Paper Wishes

Manami’s grandfather is an elderly widower living with his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter on Bainbridge Island. Grandfather loves the ocean and walks the beach every morning. He seeks solace there after his wife’s death, and it is there that he finds his beloved dog Yujiin for the first time, making the beach and the ocean even more significant to him. 

When he is imprisoned in Manzanar, the loss of Yujiin and the loss of the ocean are almost too much for him. In the first months at the camp, Grandfather eats very little and spends almost all of his time either in the family’s room in the barracks or sitting outside its door. He does not interact with other families, and although he passes some time with woodworking, Manami is sure that he is mostly staring into space, thinking of Yujiin. He comments that he has “lived too long” (30), implying that he is ready to die. Eventually, however, Grandfather overcomes his sorrow and begins to live again; he is thus a dynamic character who shows The Importance of Resilience and Adaptation.

Grandfather is a loving and wise grandparent. He makes sure to spend time with Manami, talking with her and advising her. When Manami’s parents are upset that Manami has stopped speaking, he defends Manami, advising her parents to let her work through her feelings in her own way. On the day Manami comes to him sobbing with grief about Yujiin, he understands implicitly that she is trying to tell him how sorry she is for accidentally creating a worse situation for their dog by trying to hide him. He reassures her and puts his own desire to stay at their barracks aside to walk his granddaughter to school, just as he used to do on the island. Significantly, it is Grandfather who intuits when Manami is ready for a new dog and who understands that, through caring for Seal, Manami may find her ability to speak again.

Kimmi is Manami’s best friend. She is also a 10-year-old Japanese American, and her family is also removed from Bainbridge Island and sent to the Manzanar concentration camp. She is a cheerful and optimistic child: On the first day at Manzanar, when others have been crying and are sinking into depression, Kimmi comes skipping down the dinner line to enthusiastically tell Manami which barracks her family is in. Soon, she is outside playing with the other children, talking and laughing. When Grandfather comments to Manami that Kimmi is happy in the camp, Manami thinks to herself that this is true, but it is also true that “Kimmi is always happy” (47). In this way, she acts as a foil to Manami.

Kimmi is a good friend to Manami, showing her understanding when Manami refuses to speak and defending her from the other children’s teasing. She is sad when Manami is too sad to play, and she intuitively understands that Manami is longing for Yujiin without being told. She makes Manami promise to come to school and shows her tenderness when she brushes and braids Manami’s hair. Even after months of Manami’s silence and withdrawal from the other children, Kimmi continues to be her friend and spend time with Manami.

Manami’s mother is a stay-at-home mother living with her husband, child, and father on Bainbridge Island. Her two older children are both away at college in Indiana. She is a firm parent with high expectations, but she is also gentle and loving toward Manami. In ordinary times, Mother expects Manami to be respectful and to help around the house, and when the relocation order is announced, she expects her daughter to help harvest the garden, clean, and pack without complaint or explanation. 

In the camp, she gives Manami the job of fetching water and watering the garden. However, she is gentle with Manami when she realizes Manami is secretly carrying Yujin in her coat, and she encourages Manami to express her feelings and start talking again once they are at Manzanar. She is often depicted holding her daughter’s hand, holding Manami in her arms, or gently brushing Manami’s hair.

Manami’s mother is a sensitive person. She cries when it is time to leave Yujiin, when she first sees Manzanar, when her father first comes to the mess hall, and when she believes the rain has destroyed her garden. Despite her sensitivity, she is a strong woman who understands how to make the best of her circumstances. She works hard in the camp to make her family as comfortable as possible, and she grows frustrated when she feels idle, deciding to take a job cooking to keep herself busy and improve the quality of the camp’s food. Her character reflects resilience: Even though she is clearly devastated by what is happening to her family, she is determined to bounce back and create the best life she can for them.

Manami’s father is a fisherman. He lives with his wife, child, and father-in-law on Bainbridge Island. He has two older children, both at college in Indiana. Father works long hours as a fisherman to provide for his family, and he is happy to send his children to college to create an easier future for them. He continues to show this kind of determination and work ethic even after being imprisoned at Manzanar. He is the first in the family to suggest that, with hard work, the prisoners can turn the camp into something like a home, and he immediately starts working with the other men on various building projects.

Father is in many ways a typical man of his era. At Manzanar, he works such long hours that the family does not see him each day until late in the evening. He also spends a lot of time at night just socializing with the other men in camp, expecting his wife to stay home and devote herself to caring for Manami and Grandfather even in the evening hours, without his sharing the burden. As the father of the family, he expects to dictate what Ron will do with his life, and as a result their interactions are often confrontational. This behavior is more a reflection of social roles in this time period than it is a reflection of his feelings about his family. 

Father shows his love for Manami by trying to make her happy with a new dog and making her the fan for the lantern festival. He shows consideration for his father-in-law when he stays after work to pick through the scraps left from building to bring Grandfather supplies to make things with. Although he initially resists the idea of Mother taking a job, the ease she has in persuading him shows Father’s respect and love for her. Even his confrontations with Ron are motivated by love: He wants Ron to do what is best for Ron’s future and not to sacrifice himself for family and community.

Ron is Manami’s older brother. He is a college student who lives in Indiana. In Chapter 3, Ron arrives at Manzanar to be with his family. He explains that he could not stay in Indiana when he knew the family was imprisoned in the camp, demonstrating his deep love for his family and his sense of responsibility to them by giving up his college career and freedom. Ron is a loving brother to Manami, even telling Rosalie that Manami is “the best little sister” (147). He struggles to accept Manami’s silence, urging her to speak many times. He makes little effort to observe the other ways in which she communicates—through her expression, her body language, and so on. Still, he makes plenty of time to be with her and resists the idea of leaving the camp to go back to college because he is worried about Manami.

Ron also shows concern for his community, taking a job teaching the older middle-school students and spending his own money to buy baseball equipment so that the middle-school boys can play baseball. Ron’s character illustrates how difficult it is for someone in a place like Manzanar to navigate between responsibility to self, family, and community. Ron cannot agree to his father’s desire for him to join the army and better his own position, for instance, because Ron feels that this would be a betrayal of his family and community. 

Ron and his father also argue about what Ron should do with his time during the August school break. Father believes that Ron should stay in the barracks and study so that he does not fall behind in his schooling, while Ron wants to bring in a little money for the family by joining the building crew. Ultimately, his choice to take on responsibility for the boys in his class leads to his arrest and his transfer out of Manzanar. Ron has to give up taking care of his family to keep himself safe, agreeing to be transferred to a camp in Idaho.