{"total":2,"limit":25,"offset":0,"prev_offset":null,"next_offset":null,"page_size":25,"this_page":1,"num_this_page":2,"prev_api":"","next_api":"","objects":[{"id":"Las Vegas Charley (short story)","model":"article","index":"0 0/{'value': 2, 'relation': 'eq'}","links":{"html":"https://resourceguide.densho.org/Las%20Vegas%20Charley%20(short%20story)/","json":"https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/articles/Las%20Vegas%20Charley%20(short%20story)/"},"title":"Las Vegas Charley (short story)","description":"Short story by\n  \n   Hisaye Yamamoto\n  \n  about an\n  \n   Issei\n  \n  man named Kazuyuki Matsumoto, who works as a dishwasher at a Las Vegas restaurant while gambling away his wages. In flashback, we learn of his life story: boyhood in Kumamoto prefecture, then migration to the U.S. where he becomes a successful farmer in Santa Maria, California, and is soon joined by a\n  \n   \"picture bride\"\n  \n  wife, Haru and two sons. But Haru's death in childbirth after the birth of their second son changes Kazuyuki's life decisively. He sends the two boys to live with his mother in Japan and becomes a migrant laborer. At first, he sends regular remittances home, but he soon picks up a gambling habit and the payments gradually come to an end. He later brings his Kibei sons back to the U.S., where they start a new farming venture in Orange County, California, this one less successful. Then comes World War II and the three end up in an Arizona concentration camp in Arizona. While Kazuyuki works as a mess hall chef and comes to be vaguely satisfied with his life in camp, his ambitious older son Isamu volunteers for the army, only to die in combat in Italy. His second son Noriyuki initially decides to return to Japan on an exchange ship, but changes his mind when he falls in love with a\n  \n   Nisei\n  \n  girl he had met in camp. He ends up as a Japanese instructor in the army and the couple marry and settle in Los Angeles, while Kazuyuki gravitates to Las Vegas, where his co-workers dub him \"Charley.\" Health problems bring him to L.A. for care, where he stays with his son's family, though he clashes with his daughter-in-law. Despite his promises, he can never give up his gambling habit.","url_title":"Las Vegas Charley (short story)","categories":["Arts"],"rg_rgmediatype":["short stories"],"rg_interestlevel":["Grades 9-12","Adult"],"rg_genre":["Fiction"],"rg_theme":["Disillusionment and dreams","Temptation and destruction","Vulnerability of the meek","Working class struggles"],"rg_availability":["Widely available"],"rg_rgmediatype_label":"Short Stories","rg_rgmediatype_icon":"fa-file-text"},{"id":"Gambling Den (short story)","model":"article","index":"1 1/{'value': 2, 'relation': 'eq'}","links":{"html":"https://resourceguide.densho.org/Gambling%20Den%20(short%20story)/","json":"https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/articles/Gambling%20Den%20(short%20story)/"},"title":"Gambling Den (short story)","description":"Short story by Akemi Kikumura about a Japanese American family in Lodi, California, on the eve of World War II. Told in the first person voice of fifteen-year-old Peggy Tanaka, the story begins with the Tanaka family's fateful purchase of a restaurant in 1941. The restaurant soon becomes a success as migrant workers are drawn to both Mrs. Tanaka's cooking and the beauty of Ann, Peggy's eighteen-year-old sister. Mr. Tanaka's decision to open a gambling den in back further adds to profits, despite Mrs. Tanaka's disapproval and the necessary kick-backs to a corrupt local policeman. But the Tanakas' lives are soon to be complicated by Ann's romance with a young man of burakumin (Japanese outcaste) origin, a conniving neighbor, and the impending roundup of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor.","url_title":"Gambling Den (short story)","categories":["Arts"],"rg_rgmediatype":["short stories"],"rg_interestlevel":["Grades 9-12","Adult"],"rg_genre":["Historical Fiction"],"rg_theme":["Coming of age","Disillusionment and dreams","Immigrant experience","Loss of innocence","Role of women","Temptation and destruction"],"rg_availability":["No availability"],"rg_rgmediatype_label":"Short Stories","rg_rgmediatype_icon":"fa-file-text"}],"query":{"query":{"bool":{"filter":[{"term":{"published_rg":true}},{"term":{"rg_theme":"Temptation and destruction"}}]}},"_source":["title","url_title","description","body","categories","coordinates","fulltext","rg_rgmediatype","rg_interestlevel","rg_readinglevel","rg_theme","rg_genre","rg_pov","rg_availability","rg_geography","rg_chronology","rg_hasteachingaids","rg_freewebversion"]},"aggregations":{}}