Nasakenai (short story)

Short story about an Issei couple in the San Francisco Bay area in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor . Both work as servants—the husband as a gardener and the wife as a maid—for prominent white families in a wealthy adjacent community and support three children at home, with a son in the army. After the attack, the husband goes to work and is assured by his employer that she will not fire him despite community pressure to do so. But the wife, who has worked for the family of a prominent lawyer for over a decade, is fired, since the lawyer represents a farming organization that supports anti-Japanese actions. An Issei gardener who works for the same family is also fired. Afterwards, the wife visits briefly with the family of the gardener and goes home to work on her garden, vowing that things will be okay.

Originally published in the New Year's edition of the San Francisco Japanese American newspaper Hokubei Mainichi in 1984, "Nasakenai" was reprinted in the literary anthology Fusion Too: A Japanese American Anthology in 1985.

Might also like " Slant-Eyed Americans " by Toshio Mori; " The Flower Girls " by Lawson Fusao Inada; " An Abandoned Pot of Rice " by Hisaye Yamamoto