Rosebud and Other Stories

A Nisei Writer in America

 $1LVHL:ULWHULQ$PHULFD When I was a little girl, my father bought a set of The Book of Knowledge, which was twenty fat books very much like the encyclopedia. I poured over pictures of great men and mysterious drawings of fossil bones that lay buried under our very feet, and classic paintings and illustrations of famous stories and poems. I couldn’t read English, but I was eager to go to school and find the key that would open up the secrets of these books. When I did learn to read, I thought of writers as unapproachably brilliant, and if I entertained thoughts of one day writing, it was buried way down deep. I thought it took years of study to be a writer, and I was too lazy for that. It was much later that I found almost anyone can write. What is important is to have a love of words and a story you want to tell, a statement you want to make, and an intense and passionate need to tell it. And to write it in a way that readers can say, “Ah, I know that feeling well.” There are many ways of writing. I chose the easiest way, which is to explore the life or conditions or problems of an ordinary person, like myself, in language that’s easily understood, about emotions common to everyone—about things we all know and fight for or against: love, hate, jealousy , anger, sorrow, greed, joy. I write about what I know, which is the life of the Nisei. I write short stories and plays about our concerns, our heritage, and our children. All my stories arise from these problems and situations I share with most This essay was first delivered as a lecture for the University of Tokyo in October 2001.