Nisei Daughter, by Monica Sone, recalls the author's.
childhood as a Japanese girl, growing up in Seattle, during.
World War II. The book takes a look on how the Japanese.
culture was treated in this time. At a young age Monica.
realizes she is not like most little girls in America.
Japanese were put in interment camps in 1942. But this.
isn't the first time Monica notices a difference. She was.
small and in grammar school when the first signs began to.
appear. She knew she looked different, but she also sounded.
different at home. At home her family spoke in Japanese. .
Monica was known to her parents as Kazuko Monica Itoi. And.
after Kazuko was finished with her day at grammar school,.
she and the rest of the Japanese boys and girls went to.
Japanese school to learn the native language and etiquette.
During a point in Kazuko's childhood, her father is set.
up by two corrupt police men accusing for father of selling.
illegal sake. During dinner a police man interrupted the.
family and told Mr. Itoi that he was the one that was.
selling liquor to a bum on the street. The police had been.
tipped by the bum that a Japanese man, who owned a hotel.
sold him the alcohol. Kazuko's father did own a hotel and.
owned a hotel, but so did several other Japanese men on that.
street. Kazuko's father insisted, "Mine? It's not I don't.
drink,"(35). The officer interrogated both Kazuko's father.
and mother while rummaging haphazardly through the Itoi's.
kitchen looking for the rest of the sake. Mrs. Itoi knew.
there was something was strange and called out to the men,.
"Don't think we"re such fools,"(37). Kazuko's father was.
trying to prove that he was innocent and instead of the.
officer listening, he arrested Mr. Itoi and took him down to.
jail. This incident showed Kazuko that her family was not.
similar to other's or else her father wouldn't have been.
falsely blamed for a crime he didn't commit based on his.
skin tone.
Not much after the run-in with the police, Kazuko knows.
