Summary

The story is narrated in the first-person plural by the collective voice of Japanese women who immigrated with their husbands to California. The narration therefore uses the pronoun “we” to refer to itself. The women and their husbands make a living as migrant workers on farms in California. When their children were infants, the women would have to bring the children out to the fields with them and place them in baskets or on the ground while the men and women worked in the fields. When the children cried out for their mothers, the mothers had to ignore them and keep working, as they could not afford to fall behind on work and lose wages. The children varied widely in personality, even from a young age. For example, some were energetic and stubborn, while others were quite serene. The families’ living accommodations were quite...