Hakujin

Robin Mueller, the hakujin or white person of the story, falls in love with Tadashi Nakayama more than sixty years ago when miscegenation was against the law in many states and there were no laws protecting minorities from discrimination. The Big Depression was ending and the labor shortage brought jobs for women and an independence not known by previous generations, triggering conflicts between fathers and daughters. Tadashi goes to war with the now-famous 442nd Battalion, which rescued the Lost Battalion in France during October of 1944. Robin rescues her unwed, pregnant cousin Frannie by shepherding her to San Antonio, Texas to escape the family's wrath. When she returns to Seattle, the Japanese are also returning from the camps where they have been interned. In three and a half years, Robin has emerged as a self-sufficient young woman.… (more)