Japanese men are arrested without notice and little cause and taken from their families. The rumors that abound after the bombing of Pearl Harbor are the main focus of the book’s sixth chapter. A fourth and fifth chapter describe the numerous babies born to the Japanese women and the way these children try to fit into the American culture. A second scene of significance included in the novel is the women’s first night with their husbands.Ī third chapter describes the treatment the Japanese receive from the white people for whom they work. Their first disappointment comes when they arrive in America to learn that the husbands to whom they were promised were not the attractive, financially secure men they advertised themselves to be. They first travel to America by boat as picture wives. The book is composed of eight different significant scenes in the lives of this group of women. They are sent to live in interment camps. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, however, the American dream turns into a nightmare as the Japanese are forced to leave behind the things for which they have worked so hard. They work hard beside their husbands to make a place for themselves in America. The novel “The Buddha in the Attic” by Julie Otsuka follows the lives of a group of young women as they travel by boat to America. The image of a laughing Buddha left behind in an attic symbolizes the experiences of several Japanese women and their families in early twentieth century America.

Book the buddha in the attic