Paper Wishes

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

Ten-year-old Manami Tanaka and her grandfather walk on the beach near their home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. As Manami notices the surf washing away her grandfather’s footprints, she feels unsettled. She remembers the soldiers who came to her family’s home on the previous day. She forgets the uneasy feeling when she sees her family’s dog, Yujiin, racing across the sand. Yujiin has escaped the house and is eager to be with Grandfather on the beach. Manami notes that the usually energetic dog calms himself and behaves “like an old man” (3) when he is with Grandfather. Manami’s grandfather listens to a warship that has entered the port and comments on how unusual it is for the ship to be there.

Manami feels uneasy again. She confesses to Grandfather that the soldiers scare her. Grandfather tells her that the soldiers fear her, too, because she is of Japanese descent. The soldiers are afraid that people like Manami and her family will be disloyal, because the United States is at war with Japan. Manami protests that she is an American. Grandfather comments to Yujiin that this beach is where they first met, when Yujiin was hungry and needed a home and Grandfather was grieving the loss of his wife and needed a friend.