly for a ninety-six year old lady, she had learned English over the course of her years in Canada. It was all self taught since there were no English-as-a-second-language courses in those days. She learned through conversation with hakujin and her own children who learned both Japanese and English. She was exceedingly open-minded for someone of what was termed the “Lost Generation”, those who were born between 1880 and 1900.
https://i.imgur.com/8qWKSF8.jpg
“Daigaku shingaku wa anata ni totte tadashī ketsudande wanai kamo shirenai. Jiichan itenai. Te to ikigai shita.” She was right, as usual, Grand-dad hadn’t had the opportunity to go to university, he worked with his hands. Neither had Grandma, she was too busy raising a family.
“Honto desu, ne? Oba-san.”
https://i.imgur.com/gKH3udr.jpg
“You…decide, Grandson…” she raised a finger and with a smile touched her fingernail to his chest, switching to English, “Your life, you make happy…your decision…go university, no go university. Become your decision. Shikashi, daigaku ikenakareba jinsei wa moto mutsukashiku sareru”. Ah yes, the flip-side of the coin. Why put more obstacles in his own path if having a university degree could help smooth things out?
https://i.imgur.com/an6sQRq.jpg
Haruo wrapped his arms around his grandmother gently and hugged her.
https://i.imgur.com/AKbsjmv.jpg
How small she’d become…and frail. His eyes misted a bit as he thought of life without her guidance and love. “I love you, Grandma.”
https://i.imgur.com/BZeWlXn.jpg
“Hmmmm…” was her only response but the imperceptible tightening of her arms around him answered more than if she had spoken those words back to him.
The Miyagawas nor the Chikamoris were not a very demonstrative family in terms of displays of affection. What their form of affection was…was in the toil and care they took to preserve the stability of their family and to keep their family unit intact, making sacrifices to make sure that their progeny got ahead.
https://i.imgur.com/UYaFNb0.jpg
It was very clear to Yumiko that Mayumi, her daughter, had no maternal love for her son whatsoever.
https://i.imgur.com/KDwG3bu.jpg
All Haruo meant to Mayumi was what he could do to keep Mayumi reigning exalted, what adulations could be showered upon her.- the only reason for producing Haruo was to produce progeny for the sake of fulfilling the dream of her father to see his grandchildren before he’d passed away. So Haruo was just an obligation and not worth emotionally taking care of. As long as the bare minimum of his necessities were taken care of…the Ministry of Social Services (as they were known back then) wouldn’t interfere. Which was why Yumiko had stepped in - she had decided unilaterally that she would provide the emotional support Haruo needed from someone within his family.
The Nisei (second generation) learned from the Issei (first generation - the immigrants): shikata ga nai; deru kugi wa utareru - a fatalistic view of the inevitability of trials and tribulations in life.
It was the Sansei (third generation) in fact that tended to be more outgoing and emotional in public. The ones who made the Yonsei (fourth generation) feel at home.
https://i.imgur.com/AqcLqhu.jpg
Haruo was the product of a Issei and a Nisei. His father was an immigrant. Technically that should have made him a Sansei but his mother kept calling him a Nisei-han (2nd Generation and a half) as if he was mathematically torn between two generations and not a part of one or the other and even more so, not a part of the Nikkei Sansei cohort. Not able to express individuality or emotion without recrimination and labouring under the expected constraints of the Generation before him.
Because according to Mayumi’s Generational-mathematics: if two Second Generations could produce a Third Generation then obviously a First Generation Immigrant combined with a second Generation was technically producing just a half generation - (the mathematical gymnastics escapes me).
https://i.imgur.com/w0I0IPF.jpg
It had been ten years since Grandfather had died, a man hardened and embittered by war and internment, knowing only that he’d not been treated as a Canadian should be, he’d always been thought of as an interloping foreigner - the Vancouver Anti-Oriental riots of 1907 which he’d just barely avoided cemented his view on one single point: Never trust a hakujin - it had given him pause and seriously consider returning to Japan, but he opted to stick it out. His wife had loved him, she’d come over to Canada, sight unseen, landing in Vancouver in 1908. and stood by him as they’d worked their way through life, building back again from zero, side by side through joys and losses, easing each other’s pain and a part of her left with him to the other side when he passed on beyond the veil.
Yet, her love for her grandson had kept her here for ten years. It was as if she had been waiting for something.
https://i.imgur.com/b0f12OL.jpg
“River wa nani suru-ka?” Grandma looked up at her tall grandson expectantly.
https://i.imgur.com/4Hyc70a.jpg
“River wants to go to university. I mean so does Bebe. It’s four years…” his grandmother was looking at him as if that wan’t the answer to the question she was looking for. She raised one eyebrow with a slight smile. She had no idea who this other girl was that he was referring to, other than that she was one of his classmates from the same grade year.
https://i.imgur.com/cBvsOs2.jpg
Her grandson and River spent almost every moment outside of school together. They’d grown up together and were both in high-school. And Yumi had caught River glancing at Haruo when it seemed like he wasn’t looking. And lately it seemed that River was shedding her tomboy image and was starting to dress more feminine growing out her hair and putting on make-up. And boys were starting to pay her attention. Was her grandson able to pick up on those subtle non-verbal cues of a female trying to attract the attentions of a mate. Yumi was certain that River held more than just mere affection and friendship towards her grandson. Men. Yumi smiled again. Sometimes they needed to be handheld through the courtship process or they’d never get there.
https://i.imgur.com/sXmKcA4.jpg
Yumi sighed again as she looked over at her grand-son. She had been sixteen as a picture bride in 1908 when she’d made the long voyage from Tokyo Harbour to Vancouver Port. Then she was brought by horse drawn long passenger carriages to Vancouver to meet her nineteen year old to-be husband. They were married in the eyes of the Crown and the Province of British Columbia and in the eyes of King George V the following morning. And thus had remained happily married through everything that transpired for 70 years until his passing. A long caring marriage was what Yumi wanted for her grandson.
End Part I
At Home
https://i.imgur.com/OlBPPn2.jpg
“Grandma…?”
https://i.imgur.com/OyEbg3n.jpg
Yumi looked at her teenage grandson, how tall he was…. And broad-shouldered, he’d become. And he still counted River among his friends in school. She smiled as her grandson came over and knelt beside the arm of her armchair that she seemed to increasingly spend more time in as the days went on. Her days were passing and soon she knew she would reunite with her husband. “Nani desu ka, Haruo-kun…” she tried not to let her fatigue show but there were days when the fatigue just did not abate.
https://i.imgur.com/xIdHg5m.jpg
“I graduate this summer and River graduates next summer. And well, I’m not sure if I want to go to university like River wants to. I’m waiting an year and taking some remedial courses to get my grades up, but it’s not helping.”
https://i.imgur.com/f13enRC.jpg
“Hmmmm….” Grandma Yumi’s tone was comforting. Admiringly for a ninety-six year old lady, she had learned English over the course of her years in Canada. It was all self taught since there were no English-as-a-second-language courses in those days. She learned through conversation with hakujin and her own children who learned both Japanese and English. She was exceedingly open-minded for someone of what was termed the “Lost Generation”, those who were born between 1880 and 1900.
https://i.imgur.com/8qWKSF8.jpg
“Daigaku shingaku wa anata ni totte tadashī ketsudande wanai kamo shirenai. Jiichan itenai. Te to ikigai shita.” She was right, as usual, Grand-dad hadn’t had the opportunity to go to university, he worked with his hands. Neither had Grandma, she was too busy raising a family.
“Honto desu, ne? Oba-san.”
https://i.imgur.com/gKH3udr.jpg
“You…decide, Grandson…” she raised a finger and with a smile touched her fingernail to his chest, switching to English, “Your life, you make happy…your decision…go university, no go university. Become your decision. Shikashi, daigaku ikenakareba jinsei wa moto mutsukashiku sareru”. Ah yes, the flip-side of the coin. Why put more obstacles in his own path if having a university degree could help smooth things out?
https://i.imgur.com/an6sQRq.jpg
Haruo wrapped his arms around his grandmother gently and hugged her.
https://i.imgur.com/AKbsjmv.jpg
How small she’d become…and frail. His eyes misted a bit as he thought of life without her guidance and love. “I love you, Grandma.”
https://i.imgur.com/BZeWlXn.jpg
“Hmmmm…” was her only response but the imperceptible tightening of her arms around him answered more than if she had spoken those words back to him.
The Miyagawas nor the Chikamoris were not a very demonstrative family in terms of displays of affection. What their form of affection was…was in the toil and care they took to preserve the stability of their family and to keep their family unit intact, making sacrifices to make sure that their progeny got ahead.
https://i.imgur.com/UYaFNb0.jpg
It was very clear to Yumiko that Mayumi, her daughter, had no maternal love for her son whatsoever.
https://i.imgur.com/KDwG3bu.jpg
All Haruo meant to Mayumi was what he could do to keep Mayumi reigning exalted, what adulations could be showered upon her.- the only reason for producing Haruo was to produce progeny for the sake of fulfilling the dream of her father to see his grandchildren before he’d passed away. So Haruo was just an obligation and not worth emotionally taking care of. As long as the bare minimum of his necessities were taken care of…the Ministry of Social Services (as they were known back then) wouldn’t interfere. Which was why Yumiko had stepped in - she had decided unilaterally that she would provide the emotional support Haruo needed from someone within his family.
The Nisei (second generation) learned from the Issei (first generation - the immigrants): shikata ga nai; deru kugi wa utareru - a fatalistic view of the inevitability of trials and tribulations in life.
It was the Sansei (third generation) in fact that tended to be more outgoing and emotional in public. The ones who made the Yonsei (fourth generation) feel at home.
https://i.imgur.com/AqcLqhu.jpg
Haruo was the product of a Issei and a Nisei. His father was an immigrant. Technically that should have made him a Sansei but his mother kept calling him a Nisei-han (2nd Generation and a half) as if he was mathematically torn between two generations and not a part of one or the other and even more so, not a part of the Nikkei Sansei cohort. Not able to express individuality or emotion without recrimination and labouring under the expected constraints of the Generation before him.
Because according to Mayumi’s Generational-mathematics: if two Second Generations could produce a Third Generation then obviously a First Generation Immigrant combined with a second Generation was technically producing just a half generation - (the mathematical gymnastics escapes me).
https://i.imgur.com/w0I0IPF.jpg
It had been ten years since Grandfather had died, a man hardened and embittered by war and internment, knowing only that he’d not been treated as a Canadian should be, he’d always been thought of as an interloping foreigner - the Vancouver Anti-Oriental riots of 1907 which he’d just barely avoided cemented his view on one single point: Never trust a hakujin - it had given him pause and seriously consider returning to Japan, but he opted to stick it out. His wife had loved him, she’d come over to Canada, sight unseen, landing in Vancouver in 1908. and stood by him as they’d worked their way through life, building back again from zero, side by side through joys and losses, easing each other’s pain and a part of her left with him to the other side when he passed on beyond the veil.
Yet, her love for her grandson had kept her here for ten years. It was as if she had been waiting for something.
https://i.imgur.com/b0f12OL.jpg
“River wa nani suru-ka?” Grandma looked up at her tall grandson expectantly.
https://i.imgur.com/4Hyc70a.jpg
“River wants to go to university. I mean so does Bebe. It’s four years…” his grandmother was looking at him as if that wan’t the answer to the question she was looking for. She raised one eyebrow with a slight smile. She had no idea who this other girl was that he was referring to, other than that she was one of his classmates from the same grade year.
https://i.imgur.com/cBvsOs2.jpg
Her grandson and River spent almost every moment outside of school together. They’d grown up together and were both in high-school. And Yumi had caught River glancing at Haruo when it seemed like he wasn’t looking. And lately it seemed that River was shedding her tomboy image and was starting to dress more feminine growing out her hair and putting on make-up. And boys were starting to pay her attention. Was her grandson able to pick up on those subtle non-verbal cues of a female trying to attract the attentions of a mate. Yumi was certain that River held more than just mere affection and friendship towards her grandson. Men. Yumi smiled again. Sometimes they needed to be handheld through the courtship process or they’d never get there.
https://i.imgur.com/sXmKcA4.jpg
Yumi sighed again as she looked over at her grand-son. She had been sixteen as a picture bride in 1908 when she’d made the long voyage from Tokyo Harbour to Vancouver Port. Then she was brought by horse drawn long passenger carriages to Vancouver to meet her nineteen year old to-be husband. They were married in the eyes of the Crown and the Province of British Columbia and in the eyes of King George V the following morning. And thus had remained happily married through everything that transpired for 70 years until his passing. A long caring marriage was what Yumi wanted for her grandson.
End Part I
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