Yamamoto’s is a story of a Japanese-American woman who, after returning to California from a concentration camp in Arkansas (sometime earlier), rides a bus along fast, wide Wilshire Boulevard to a hospital at soldiers’ home to see her husband, Buro (usually, twice a week). They were married less than a year when a three-month convalescence became necessary, due to a back injury he suffered in the war.

During this ride, the handsome, red-faced man (“a somatotonic,” [1438] as Esther refers to him) appears to Esther as having been drinking. She first listens with interest to the man’s diatribe, but then feels the tenseness in an elderly Chinese woman’s body, seated next to her, as the man shoots toward her defensive, oppressive statements about Chinese people. Esther

Some topics in this essay:
Esther Kuroiwa, Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, Asian American, Broken Spirit, Hisaye Yamamoto’s, Pacific Ocean”, esther kuroiwa, esther feels, husband esther, street” 1438, fabulous street” 1438, handsome red-faced, broken spirit, fabulous street”,