The Purple Heart (10 page)

“But I do know what I do
like and she can’t pump water for the life of her,” replied Hiroshi.

Minami turned her head,
gave Hiroshi a smile and a wink. She waited for him to catch up before they
continued their walk. They reached the back of Minami’s barrack and turned
right to walk down its length. At the doorstep, Minami stepped up onto the
first step and turned to meet Hiroshi.

“Well here it is, barrack
number 15, my new address,” said Minami as she glanced at the barrack’s number
above the door.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” as
Hiroshi looked down the rows of barracks in the direction of his own. He
shuffled about for a moment and looked down at each of the pails with a moment
of hesitation, raised the one in his right hand. Minami grasped the steel
handle and steadily took it away from him.

“Thank you again. I really
do appreciate it,” said Minami.

“It’s no problem,” replied
Hiroshi. “Same time tomorrow?”

Minami laughed, “Sure, same
time tomorrow. Maybe I’ll see you at breakfast?”

“Maybe, my mom wasn’t
feeling well so I carried food back for my parents.”

“Oh, I hope she’s feeling
better,” replied Minami. She was disappointed in his answer but understood.

“She’ll feel better soon.
It’s this awful food that’s being served. It really didn’t settle well with
her,” said Hiroshi. “But I’ll see you tomorrow morning if I don’t see you later
today.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon,”
said Minami with a smile.

“Okay then, bye now,” said
Hiroshi.

Minami eased onto her toes,
offered a quick wave and said bye as she watched Hiroshi walk away down the
rows of barracks. She stood there on the steps watching Hiroshi until he
finally turned right and disappeared from view.

“How long does it take to
get a pail of water?” asked Minami’s mother from behind her.

Minami was startled. She didn’t
notice that the door had opened, and her mother was standing in the doorframe looking
at her with some annoyance. Minami turned, started up the steps and started
telling her mother about how the water pump was difficult again as the door
closed behind them.

The days wore on in the
camp with the same routine every single day. As people got settled in and got
to know their neighbors, a sense of community started to take hold. The sense
of isolation started to melt away as they befriended their unit neighbors and
then people from barracks close by. The mess hall offered a place for easy
congregation and introduction.

The white soldiers who
manned the mess hall were soon replaced by Japanese Americans. As the prison
camp started to fill to capacity, it was ordered that each block needed to
provide its own cooks. Some were relieved that the replacement of the white
cooks would mean a menu that was more to the liking of the Japanese American
palate. But it became obviously clear that the ingredients were still the same,
and not too many people were trained to cook for hundreds of people, three times
a day. But some of the cooks adapted making some mess halls better than others
in terms of food being offered. Mess-hall-hopping became a usual thing when one
family would whisper that the food in one mess hall was better than another.

Minami’s mother preferred
to keep the family together and kept them in their assigned mess hall. The
cooks weren’t that bad, though they weren’t that great either. They were doing
their best with the ingredients that they were offered. At least the rice was
cooked better.

The bathrooms got worse.
They weren’t built to handle the volume of people. People waited impatiently to
use the bathrooms. The bathrooms were the first to overflow, as drainage was
poor. The entire area around the bathrooms was odorous and Minami felt sorry
for those families whose barrack was near the foul smell. Hot water became
infrequent. Many people had to shower with icy cold water, which became a test
of will and spirit.

Additional surplus pea
coats, army boots, surplus fabric, blankets, mess kits, and even sewing
machines were trucked in by the U.S. Army. They weren’t the most fashionable
items, but everyone knew survival was more important than how one looked. A
team of volunteers took up the sewing duties and started to use their skills to
fashion some decent attire. Much of the clothing was for men and had to be
altered for the women.

Despite the minimalist way
of life, the Japanese Americans made do with what they had. For Minami, each
morning she and Hiroshi would meet at the water pump and exchange new stories
and laughs. Minami really enjoyed his company, and there was a soothing sense
to his companionship. Seeing him for a few minutes a day, bumping into him at
the mess hall offered her something to break the monotony of the prison camp.
There was nowhere to go and she couldn’t fathom how Hiroshi would even ask her
out, if that were even a possibility. It wasn’t like he could ask her to go out
for a movie and a dinner or take a drive down the highway along the California
coastline. She found herself regretting that she had thrown away much of her
makeup.

One afternoon, Minami was
walking with Miho back to the barrack when someone hollered out her name. She
and Miho spun around but saw no one when the voice came again from above.
Minami looked up to see Hiroshi and another man on the roof doing some work.
The other man didn’t take notice as he began hammering away but Hiroshi looked
down at her with a big smile and waved to her. Minami smiled back and waved to
him. Then Miho gave her a suspicious look, and Minami suddenly walked on. When
Miho looked back a Hiroshi, Minami pulled her forcibly away.

One morning in March,
Minami left her family’s barrack with her empty pail to meet Hiroshi. It was a
warmer morning but still chilly. He had gotten into the habit of getting to the
water pump before her and it always gave her a smile to see him waiting for
her. As she passed the third row of barracks she was startled by a voice.

“Up early aren’t we?”

Minami looked in the
direction of the voice and saw the soldier who had made her feel uneasy before,
leaning up against one of the barracks. He was smoking and he just simply
looked at her. He then looked down at his boots, took another drag on the
cigarette and then flung the cigarette away in front of him. He then exhaled
the smoke from his flaring nostrils and repeated his question, “I said, up
early aren’t we?”

Minami didn’t know what to
say. She didn’t like him. For the most part, the soldiers on the base didn’t
really converse with the Japanese American prisoners. The attitude from the
soldiers was dismissive, and they seemed to want nothing to do with the Japanese
Americans. In reality, the Japanese Americans outnumbered the soldiers by the
hundreds if not the thousands. But the soldiers had the guns. A mutual distrust
grew between the Japanese Americans and the white soldiers, which was expected.
But what this soldier wanted with Minami she did not know and frankly she would
have preferred it if he left her alone. She just looked back at him until she
answered him.

“I’m just getting some
water so I’ll be going now,” said Minami.

“You should learn to be
more obedient if you know what’s best for you.”

Minami was unnerved by his
veiled threat and didn’t know what he meant. She didn’t like the feel of the
situation and was becoming uncomfortable with each passing second. There was
plainly something awful in his tone. She decided that it would be best to
ignore him, as Hiroshi would only be a couple of barracks away. She turned away
from the soldier and resumed walking away when she heard him utter a few words.

“You’ll come around you
dumb Jap bitch.”

The words struck deeply
into Minami as she walked away. Her situation was already dire and with those
words, her situation was now cruel. It was made cruel by a man she didn’t even
know who denigrated her because of her ethnicity. It wasn’t her choice to be in
this situation but because she was Japanese, her choice was made for her. But
then again, she didn’t ask to be Japanese either. She didn’t ask for any of it
and now her life was being robbed away from her without any choice in the
matter. Her very being, her life was all caught up in an unfair game of
manipulation and deceit.

She turned around
unnervingly and he was gone without a trace. He must have walked down the
length of the barrack and turned off quickly. It was the second time she had
encountered him and she was wearier of the soldier who seemed to make her life
more uncomfortable with his veiled threats. What did he mean by saying, “If you
know what’s best for you?”

She resumed walking more
briskly. She didn’t feel comfortable being alone at that moment and focused on
getting to the water pump, which was in plain sight but there was no Hiroshi.
Her heart skipped a beat and she just hoped that he’d be there soon when
suddenly someone rushed up from behind and she screamed.

“Whoa! It’s only me,
Minami,” said Hiroshi as he stepped back from a startled Minami.

Minami dropped the pail,
her hand raced to her chest as she caught her breath. Hiroshi stepped forward,
offered his hand when she slapped it away. “Don’t ever do that again!”
admonished Minami. There was a glare of anger yet also a glint of relief.
Minami was glad to see him but didn’t expect him to surprise her from behind.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to scare you,” said Hiroshi.

Minami’s breathing returned
to normal and her startled state ebbed away. She wanted to brush it off and not
alert Hiroshi to anything that may be wrong. “It’s okay, you just startled me.”

Hiroshi reached down,
picked up her pail and brushed off the sand that had clung to the side and part
of the rim. He used his shirt to give it a good wipe down and then straightened
up.

“Are you okay? You seemed a
bit distracted when I saw you coming down.”

Minami reassured him that
she was fine, but she was lying. She wasn’t fine. The words from the soldier
really bothered her. At least when the townspeople at home threatened her, she
could run away. But she couldn’t run away this time.

“Really, I’m fine,
Hiroshi,” she said as she looked into his eyes. She wanted to offer firmness to
her words but at the same time, she wanted to find comfort in his eyes, which
she did. He looked back into her wondrous eyes that sometimes seemed to swallow
his entire soul.

“Okay. I’ll start pumping
the water,” said Hiroshi as he walked over to the water pump. “You know, I
think I better start pumping the water with my left arm, my right arm is
getting bigger from this daily workout.”

Minami couldn’t help but
laugh at the image of Hiroshi’s right arm being Herculean larger than his left.
Hiroshi set about getting to work. Despite his own suggestion, he started the
pump with his right arm. Minami looked on in silence until Hiroshi broke the
silence.

“Hey, you know this is
going to sound odd but if you could get away tonight, say after dinner, I’d
like to bring you somewhere,” said Hiroshi.

Minami was confused. “Bring
me where?” she thought. “We’re in the middle of a desert, you really can’t
bring me anywhere.”

Hiroshi chuckled. “Well I
know that, but I found a place that I’d like to take you to.”

“Where?” asked Minami. Her
curiosity was definitely piqued.

“That’s a secret for now,”
said Hiroshi slyly.

“What, you’re going to
bring me to the mess hall?”

“No.”

“The laundry?”

“No.”

“Oh I know, you’re going to
bring me to the bathroom?”

“Hey, if you’re going to be
mean about it I just won’t bring you,” said Hiroshi teasingly.

Minami backed off her
sarcastic retorts and then grabbed his left arm. She wanted to know and was
strangely excited by his request to go on some unknown excursion. “I’m sorry, I
do want to go with you.”

Hiroshi looked down at her beautiful
eyes and with her girlish grin, found that he couldn’t refuse her.

“After dinner tonight, I’ll
meet you around the corner of your barrack and I’ll take you to the place,”
said Hiroshi.

Minami nodded in an
approving manner and accepted Hiroshi’s invitation. “Was this a date?” she
asked herself. She wasn’t sure. For all this time, she thought she was flirting
with the water boy. But he just asked her to go somewhere, when they were in
the middle of nowhere. But she decided to trust him and let him surprise her
however remote that possibility seemed.

After dinner, Minami and
her family returned to their barrack. Yuka was playing with Yoshi while Miho
was reading some magazines that the U.S. Army had supplied. Many of them were
already outdated by about a month, but it was the only news from the outside
world that they could get. Mrs. Ito was laying out the clothes for the next
day. Minami found herself in an awkward situation. Since coming to the prison
camp with the family, she had not spent one evening without her family and that
night she had a secret rendezvous with a young man whom she thought may have
taking a liking to her. She wasn’t sure what excuse to give to her mother about
leaving the barrack at such an hour.