Ruth Dai Watanabe

Ruth Dai Watanabe is the protagonist of the story, and much of the story is told in the third person from her point of view. Since her life is traced from her very beginnings until her old age, the reader is given the most insight into who she is. Ruth is born in a leper colony as both of her parents are lepers. She spends the first year here being cared for by people besides her parents, but after a year, when she has not developed leprosy, she is sent to an orphanage where she is well-cared for but feels set apart because she is hapa, half-Hawaiian and half-Japanese.

Ultimately she is adopted by the Watanabe family and has a good life with them. She experiences discrimination from whites because she is Japanese, but she also receives discrimination from a Japanese family because she is not...