>>Part 1
Weaving the story of a Japanese-American's life through his father's example
"Taiko Wang's Monologue" was performed in October 2003 by the Maple Leaf Theater at the Sanhyakunin Theater in Bunkyo Ward (closed in 2006). It premiered in the United States in 1981. I saw the EWP production in Los Angeles in 1984, and the Japanese performance at the Sanhyakunin Theater.
The play is based on the author's father, Wilfred Itsuta Gotanda, and depicts the life of the protagonist, Itsuta Matsumoto, from youth to old age in scenes with unique titles: "Catching Fish," "Cleaning Fish," "Cooking Fish," "Eating Fish," and finally returning to "Catching Fish."
Itsuta, a fishing enthusiast born and raised in Hawaii, becomes a doctor on the mainland and marries Michiko. During the war he is sent to an internment camp, and after the war he has children, but begins to feel a generational gap between him and his children. Unable to understand his children dating non-Japanese women and abandoning their law studies to become writers, he cuts off communication with them. One day, his wife Michiko suddenly passes away from a brain tumor. Alone, Itsuta reunites with his parents and wife in a dream at the end. This is the story. But it is not just about Itsuta.
In the fourth scene, his wife Michiko says, "For 28 years, I cooked your meals, washed your clothes, and gave birth to your children. There were things you wanted to do in your life. You had dreams. When those dreams started to fade away, you lamented, and I comforted you. I was happy when your dreams came true, but you never thanked me. Our two sons each have their own goals and dreams. But what about my dreams? What if there was something I wanted to do?"
This image of second-generation women seeking independence has been carried over to "The Wash."
Independent wife and selfish husband
The Wash was produced by the Japanese theater company Teoriza at their studio in 1999. It premiered in the United States in 1985.
This work is based on two true stories that happened to Gotanda. One is about a second-generation Japanese woman who divorced her husband and started a new relationship with another man. The other is about a second-generation Japanese writer who continues to come to his ex-wife's house to mow her lawn even after the divorce. Gotanda replaced the grass in the latter story with washing clothes and wrote a story about an elderly Japanese couple.
Masi, a Japanese woman, has been separated from her patriarchal and constantly complaining husband, Nobu, for over a year. However, during that time, Masi has been visiting Nobu's house to do her laundry. Eventually, Masi finds a new boyfriend, Sadao, and their love for each other grows as they spend time fishing. Masi decides to get a divorce. Nobu is reluctant to accept this, but is powerless in the face of Masi's firm resolve. Nobu also has problems with his children. He has difficulty forgiving his daughter, who married a black man and has had a child with him. The story is centered around a strong, independent woman, but Gotanda also portrays the self-centered Nobu with love.
This work was made into a movie in 1988 by a Japanese-American director named Michael Toshiyuki Uno. The elderly couple was played by Nobu McCarthy and Mako Iwamatsu, two representative Japanese-American actors, both of whom are now deceased. I saw this movie in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, in 1988, and apart from the content, it was talked about because all the actors were Japanese-American and there was a bed scene between Mako and McCarthy.
Investigating the rarely depicted postwar Japanese community
"Matsumoto Sisters" was performed by the Mingei Theater Company at the Kinokuniya Southern Theater in Shinjuku from June to July 2004. The day I went to see the play was the day a typhoon hit Japan, and I still remember well that I had to carry an umbrella that was almost broken by the strong wind on my way to the theater.
Prior to the performance, a script translated by Toyoharu Yoshihara was published in the May issue of Tragedy and Comedy. It was unusual for a script to be published in a theater magazine before the performance, but it was also the first time that a script translated by a Japanese American had been published in print. It can be said to be a remarkable achievement.
This work depicts three sisters who return to Stockton, California from a Japanese internment camp in Arkansas in late autumn of 1945. As the disclaimer "To Kathleen" at the beginning of the play indicates, the author's mother is the model for the characters, but it is also indirectly influenced by Chekhov's "Three Sisters" and Junichiro Tanizaki's "The Makioka Sisters."
Although the story is set just after the war, Gotanda says he is deeply interested in this period. How Japanese Americans were reintegrated into American society after leaving the internment camps has not been adequately depicted in literature. He is also interested in the hierarchical structure within Japanese American society and its relationship to other larger cultures, and he explored these themes in this work.
The main character is Grace, the eldest daughter and second generation of immigrants. Her husband Hideo, a graduate of Imperial University, is a former university lecturer who now dreams of publishing a newspaper. Hideo was born into a poor family, so he chose the wealthy Grace as his wife. However, Grace's house in Stockton has been taken over by a bank. While in the internment camp, her father had been tricked by a close friend, who had sold the house without telling his children. Having lost all his assets, Grace asks her husband if he wants to continue living with her now that he has no assets. This was the most tense scene in the play.
Three sisters makes a great picture. That's what I felt while watching the play. But the three men - the husbands of the eldest and second sisters, and the boyfriend of the third sister - were also picturesque. There was a feud between Hideo and Bora, the husband of the second sister, who wants to open a clinic. Bora always felt looked down upon by her brother-in-law, who graduated from the Imperial University. She also didn't like Hideo's taciturn and unsociable nature. But Hideo had no assets and was at odds with his pro-American father-in-law in the internment camp, so he had no choice but to become taciturn as a way of survival.
In the final act, the sisters discuss how to utilize the money that their father sold to the bank. Hideo, who had been quiet up until that point, coordinates the plan. They buy a hotel that was for sale and use it to build a newspaper office and a clinic, and everyone agrees.
Thus, the play ended on a bright note of hope. Although it was a story about Japanese Americans after the internment camps, the message conveyed throughout the play was that "What I most want to convey to the audience is the feeling of trust and mutual support" (Asahi Shimbun, morning edition, June 19, 2004).
I felt that the characters' emotions were explored more deeply than in Gotanda's previous works. The author himself seems to be evolving and deepening.
Despite the bad weather, the theater was 70 to 80 percent full. Was it the power of the theater company or the power of the lead actor, Kashiyama? Either way, I was happy to see so many Japanese people watching a modest Japanese-American play.
*All translations of poems and essays quoted in the text are by the author.
*This article is a reprint of the fifth installment of the column series "From the Perspectives of Two Countries" in Renso Publishing 's online magazine "Kaze," which features information about new books, such as articles linking new books to current issues and daily topics, as well as monthly bestsellers and review columns of new books.
© 2009 Association Press and Tatsuya Sudo
