The Purple Heart by Vincent Yee

Author:Vincent Yee [Yee, Vincent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, General
ISBN: 1478310014
Google: UiCBMAEACAAJ
Amazon: B008U499YQ
Goodreads: 15999472
Publisher: CreateSpaee, An Amazon Company
Published: 2012-08-01T05:00:00+00:00

S E V E N T E E N

Hiroshi and Minami settled into their new roles as husband and wife soon after their wedding. Minami moved in with Hiroshi and didn’t waste time in arranging his side of the barrack. Minami’s mother expressed the most sadness, as her oldest daughter was leaving, but soon got over it with the realization that Minami wasn’t far away.

Minami’s new routine every morning was to greet her new parents-in-law, and instead of waiting for Hiroshi at the water pump, they would go together. They would first arrive at Minami’s parents’ barrack, where they would fetch their water pail. Upon their return, Mr. Ito would usually be by the window waiting for them and would graciously thank Hiroshi for the water as he watched them walk away.

Minami found the new routine a bit sad. She started to feel a little homesick. As much as she loved Hiroshi, she also loved her family, and she couldn’t help feel that perhaps she had abandoned them. But she was married, and she needed to be with her husband and live up to the responsibilities of a wife. It comforted Minami to know that Hiroshi was very attentive to her family as well. Minami’s guilt started to ease when she realized that she still saw her family several times a day.

Life, it seemed, had returned to normal. Then the Loyalty Questionnaire appeared. It was after her morning class when one of the other teacher assistants mentioned it. Minami got her hands on one before leaving the school and read the questionnaire on the way to lunch. The questionnaire asked Japanese Americans to affirm their loyalty to the United States government. Minami fumed over the request and thought it was offensive. She was an American citizen and she was being asked to confirm her patriotism? She had to wonder whether or not the questionnaire was being distributed to every American in the nation. Once again, she felt the sting of being singled out due to her ethnicity and did not like it one bit.

Minami could see many people loitering around the main entrance of the mess hall in agitated discussion. She presumed that the questionnaire had caused a great stir. Hiroshi was leaning up against the wall, not too far away from the main entrance, in his usual work clothes. She noticed that he was reading a piece of paper, undoubtedly the questionnaire. His expression seemed tense and focused. Minami walked right up to him, but he didn’t even notice.

“Ahem… no welcome for your wife?” asked Minami coyly.

Hiroshi looked up and with a smile, leaned in and gave Minami a kiss. “Sorry, I was distracted,” said Hiroshi as he folded the questionnaire and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans. He reached out for Minami’s hand and walked toward the main entrance.

“Did you read the questionnaire?” asked Minami curiously.

“Yeah. Looks like it’s been making its way through the camp pretty quickly,” replied Hiroshi.

They waited in line. The mess hall seemed louder than usual, as people were eagerly talking and ignoring their lunch.

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