Generational Storytelling in Asian-American Literature (original) (raw)

Generational Storytelling in Asian-American Literature Garett Hongo, in his short story, “Kubota,” remembers his grandfather recounting his experiences as a Japanese-American living in Hawaii when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurs. Though his grandfather was only detained for a few days by the FBI, other Japanese-Americans on the Hawaiian Islands did not fare so well, and were interred for years. The author recalls his experiences years later while living in California; whenever he speaks of the interment camps, his Japanese-American friends are silent. Hongo concludes, “the Japanese-American children around were burdened in a way I was not. Their injunction was silence. Mine was to speak.” Hongo is unique in his community: his family was spared the struggle that so many of his friends endured of living in internment camps. His grandfather insists on telling his experiences, while the other Japanese-Americans wish to forget about the effects of World War II on their community. The teenaged Garrett is bored with his grandfather’s stories, but listens dutifully, anyway: “It’s a ritual payment the young owe their elders who have survived.” What starts as a simple remembrance of his grandfather in a short story becomes an exploration of generational story-telling. Hongo’s grandfather cannot forget (nor should he) his experiences of World War II. The memories of each person, though, are different. What one man remembers, another man chooses to forget. It is the grandfather’s stubborn insistence that his story be told and remembered that illustrates the importance not of the story, but of its teller. After his grandfather’s death on December 7, 1983, (National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day), Hongo dreams of his grandfather, releasing a small paper boat into the ocean in Hawaii, decorated with the names of the dead. Years later, Hongo is telling his grandfather’s stories to the next generation.