The Purple Heart (28 page)

The coach was silent as he
pondered Hiroshi’s words. Then he spoke. “You know, son, when they wanted to
form these relocation camps, I was all for it. I felt deeply that it was the
right thing to do, and that none of you Japanese Americans could be trusted.
But now that I’ve been here for a year and witnessed what you did for the team
last year, I began having some second thoughts. I got to know many of you.
You’re just regular people like myself. Hell, I’ll say it, you’re an American
son, and there’s a whole lot of ignorant sons of bitches here who need to see
beyond the face. Many of us did wake up from our prejudice, though there are
still some who are suspicious and feel that they are doing a ton of good by
holding all of you here in this god-forsaken desert. But as for myself, I’m now
simply following orders, not because I believe it’s the right thing to do.”

“Thanks, coach, I always
appreciate your honesty,” said Hiroshi.

“Yeah, if you really want
to make a difference, son, you and a whole lot of you will have to prove
yourselves. Kind of like how you proved yourself when you pitched for me last
year,” said the coach.

Hiroshi nodded as he
pondered his words.

“Son, you take care of
yourself and the missus. If you need anything, you know where to find me.”

“Thanks, coach.” The two
men shook hands once more before the captain walked off.

Hiroshi continued to stand
there, gazing once more beyond the barbed wire gate when he turned around to
head to block seven. His gaze was distracted as his eyes were drawn up to the
top of the flagpole as the American flag waved in the wind. It stood high up
and proud. An unexpected sense of patriotism suddenly welled up within him.
There was always something about the red, white, and blue, along with the broad
stripes and stars. It was a symbol of pride, and it commanded respect. It was
truly a flag among flags. Hiroshi then cast his gaze downward and walked away.

A few nights later, Minami
was kneeling on the floor, propped up on one side of the bed correcting her
students’ papers when Hiroshi entered. He only had on his jeans and he was
bare-chested with his wet towel hanging from around his neck. She watched as
Hiroshi crouched down at his suitcase to put away his toiletry items. He draped
his towel on a string above. Hiroshi then slipped out of his jeans, folded
them, plopped them onto his suitcase, and slipped into his sleeping clothes.

Hiroshi turned to Minami,
who had a sheepish grin on her face. He knelt down along the opposite side of
the bed and leaned in to give Minami a kiss.

“You know, the next time
you want to change in front of me like that, you should warn me because I’m all
distracted now,” said Minami with a hint of embarrassment.

Hiroshi smiled back and
asked, “How do you know that wasn’t my intent?”

“You’re a naughty boy,”
said Minami playfully.

Hiroshi chuckled and Minami
grinned in response. She went back to grading the papers as Hiroshi simply
watched her.

“You’re really working your
students hard,” said Hiroshi.

“Well, we might be in this prison
camp but that doesn’t mean we’re going to let the kids grow up to be stupid,”
said Minami.

“I thought the real reason
was to keep all the kids out of trouble,” remarked Hiroshi.

Minami smiled back, “And
that too. Oh, speaking of papers, here’s the questionnaire. Let’s just sign
them and be over with them. Your parents are all done as well as my family.
Father signed his reluctantly. I guess we’re the last ones.”

Hiroshi took his copy and
the pen that Minami offered him. Minami then reached into her school bag,
plucked out another pen and began filling in the questionnaire. Hiroshi did the
same and when he got to the questions challenging his patriotism, he paused and
with some resentment, he answered “yes” to both questions. He wrote out his
name, dated it, and signed it. Minami quietly signed hers, then took away
Hiroshi’s questionnaire and placed it on the floor beside her.

“I have a few more papers
to grade, and then we can go to bed,” said Minami.

“Mind if I watch?” asked
Hiroshi.

Minami smiled and brushed
her hair aside and said, “Of course not.”

Hiroshi watched his wife
turned teacher’s assistant. She was so diligent, giving each paper her
undivided attention. Her eyes move steadily back and forth as she read to
herself. He admired her delicate hands as she wrote notes along the margins.
Minami was just so beautiful, he thought.

Minami finished the last
paper and shuffled them into her bag. She turned to Hiroshi, smiled, and stood
up. She was wearing a white nightgown with light pinkish vertical stripes that
had ruffles along the cuffs and the hem.

“Time for bed and another
day,” exclaimed Minami playfully.

Hiroshi stood up, looked at
his wife, who looked five years younger in her girlish nightgown. He then
turned off the light bulb hanging overhead as they slipped into bed. Minami
snuggled into Hiroshi’s body as he wrapped his arms around her. She turned
toward Hiroshi and gave him a goodnight kiss. They were getting comfortable
when Minami whispered, “Good night.”

Then Hiroshi whispered,
“Minami, I decided to volunteer for the army.”

Minami bolted from his
arms, hopped off the bed, and turned on the light. Hiroshi quickly sat up and
squinted for a moment before focusing his eyes on Minami, who looked
bewildered. The string from the light bulb swayed back and forth behind her.

“You’re going to do
what
?”
she blurted out incredulously.

“Shhh… everyone is asleep,”
admonished Hiroshi.

“I’m not going to ‘shhh’
until you tell me what you meant by that comment!” yelled Minami.

Multiple “shhhs” came from
the neighbors from within the barrack, and Hiroshi suddenly saw the light
flicker on from his parents’ side of the barrack. He heard the unmistakable
sound of feet slipping into slippers.

He looked back at Minami,
who was staring back at him with a frenzied look. He hadn’t known what to
expect. He just didn’t know how to tell Minami and wasn’t really sure if there
was a proper way of telling her. He had actually made up his mind a few days
earlier and always found a convenient reason to delay the inevitable. However,
with the signing of the Loyalty Questionnaire, he felt compelled to tell her.
Now he deeply regretted the way he told Minami. But it was the mounting
pressure and his self-induced anxiety that made his words tumble out the way
they did.

Hiroshi’s father poked his
head into the unit and asked if everything was okay.

“Tell him! Tell your father
what you told me!” Minami said to Hiroshi.

Mr. Satoh was taken aback
by Minami’s raised voice and agitated posture. With the blanket partition still
wrapped about his neck, he turned his head toward his son. Hiroshi didn’t want
to break the news to his parents this way, but Minami’s unexpected outburst
gave him no choice. Hiroshi let out a sigh and then said, “Dad, I’m joining the
army.”

“No,” said his father in
disbelief as his eyes widened in alarm. Before Hiroshi could respond, he pulled
back his head and disappeared. Hiroshi heard his father talking to his mother,
then heard her slipping into her slippers and shuffling over. Hiroshi looked
over at Minami, who simply said to him in an accusatory manner, “Now look at
what you’ve done.”

Hiroshi turned his head and
saw his mother’s head peering through the blanket partition. She looked at
Hiroshi and asked, “What did you say to your father?”

For the third time, Hiroshi
said, “I’m joining the army.”

His mother’s eyes widened
in surprise as Mr. Satoh pushed her through the blanket partition and she
abruptly tumbled toward Hiroshi. Hiroshi caught his mother and steadied her as
an expression of concern washed over her face.

“Hiroshi, you don’t need to
join the army. They’re only looking for volunteers,” she said.

Hiroshi looked over at
Minami and then he looked at his parents. The thoughts that he had kept to
himself for the past few days, the reasons for his decision started to solidify
in his mind. Hiroshi ran his right hand firmly through his hair as he averted
his eyes from his family. For a moment, there was a look of consternation on
his face, then he looked up with a firm expression and spoke. “I look all around
me and I see thousands of Japanese Americans who have been taken away from
their homes and locked away on this damn prison. The unfairness of it all is
just unforgivable. I’ve tried to justify it from their point of view and I
can’t, because I know that I’m an American. No matter how they try to justify
it, they can’t take away what I know is true in my heart, that I’m an American.
I then look at you, Mom and Dad, I think about how unfair this is to the two of
you. You were taken away from your home and had your lives stripped away. You
didn’t even have a say in the matter. And then I look at Minami and how loving
she is, how wonderful that she is my wife. But I ask myself, is this the way a
new husband is supposed to start off a marriage? Is this the way that he’s
supposed to support her and care for her? Are we going to live out our lives on
this damn prison?”

Hiroshi paused as he arched
his neck back and then continued, “And I’m so frustrated that we all allowed
this to happen! I mean, we were so willing to go along with this and why? I
don’t get it. But now that we’re all here, it’s like we have to prove that we
are Americans, even when we shouldn’t have to. But ultimately, I want something
better for all of you. I don’t want you to live the rest of your lives on this
goddamn prison!”

Minami rushed over to
Hiroshi and wrapped her arms around his waist as tears slowly streamed down her
face. She was shaking her head slowly into his chest. Hiroshi held her and
stroked her hair, feeling its silkiness against his skin. He inhaled deeply and
continued, “And my thoughts always go back to my loving wife, whom I love so
much and I say to myself, she deserves better than this.”

Minami choked back her
tears as she answered, “What I deserve is you being here, and we’ll face
whatever challenges that lie ahead of us together.”

“What you deserve is a
husband who is willing to fight for our freedom so that we can be truly
together.”

“Fuck freedom! I don’t want
you to go! You don’t have to prove anything to me. I love you!” Minami
exclaimed as her voice rose to a crescendo.

Hiroshi wrapped his arms
tighter around Minami, trying to reassure her as he began to hold back the
tightening of his throat. He leaned his head into Minami’s ever more
affectionately as a flood of thoughts rushed through his mind. He never
intended to see his wife so hurt. Her tears began to soak through his
nightshirt.

“Hiroshi, listen to us and
to Minami. You don’t have to go,” said Hiroshi’s mother. “They’re only looking
for volunteers and signing that questionnaire doesn’t mean you have to go.”

Hiroshi turned to his
parents, who stared at him with worried faces. What just transpired was never
his intent. But he must have been naïve to think that his parents or Minami
would have just accepted his answer without protest or worry. Hiroshi inhaled
deeply and then simply said, “I’m going.”

Minami suddenly dug her
fingertips into Hiroshi’s lower back and stomped her feet several times as she
shouted in defiance, “No! No! No!”

Hiroshi held her even
firmer trying to soothe her and then said, “I’ll be back, I promise.”

Suddenly Minami pushed back
from Hiroshi, breaking the embrace. She stumbled backwards and then just looked
at Hiroshi. Her eyes were red from the tears and her face was flushed. Wet
strands of hair were pasted on her cheeks, and there was an intensity in her
eyes that Hiroshi had never ever seen before.

“You can’t promise that!
You’re going off to fight some stupid war!” screamed Minami.

“If not me, then who will?”
responded Hiroshi.

“Then someone else! There’s
always someone else! You don’t have to go, we’ll survive, Hiroshi!”

“That sounds really
selfish. If we don’t do it, then who will?”

Minami’s face flushed with
anger as her eyes narrowed in Hiroshi’s direction. “
Selfish
? Selfish!
You want to talk about being selfish? You didn’t even discuss this with me, and
I’m your wife! I didn’t marry you so that you can go off to war to prove
something that’s not necessary!”

Hiroshi was unprepared for
Minami’s response, but determination and strength coursed through him as he
yelled back, “I’m doing this for you! I’m doing this for our families so that
we can show to America that we are American and that we are willing to fight
for America!”

“But it doesn’t have to be
you! You’re leaving me, Hiroshi!” Minami broke down and started to sob.

Hiroshi stepped forward but
her face flared up with formidable anger and with a forbidding wave of her
hand. “Stay where you, don’t come any nearer!” she cried.

Hiroshi froze. There was
such ferocity in her voice that he had to momentarily collect his thoughts so
he could try to reassure her. In a softer, collected tone he spoke. “Minami,
don’t worry. I’ll ask to be in some tank so that I won’t be hurt.”