Silent Honor (21 page)

“I know, son. It's not fair. But it's what they want from us. We have no choice now.”

“What if we refuse to go?” Others had, but not many. Only a handful.

“They'll probably put you in prison.”

“Maybe I'd prefer that,” he said staunchly, but Tak shook his head, and Reiko only cried harder. It was bad enough losing her home, but not her children.

“We wouldn't want that to happen, Ken. We want you to come with us.”

“Will they keep us together, Tak?” Reiko asked, looking frightened as Ken stormed into the kitchen. He wanted to go and talk to Peggy. But the same thing was happening to her family. It was happening to all of them. And no one understood it any better than he did.

Tak looked at his wife, unable to lie to her. He never had, and he wouldn't start now. He didn't want to promise her something he couldn't deliver. “I'm not sure yet. There were a lot of rumors. Maybe because I'm a Japanese citizen, they might keep me separate, but I'm just guessing that. No one said anything. And we all have the same number.” But later, when Peter and Hiroko went outside, Reiko questioned him again.

“What about Hiroko?”

“I don't know that either. She really is an enemy alien in their eyes, unlike the rest of you. There could be a problem. I just don't know, Rei. We'll have to wait and see what happens.” They were the hardest words he had ever said to her, and as he held her in his arms, he started to cry. He felt as though he had failed her completely. Everything had gone wrong, and they were losing everything, and God only knew where they would go, or what would happen. Maybe the truth would be even worse than the rumors. Maybe they would all be shot. It could happen. But for the moment, they had to do what they could, and have faith that they'd stay together. “I'm so sorry, Rei,” he said over and over again, and she held him and comforted him, and told him that none of them could have known. None of this was his fault, but she could tell, looking at him, that he didn't believe her.

And then, as she looked out the window at Peter and Hiroko again, she asked Tak a question. “Do you think they should get married?”

But Takeo only shook his head. He and Peter had talked about it only that morning. “They can't now. They can't be married in this state, and she can't go anywhere now. We're all stuck here. They'll have to wait until he comes back, assuming she's free to move around again by then.” But who knew when that would be. And out in the garden, Peter was saying the same tiling to Hiroko. He wanted her to promise him that when he returned, and she was free, they would be married.

“I can't promise you that without my father,” she said sadly, looking at him, longing for him, wishing that things could be different. But she had failed her father once, by leaving school, she couldn't fail him again, by marrying without his approval. “I want to marry you, Peter…. I want to take care of you.” She smiled as he pulled her down on his lap on a bench in the garden.

“I want to take care of
you
forever. I wish I could stay longer now. I'd like to be with you at Tanforan. I'll come as often as they let me.” She nodded, still unable to absorb what had happened. And although she tried to put a brave face on it for him, he could see that she was very frightened. He held her in his arms for a long time, and he could feel her shaking.

“I feel so sad for Uncle Tak and Aunt Reiko, this is so hard for them.”

“I know it is. I want to do everything I can,” he said, but there wasn't much he could do. He had promised to bank what little money Takeo saved. And he had offered to buy everything Takeo couldn't sell. But it wasn't easy to unravel a life in nine days. Others had to sell businesses and crops, or simply abandon what they had as they left for relocation.

“I will take care of the children for them, when we get there,” Hiroko explained, but Peter couldn't help wondering if she would even be with them. And he agonized again over the fact that he could do nothing to protect her. “Kenji is very angry.”

“He has a right to be. What he said is true. He's as American as I am. They have no right to treat him like the enemy; he isn't.”

“It's very wrong what they're doing, isn't it?” She was sure of it, but she was still confused about the implications and their reasons. The papers were so full of near-Japanese attacks and threats all along the coast, that sometimes she believed them. It was their justification for relocation of the Japanese, that and the constant accusation that their loyalty was in question. But why would they be loyal to Japan when most of them had no relatives there and had never even been there? It was impossible to explain rationally, and Hiroko shook her head as she listened. “Poor Uncle Tak …” she said again. “Poor all of them.” She didn't even think of herself as she said it. And then, pensively, “I must give all my kimonos away. They are very heavy, and
I
cannot carry all of them. And perhaps it is still better, even now, if I do not wear them.”

“I'll keep them for you,” he said sadly. He would rather have kept her safe from anything that might happen. “Well be together when this is over, Hiroko. No matter what happens to us along the way. You must remember that always, no matter where all this takes us. Will you remember that?” She nodded in answer, and he kissed her.

“I will be waiting for you, Peter,” she said softly.

“I'll come back,” he said, with a look of determination, praying that the gods would keep them both safe in the meantime.

They walked somberly inside again, and from then on, they never stopped. They were all busy.

Takeo resigned his job at the university, and Peter took a week's leave of absence to help them. And in comparison to many of their friends, Tak got a good price for the house: he got over a thousand dollars. Many of the others had sold theirs for a hundred, or even less sometimes, if they had greedy neighbors. There were people waiting now to take advantage of the situation. They learned, too, that other people had been given only three or four days' notice to report to Tanforan. Nine days was a real bonus.

But he got only fifty dollars for the car, and five dollars for a brand-new set of golf clubs. He would have given them to Peter, but he was leaving too. He was going to store his own things when he left for the army. They had a huge yard sale, with everything they couldn't pack or leave behind. And Reiko cried when she sold her wedding dress to a beautiful young girl for three dollars. But Hiroko carefully packed Tami's doll-house in a box, with all the tiny furniture and accessories, and marked it carefully with Takeo's name for the government warehouse.

They weren't storing many things; it didn't seem worth it to Tak. Just boxes of their photographs, the dollhouse, and some special mementos. All the bigger items were sold for pennies on their front lawn, as Peter kept track of the money. By the end of the sale they had made roughly three thousand dollars. It seemed like a lot to them, but not when you considered that they had sold everything they owned. And the worst moment of all was when Tak's secretary at the university came to pick up Lassie. Tami held her and cried, and refused to let her leave, and finally Hiroko just held the child as she keened. The poor woman cried as she led the dog away, and Lassie howled and barked out the window of the car all the way around the corner. It was as though even she knew what had happened. It was a terrible day for all of them, they had each lost something important. Ken had sold his collection of signed baseball bats, and all his old Little League uniforms. And Sally had given up the four-poster bed she loved so much. They had even sold all the beds, and at Hiroko's suggestion, until they left, they were going to sleep on futons.

“That's horrible,” Sally wailed as her mother told her. She was giving up everything, her clothes, her friends, her school, even her bed, and now she had to sleep on the floor, like a dog.

“You'd do it if you were in Japan,” her mother said, smiling at Hiroko. But that made Sally even more furious.

“I'm not Japanese! I'm American!” she stormed at them, and then ran into the house and slammed the door behind her. It was hard on all of them, particularly Tami, who was grieving for Lassie and her doll-house.

“We'll make a new one when we get there,” Hiroko promised her.

“You don't know how, and Daddy won't want to.” Her parents were in a terrible mood these days, and the only person who ever played with her was her cousin.

“Yes, he will. He can show me how. We'll make it together, you and I.”

“Okay.” Tami brightened a little. She was nine now. Sally had just turned fifteen, but it had done nothing for her disposition. The only good news was that Ken's girlfriend Peggy and her family were going to Tanforan on the same day they were.

Sally's friend Kathy had never spoken to her again. She had driven slowly by the house that afternoon with her brother, and glanced at the yard sale, but they hadn't stopped, they didn't wave, and Sally turned away when she saw them.

They had only two days left in the house after the yard sale, and there was still a lot to do. The new owners had bought some of the furniture, fortunately, but not much. They had their own things. And Hiroko worked night and day with Reiko to pack for them, and get rid of everything else, leaving it for friends, or taking it to charities. The hard part was knowing what to take for relocation. They didn't know if they'd need country or city clothes, lightweight or warm ones, and they didn't want to weigh themselves down with the wrong gear, since they could take so little.

It
was close to ten o'clock on the last night when they finished packing, and Peter was still with them. Tak handed him a beer, and then went upstairs to help Reiko, and Peter and Hiroko sat outside on the front steps. It was a beautiful April night, and it was hard to believe that anything bad was going to happen.

“Thank you for your help, Peter.” She smiled at him, and he leaned over unceremoniously and kissed her. She could taste the cold beer on his lips, and she smiled and kissed him again.

“You work too hard,” he said gently, and pulled her closer to him. She had been tireless, and Reiko had been so upset, she had been more than a little distracted, so Hiroko had done much of the work.

“You worked just as hard as I did,” she said calmly. It was true. Tak had said more than once that they couldn't have done it without him. He had hauled things away, gone through endless boxes with Tak, packed whatever he could, unplugged appliances and moved furniture, and even taken their few boxes to the government warehouse. He had taken a few things of theirs to his house too, to store with his own when he left, and as promised, Hiroko's kimonos.

“Well make a good couple one day, we're a good team. We both work hard.” He smiled at her, with eyes tinged with mischief. He loved talking about getting married one day, and making her blush. She was still very old-fashioned in some ways, and he loved it. “How many children will we have?” he asked conversationally, and chuckled when she blushed darker.

“As many as you wish, Peter-san,” she said, sounding very Japanese, but no one could hear them. “My mother wanted many children, many sons, but she got very sick when my brother was born, and almost died. She wanted to have him at home, and my father wanted her in the hospital. My father is very modern, but my mother likes the old ways …like me,” she added with a shy smile.

“Like us,” he corrected. “I want you to take very good care of yourself at Tanforan, as best you can. Conditions may not be good there. Be careful, Hiroko.” He was afraid to say more, but he was terrified of what someone might do to her there, and he could only pray that they would let her stay with the Tanakas, and not send her elsewhere. There was nothing he could do now to protect her.

“I will be wise …and you too …” She looked at him pointedly. He was going away to war, she wasn't. And it was so peaceful sitting there in the warm garden. Neither of them realized how little quiet they would ever have again. She would be living in a relocation center with thousands of people all around her, and he would be in the army. It was a moment to cling to and cherish, one they would both remember forever.

“You'll be careful?” he asked again, looking sadly at her.

“I will. I promise.” He looked into her eyes then, and set the beer down. And then he held her tight and kissed her. Holding her like that took his breath away at times, and it was hard not to get carried away, but fortunately they didn't have the opportunity to be other than responsible, but the temptation was always great when he kissed her.

“I'd better go,” he said hungrily, wanting to devour her with his hands, and his lips, but he was always afraid to frighten her or to hurt her.

“I love you, Peter-san,” she whispered, as he kissed her again. “I love you very much….”In spite of himself, he moaned softly as he held her, and she smiled at him. There was a part of their life that she could not even imagine, yet in a part of her she longed for.

“I love you too, little one…. I'll see you tomorrow.”

He left her at the gate with another kiss, and then with a wave he drove away, and she walked slowly back to the house, wondering what would happen to them. But fate has only questions, never answers. And she had just reached the door, when she heard someone call her name. She turned in surprise, and saw Anne Spencer walking slowly toward her. At first, Hiroko didn't even recognize her. Her hair was pulled back and she was wearing an old sweater, and carrying a basket.

“Hiroko,” she said again, and this time, Hiroko walked toward her. The last time she had seen her was the day she'd left St. Andrew's when Anne had come to say good-bye to her, and then stood and watched her from the window.

They had certainly never been friends, and yet, since that last day, there had been a thin bond of respect between them. Hiroko had understood how much Anne had disapproved of the others vandalizing her room and tormenting her. And yet there had never been any warmth between them.

“Anne Spencer?” Hiroko asked cautiously.

“
I
heard that you were going.” Her words surprised Hiroko.