Summary

The narrator describes the poor circumstances under which the new Japanese wives gave birth to their first babies. Some gave birth in barns and fields while some were at clinics or hospitals. Some of the women’s husbands even wanted sex right after the babies were born. Some women went back to work the day after their babies were born. All these babies were American citizens. Along with the healthy babies, the Japanese women sometimes gave birth to sick or deformed babies. They had babies regularly for years and asked their husbands to stop; but, the babies kept coming. They tried to make themselves miscarry and sometimes failed. Some of the babies died. One in particular was buried by a stream, but the family had moved so many times since she was buried that they could no longer remember where the baby’s burial...