Paper Wishes

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

Manami’s voice functions as an important motif in the novel. The loss of her voice invokes The Emotional and Psychological Effects of Imprisonment on Children, while the recovery of her voice speaks to the power of hope and resilience. 

Throughout the story’s first chapter, Manami tries to speak up within her family. She asks questions and raises concerns, but she is blocked over and over by her parents’ silence. Manami is a respectful and obedient child, and she does not protest or criticize her parents, seeming to understand that they, too, are struggling to find answers. In Chapter 1, Manami’s beloved dog is ripped from her arms: In response, she says, “I shout. I kick and scream” (22). It is the first moment in which she truly voices her anger and despair, and yet it produces no effect. This tells Manami definitively that she is in a situation where her voice does not matter. When she gets to Manzanar, she feels as if the dust is coating her throat, preventing her from speaking.

Even when she is unable to speak, Manami does want to express herself, and she finds ways to communicate. At first, she can only communicate through her facial expressions and her body language. Later, after Miss Rosalie comes into her life, she uses her drawings. Little by little, she begins to work out how to express the complicated mixture of grief, fear, and anger she is feeling. Her letters to her siblings and the “paper promises” to Yujiin are vehicles for the hopes and dreams she does not dare to express out loud, becoming the “Paper Wishes” (81) of the book’s title. When Grandfather shows that he is strong enough to overcome his suffering and begin to live again by joining his family for dinner in the mess hall, and when Mother makes the special tea that reminds Manami of her family’s strength and enduring traditions, Manami finally feels the dust begin to clear from her throat.

There is no permanent change in her condition, however, until Seal comes into her life. Grandfather shows his deep understanding of Manami when he says that Manami is the kind of person who needs to care for something else to be drawn outside of herself. When she holds Seal, she feels her heart growing larger. In the novel’s final chapter, when the soldiers try to take Seal away, Manami is finally able to speak. This time, her protest matters, and she is allowed to keep Seal. Through her experiences, Manami learns that she must speak up for herself: Sometimes it will not matter but, as Mother tells her, she can hope.