We Are Not Free

When the novel begins, Mas is 19 and one of the oldest characters among the novel’s protagonists. The novel introduces Mas as the mature one of the group, the boy who gave up his college education to come home and care for his family after his father’s death. This responsibility is a great burden on Mas’ shoulders, but he takes it on gracefully. Minnow doesn’t even notice Mas’s fear in their community’s growing unrest after Pearl Harbor—until Mas rescues him from a racist assault. Mas is a parental figure to not only his brothers but his friends. He heroically swoops in and fixes things when the others get into trouble.

The author uses Mas as a narrator only after the narrative is over half complete. When Mas’s chapter does come, Chee doesn’t use the first-person point of view as she does for many of her other characters. Instead, Mas’s chapter is told through letters he writes to his father. Mas explains in one of these letters that he began writing to his father on the day of his funeral in an attempt to keep his father close. The narrative format itself shows a crack in Mas’s superhero persona, proving that Mas is not as untouchable as others believe. Mas is just as scared, angry, and confused as his friends. He explores the everyday racism of 1944 Mississippi and compares it to his experiences in California in the years leading up to Pearl Harbor.

After Twitchy’s death, Chee doesn’t revisit Mas’s perspective but reveals through other characters that the death impacts him deeply, and he has something of a breakdown in the weeks afterward. While Mas recovers and returns to his old self when he urges Minnow to go back to school, the episode underscores that Mas is as fragile as everyone else. Though he takes on the role of peacemaker and protector, Mas struggles privately with his emotions.

Shig is the funny, reckless Ito brother. While Minnow is thoughtful and artistic, and Mas is the responsible protector, Shig takes nothing too seriously and tries to lighten the mood under all circumstances. However, this carefree attitude is undone; Shig’s chapter reveals his deep anger with his town’s evacuation. He cannot understand why no one stands up for the people of Japantown, nor does he understand why Mrs. Katsumoto would thank her Caucasian customers when those customers are the same people oppressing and exploiting the Japanese shop, buying merchandise at fractions of its true worth. Shig even picks a fight to release his anger. When he talks to his mother about his frustrations, she tells him of a Japanese belief: gaman, meaning patient endurance. She explains that they are to persevere with dignity.

Despite this advice, Shig continues to fume, watching his mother cry as her valuable goods are sold to people who will not appreciate them. However, when he sees his girlfriend, Yum-yum, play her beloved piano one last time in the street, he begins to understand. Shig doesn’t fully let go of his anger, but he finds a constructive channel for it; when he gives his father’s origami animals to the children boarding the buses, he gives them a piece of his father and a piece of their Japanese heritage. He shows the American soldiers that his people will not forget who they are even under such extreme circumstances.

Shig remains the carefree teen throughout the novel, but his strength and maturity often surface. When the families first arrive in Tanforan, Shig is there for Yum-yum to help her through the change. Later, Shig leaves the camp and resettles in Chicago, writing to home with letters full of optimism and excitement despite his difficulty keeping a job and finding housing. Shig views the world through rose-colored glasses. In the end, Shig goes home to San Francisco, perhaps suggesting Chicago life was too hard for him on his own, or perhaps revealing that he realizes his family loves and needs him. Either way, Shig found gaman and never drifted from it. This shows strength of character despite Shig’s other character flaws.

Frankie is the angry one and is described as such from the beginning. He was a troubled kid in New York who was shipped to California to live with his uncle, hoping for a better path. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, Frankie was as outraged as any American and wanted to join the military; he was told his race disqualifies him. This angered Frankie because his father served 20 years before, as did many other men of Japanese descent. Some even died, but now they aren’t good enough.

Frankie is overwhelmed with anger as events unfold around him, and he reaches a new level of outrage when recruiters come to the camp, wanting the young, imprisoned men to volunteer for the war. The recruiters talk about liberty and fighting tyranny—but they are talking to young men the U.S. has incarcerated for their race. It is to Frankie’s credit that he doesn’t run away or cause trouble with the soldiers. He does get into a few fights, but he stops himself when he sees that his anger is boiling over into something that could hurt his loved ones. Frankie is deeply loyal to the people who took him in and accepted him after his parents kicked him out, and he would never put them in harm’s way. He shows this care when he comforts Bette in her heartbreak and stops some boys from damaging Mas’s barracks. Frankie is struggling, but he is self-aware and looking for solutions.

One of those solutions is to find an outlet for his anger—so Frankie volunteers for the army. It seems to work until Twitchy is killed, and a grieving Frankie wishes he himself were the casualty. In making this wish, however, Frankie reveals his unawareness of how much others love him. Despite his flaws, Frankie is mature, loving, and loyal. As well-loved as Twitchy was, Frankie is worth no less than his lost friend, but he doesn’t see it in himself. In contrast, Bette does see his worth; Frankie is surrounded by people who love and esteem him, and this indirectly suggests that Frankie will find happiness when the war is over.

Described as small and weak, Tommy is the oldest child and the only son in his family; he thus faces pressure to be impossibly perfect (and tries to live up to this). Nevertheless, Tommy’s parents are constantly disappointed in him and are happy to point it out. The more stress his parents feel, the more they take it out on him. However, rather than presenting this information from Tommy directly, Chee tells it through the eyes of his sister, Aiko. That is because Tommy believes himself to be everything his parents say he is, while Aiko recognizes her parents’ unfairness.

Many of the boys in this novel find themselves wrestling with their identities. Tommy feels this conflict more than the others because his parents directly burden him with choosing between his Japanese roots and his American lifestyle. Tommy was born in San Francisco. He has never known anything else. His parents want him to abandon this part of himself to live in a country he has never seen. Tommy takes a long time to make his decision because he knows even if he goes to Japan with his parents, he will never be able to be the son they want—but he also knows his American life involves enduring racism daily.

Chee presents Tommy’s chapter, Chapter 15, in the form of poems that alternate between the character’s American persona and his Japanese persona. The poems express Tommy’s sensitivity and creativity while also showing his duality. Tommy faces the overwhelming challenge of identifying who he is—all while being told what he should be by his parents and what he can be by his sister and friends. This is the first time he stands up to his parents, and it takes tremendous courage, particularly in an East Asian social culture that distinctly emphasizes deferring to one’s elders.

Aiko is Tommy’s younger sister. The favored child over Tommy, Aiko dislikes the imbalanced relationship she observes between her parents and Tommy. She does not understand why Tommy will not stand up for himself. The family dynamic allows Aiko to be more carefree than her brother, and while Aiko is obedient, she is assertive when necessary. She is also brave enough to rush in when she sees trouble, as when she witnesses a man being beaten on the baseball field.

Aiko knows that her father is part of the trouble brewing in Topaz after the shooting, and she does nothing to stop him. However, she makes a powerful statement when she tells him her baseball bat is “for baseball. It’s for games. It’s not for…for whatever you’re planning” (157). She draws a line. It is all she can do, but it shows she has a perspective that her father lacks. This underscores the difference between his anger and her childlike desire for safety and peace.

Twitchy got his nickname because he is always moving. Of all the friends, Minnow describes Twitchy as the best-looking. He is also the tallest and the most charming. While everyone loves him, he stays something of a background character for most of the novel, flirting with girls and following Mas’s lead in just about everything. When the army recruiters come, Twitchy quietly enlists without any fanfare. When his chapter comes, it begins lightly. Twitchy is excited to see a part of the world he would never have seen without the military. However as the fighting grows fierce, Twitchy is proud of his fellow soldiers’ bravery. He does exactly what Mas has been preaching since the beginning, working harder and fighting harder to prove themselves to the Caucasian leaders. Twitchy does—and then he dies following a senseless order to push back an impossible number of German soldiers.

Twitchy differs from many of the other characters in that he never expresses anger at the incarceration, he never expresses hatred of the people who created the situation, and he never ponders much of the racism surrounding him. Twitchy focuses instead on the bravery of his fellow soldiers and his love for his friends. Twitchy is like Bette in his outlook, though he is not optimistic so much as simply unwilling to dwell on darkness. Even as he lies dying, he doesn’t dwell on his fear; he thinks of his friends and the good moments they shared, his last thoughts of a moment within the camp. Twitchy was a singular source of light, and his death is a uniquely devastating loss for his friends.

Stan isn’t angry. He’s resigned. He didn’t apply to college because he knew he would be rejected, so he gave up before even trying. When he learns that charities are helping people in the camps apply to colleges in the East, he refuses to ask them for help because he wants to get in on his own. He’s stubborn, but this stubbornness helps him when he is arrested.

Stan is still not angry, but he accepts that there is racism in the world, and it is going to hurt him and his loved ones no matter what he does. It is as though his is spiritually paralyzed from a sense of futility. He gives up on college after the shooting, he resigns himself to being in the stockade, and he refuses to protest when Mr. Morimoto is singled out to go to the bullpen. However, at the end of the book, Stan decides to apply to college. This small act implies that although the world’s racism has not changed, Stan has. Perhaps Kiyoshi’s protest inspired him, or perhaps it is simply that he survived the camp. Either way, it shows hopefulness, proof that Stan is no longer resigned.

Mary is Stan’s younger sister. She is angry that her family was taken to Tule Lake and removed from their friends in Topaz. She knows that her family chose “No-No” on the questionnaire because of Mr. Uyeda’s murder, but it seems unfair to her. Mary acts out, breaking windows and arguing with her father.

Mary’s worst fears seem to come true when first Stan is arrested and placed in the stockade, and then Kiyoshi is also arrested. Everything feels out of control. However, she soon understands that her father recognizes his mistake of taking the family to Tule Lake, and he regrets it. He apologizes to Mary. In a moment of character growth, she sees that none of them are in control and that they must survive and hold out hope for a better future.

Keiko is an outsider to the group of friends in the beginning. She lived in Japantown, but she was just an acquaintance of Yum-yum and the others. However, after Keiko’s parents were taken away the day after Pearl Harbor, and she was taken to the camps just like everyone else, Yum-yum felt a connection to her because her father, too, was taken. Yum-yum brought her into the friend group because spending time with her felt like a rebellion from the obedient child her father wanted her to be.

Keiko is emotionally guarded. She’s lost so many people in such a short time that she fears being hurt again. When Twitchy shows interest in her, she initially rejects it. However, when he comes home on leave, she finds herself drawn to him despite her fears. They spend the night together, first with friends and later alone, making a commitment to one another that Keiko is afraid they cannot fulfill because of their circumstances. When Twitchy dies in the war, Keiko’s worst fears are realized. However, she finds comfort in her friends, especially Minnow, and finds a way to continue without cutting herself off from new friendships.

The ultimate optimist, Bette sees good in everything around her. As her family moves from Tanforan to Topaz City, she sees it as an adventure instead of being placed in a more permanent incarceration camp. Bette wants to fall in love, she wants to dance, and she wants to be a teenager. In her constant optimism, Bette sees only the good things around her despite the discomforts of camp life.

Frankie confronts Bette over her undying optimism, and it angers her because she feels as though he is calling her stupid for not seeing the truth. However, she does see the truth, such as when she sees that her crush is more interested in the lone Caucasian girl in their class. Bette turns to her friends, who are always there for her, and the possibility of a romance blooms between her and Frankie. Bette’s optimism and Frankie’s angry pessimism seem to balance out and foreshadow possibilities for their relationship.

Young and hopeful, Yuki’s narrative resembles Minnow’s in that she, too, is forced to mature rapidly, and her perspective becomes less naïve as racism creeps further into her life. At first, she is a softball player who has big dreams for her future. She wants to become a famous professional. She has enthusiasm for the sport and can’t imagine how her plans could go wrong. She came into the camps as a preteen and has grown into a talented teenager. Even in the camps, which break many others’ spirits, she maintains bright expectations.

However, when she talks her coach into stopping for ice cream after a victory game, and the clerk refuses to serve them because of Yuki’s race, she is slapped in the face with a cold reality: She realizes her dreams of being a famous softball player will never come true. Moreover, she sees that racism is complicated and beyond unfair, not only impacting her personally but also everyone around her. She has to grow up in an instant—all because of the hatred from a complete stranger and the weakness of her coach who should have stood up for her but didn’t.

Yum-yum is Shig’s girlfriend. She is a talented musician who is trained on the piano. Yum-yum shows great strength when her beloved piano is sold before they move into the camps. She continues her musical training in the camps, eventually playing on the camp pianos.

When Yum-yum first arrives at Tanforan, she becomes responsible for her family because her father was taken after Pearl Harbor, her mother is weak, and her brother is too young to understand what is happening. Yum-yum struggles under the burden, growing angry with her father who is not only absent but expects her to be obedient even though he has no idea what is happening. Yum-yum needs an outlet for her frustrations, and she finds it in her friends. For her, the theme of family and friendship is interconnected, and her friends become as much a part of her family as her biological relatives.