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“Careful, Mama Says” chronicles the memories and experiences of one Japanese American family as the three surviving daughters clean out their parents’ former home.

I originally read this piece on the Asian American Writers Workshop (AAWW) website.

What I liked:

• Fujimoto is a fellow Bay Area Nikkei writer! Well, sort of – the short bio on the AAWW website says “Central Valley of California,” but the landmarks in this piece are definitely Bay Area. I haven’t read much Bay Area-based Nikkei fiction outside of camp literature (the camps are mentioned, but I wouldn’t classify this piece as ‘camp literature’ in genre), so I was super excited when I saw references to Santa Clara County, 101, and San Jose. (On a side note, is this form of joy in familiarity of place divisible from the sense of ownership over place which, as it exists in the US, I believe has its roots in settler colonialism? I suppose a discussion about the role of place in the experiences/mentality of those of us who identify as diaspora could also be applied here, but again, not sure if it can be considered separately from [our] complicity in [USian] whiteness.)
• Triangle-folded plastic bags! I have a feeling a lot of Nikkei households with an Issei/Shin-Issei member do this, but it’s never occurred to me to ask.
• I recently read Margaret Dilloway’s piece on her childhood household and Marie Kondo and I kept thinking back to it as I read Fujimoto’s work. It seems to me the two pieces would make for an interesting comparative analysis in a Nikkei literature class.
• Fujimoto’s romanization choices for both Japanese and Japanese-accented English make me wonder if she is second-generation and/or bilingual. She and I might in fact have very similar lived experiences, yet we make somewhat different romanization choices. I’m especially curious about the “Matta ne” because to say it this way in Japanese produces a completely different mood due to the changed inflection. まったね～ versus またね～, what do my fellow bilingual Nikkei readers think?
• Mikan is one of those small but meaningful connections between 日本人 and 日系 sides of families, at least in my experience. I’m always happy to see them pop up in Nikkei literature.

What I learned:

• I’m able to infer a lot between the lines of this piece because I have enough cultural touchstones in common with the characters – but this would not be the case for every Nikkei writer. It’s wonderful to become aware of this connection because it really solidifies my awareness of writing within (and in response to) a community of Nikkei writers. At the same time, this situation also highlights the importance of Nikkei writers from diverse backgrounds telling their (our) stories, so that every Nikkei reader and writer can feel this connection to the community.
• Did most JA families take on English names after returning from camp? I’m not quite sure what is meant by this – I’ve read other instances in camp literature of Nikkei adopting English nicknames, and my mom knows a JA family who shortened their family name because they felt it was too long in English – but did any families perform a legal name change?
• I’m not sure I’ve heard the term ‘countertranslation’ before, but it got me thinking about what an interesting project it would be for 日本人 and 日系 writers to translate each other’s work. I think everyone involved would gain significant insights into their (pre)conceptions of each other’s experiences and identities. Maybe a project like this has already been done – I wouldn’t be surprised. At any rate, such a project seems to me like an actually useful application and interrogation of the politics of translation.
• Is this a Nikkei version of a Japanese ghost story? It didn’t occur to me until my second read-through, when I started to connect the title with all the times Mama appears in the story. I don’t find the story particularly scary, per se (though I think it could be made much more frightening if adapted as a short film), but the adaptation of experiences specific to Nikkei in the context of an existing Japanese storytelling tradition is a fascinating possibility.

Questions I had:

• Does Fujimoto dislike umeboshi? I understand proving a point about intergenerational differences, but I still felt bad for all the wasted umeboshi, even if it’s only in fiction!
• Any time I see “Mama” in a Japanese-language-related context, I automatically think ママ, but in this case it seems to be the English word. On a tangent, for 日本人 kids who move to the US with their parents, do they gradually switch from ママ to Mama as their language skills adapt?
• Who is Fujimoto’s intended audience? I just reread the part about “Old Man Tanaka,” and while I don’t find it at all surprising as a portrayal of Japanese notions of fatherhood and masculinity, I would also like to know what prompted Fujimoto to include it.

Follow-up:

• I’m looking forward to reading more of Fujimoto’s work!