Bananaheart & Other Stories

I managed to read the entire book in one day, and found it a very easy read. For my class, we covered the book Buddhaheads but there are many other short stories I enjoyed. Bananaheart allows us a glimpse of Japanese American women in Hawaii during various stages of life. The first story portrays the arrival of the Japanese picture brides from Japan for the "coolies" in 1895. This is a known fact. That was what "Honeymoon Hotel" was about. I was a little disappointed in it, the fact that it wasn't longer because Sono and Yamamoto were together for 57 years. I would be intrigued to see the transformation of a Japanese picture bride to a local Japanese American. Japanese workers were more unique than the Chinese because they provided their own women because chinese were more apt to marry the Hawaiians. In 1882, the Chinese exclusion act was passed. Because of lack of contract workers in America they decided to hire Japanese contract laborers, and then in 1924 the Japanese got struck with the Japanese Exclusion Act. This tells us a little about the history of Asian contract laborers in America and Hawaii. Honeymoon Hotel was my favorite of all in the collection, because its strictly historical and strikes a chord within me that Japanese contract laborers were allowed to have picture brides and I've seen a video that states that some men disguised themselves or used their friends pictures to send to the women. So it's very similar to Honeymoon Hotel."Buddhaheads" explores class differences, and the life in the year 1933, when the whites reigned 'surpreme' over a house. And how poor Katie, the main character is subject to being a servant girl when her family is local. Katie is exposed to public lewdness from her boss even though he never speaks directly to her. It is a story of how class, gender, and ethnicity interact. It speaks of patriarchy in Hawaii, that the male, Mr. Stuart is the head of the house. an interlocking of ethnicities are embodied in patriarchy as the japanese houseboys refuse to do some things and allow the women to do it. The Buddhaheads in Mr. Stuarts garden are insulting to other cultures because the heads are decapicated. It is showing Mr. Stuart is in POWER.There is a collection of 12 short stories, and I liked all of them. This is a review of only 2 of the stories! I don't wish to give more away! It written in english, some Japanese words and of course, Pidgin - Broken English as one character in the story tells it. I would recommend this book to anyone who is into Japanese in Hawaii, or interested in studying some pidgin.