Two Nails, One Love (book)

Short novel told in the first-person voice of Ethan Taniguchi, a Sansei musician living in New York City in the year 2000, centering on the visit of his estranged mother from Hawai'i. Throughout his life—but particularly after the death of his beloved father—Ethan has felt distant from his mother, whom he feels is too bound by arcane Japanese tradition and who hasn't supported his being gay and his pursuing a career as a musician. But learning the details of her wartime incarceration story—her father had been interned and their family had been deported to Japan on the M.S. Gripsholm as part of a civilian exchange—and her quest for reparations via the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 changes the dynamic between them.

Author Alden Hayashi was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai'i and had enjoyed a long career as a writer and editor of technical publications before starting to write fiction and about his family history at around age sixty. His first novel, Two Nails is heavily autobiographical, with the author and protagonist sharing many commonalities, ranging from their experiences as gay Japanese American men, their both being serious musicians, and their mothers' families' internment and prisoner exchange experiences. Hayashi decided to write the book as fiction rather than memoir largely because he lacked knowledge about his family's World War II experience due to his mother's reluctance to share her story, her own lack of knowledge, and gaps in the historical record. The book's title is a reference to the Japanese saying, "The nail that sticks up get hammered down." ^[1]

Might also like: Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire by David Mura; Southland by Nina Revoyr; Gardens of Hope by Michael Holloway Perronne