Picture Bride

by Yoshiko Uchida

Overview

Carrying a photograph of the man she is to marry but has yet to meet, young Hana Omiya arrives in San Francisco, California, in 1917, one of several hundred Japanese "picture brides" whose arranged marriages brought them to America in the early 1900s.

Her story is intertwined with others: her husband Taro Takeda, an Oakland shopkeeper; Kiku and her husband Henry, who reject demeaning city work to become farmers; Dr. Kaneda, a respected community leader who is destroyed by the adopted land he loves. All are caught up in the cruel turmoil of World War II, when West Coast Japanese Americans are uprooted from their homes and imprisoned in desert concentration camps. Although tragedy strikes each of them, the same spirit and strength that brought her to America enable Hana to survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780671668747
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	11/01/1988
Edition description:	1st Fireside ed
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

What People are Saying About This

Barry Gifford

Yoshiko Uchida is the foremost Japanese American woman writer of our time. Picture Bride is a tender, painful, exquisitely written novel.... A very serious and important book.

Editorial Reviews

With insight, pathos, and deep understanding, the author, in her graceful, dignified way, dares to expose Hana as a long-suffering, independent, assertive woman who is frustrated and stifled as she struggles to adjust to a hostile culture that is blind to her sense of values.

Western American Literature

A moving tribute.... A rare insight into the hearts and minds of Japanese immigrant women and the important role they played in the establishment and survival of ethnic family and community life in America.

San Francisco Chronicle - Judy Yung

With insight, pathos, and deep understanding, the author, in her graceful, dignified way, dares to expose Hana as a long—suffering, independent, assertive woman who is frustrated and stifled as she struggles to adjust to a hostile culture that is blind to her sense of values.

-Western American Literature