Come See the Paradise Page #6

CHARLIE:

Uh, this gentleman wants to see the piano.

HARRY:

Certainly. Come on Joyce, show this gentleman what a fine piano

it is.

CHARLIE:

I got fifteen dollars for the Bendex.

SCENE 52

LILY:

Are you okay?

JACK:

I'm going to take Mini for a walk. Okay?

SCENE 53

LILY:

You okay, Mama?

MAMA K:

Mm.

LILY:

What are you burning?

MAMA K:

Just stuff. We cannot take it with us and it's too...precious to

leave behind. I don't want people going through our things. How

many things you keep. In Japan, people don't have so many

things. You know, when I first got off the steamer at Angel

Island...pretty name, isn't it? ...all I had was the clothes I

was wearing, a small bag, a pretty hat and a parasol. Things I

hate burning most are your school reports. How are people going

to know how well you did?

LILY:

They'll know, Mama. They'll know.

SCENE 54

LILY:

The man didn't buy the piano?

HARRY:

He didn't offer enough.

LILY:

How much?

DULCIE:

Ten dollars.

HARRY:

I got him up from five. I said I'd sooner burn it.

FRANKIE:

How do you burn a piano?

DULCIE:

What are we going to do with these old records? They're all

Japanese. No one's going to buy them.

LILY:

Break them.

JOYCE:

Break them?

LILY:

Sure. Break them.

SCENE 55

DULCIE:

Good bye, Jack.

LILY:

When will you get back from Seattle?

JACK:

Just a couple of days. A week at the most. I'm just gonna check

in for my parole and then I'm coming.

LILY:

If only we knew where we were going.

JACK:

I'll find you, Lily. Good bye, Mama. Don't worry. This won't

be for long, I'm sure.

DULCIE:

Why are the blinds down?

HARRY:

So we won't know where we're going.

JACK:

You okay?

MINI:

Yes.

JACK:

Okay.

SCENE 56Jack walks around deserted Little Tokyo.

SCENE 57

MAMA K:

Rattlesnakes?

WOMAN:

And rabbits...

MAMA K:

Huh?

WOMAN:

...that bite.

DULCIE:

I want to throw up.

CHARLIE:

You don't want to throw up.

WOMAN:

And mosquitoes.

DULCIE:

I want to throw up.

JOYCE:

You don't want to throw up.

WOMAN:

Big mosquitoes. The size of sparrows that suck your blood.

CHARLIE:

Oh sh*t! She did throw up.

SCENE 58

JACK:

Hey! Hey, get out of here! You get out of here! F***ing little

vultures!

SCENE 59

CHARLIE:

I can't bring my camera?

SOLDIER:

Sorry, it's on the list.

SCENE 60

FRANKIE:

Thanks for coming with me, Lily.

LILY:

That's okay. I was scared to come on my own as well.

FRANKIE:

Do you think they'll shoot us?

LILY:

No, of course not.

FRANKIE:

Do you think they'll send us back to Japan?

LILY:

I don't know. I truly don't know, Frankie.

FRANKIE:

I've never been to Japan.

LILY:

Me either.

LILY (VO)

We stayed at the race track for two months...until they moved us

to a new home, way out in the desert.

SCENE 61

LILY (VO)

The journey on the bus seemed to go on forever. And finally we

arrived. But all I could remember was the mountains, the cold,

and the dust.

SCENE 62

CLERK:

Next! You have twenty-four hours to report for drafting, Mr.

McGann. Your parole is annulled under Section 472 of the War

Powers Act.

JACK:

But, um, I need to go to Los Angeles.

CLERK:

Don't think so. It says Tacoma. Yep, Tacoma. You report

tomorrow. It's pretty clear, else...

JACK:

Else what?

CLERK:

Else you'll find yourself in jail instead of the Army, mister.

Next, please.

SCENE 63

LILY (VO)

We lined up for everything. We seemed to spend half our lives

lining up for something or other. Our lives had changed

completely and we spent our whole time pretending they hadn't.

SCENE 64Jack completes army training.

SCENE 65

MAMA K:

What is it?

DULCIE:

Something about stealing food. There's a man with blood all down

his apron. I think he got punched.

FRANKIE:

You wanna play one on one after, Charlie?

CHARLIE:

No.

DULCIE:

There's a guy with his nose split wide open.

CHARLIE:

Michi Hokoda saw ten sides of beef under a sheet in the back of

one of the administrator's trucks.

JOYCE:

Maybe they're starving us to death.

DULCIE:

"Too much slop suey gives you spots, makes you pooey!"

HARRY:

We have enough to eat.

MAMA K:

Gambare. Shikataganai, ne?

CHARLIE:

It's got to be stopped. Or else someone's going to get their

throat cut!

HARRY:

It's hard feeding all these people. It's a f***ing camp for

Christ's sakes!

LILY:

Don't swear in front of Mama.

HARRY:

She doesn't know the word.

MAMA K:

I know the word.

CHARLIE:

It's not a camp. A camp is where you go fishing. Sit around

fires made from rubbing two sticks together. This isn't the

f***ing Boy Scouts, Harry!

JOYCE:

Charlie, please don't swear in front of Mama.

CHARLIE:

She's Japanese! She doesn't understand the word.

MAMA K:

I know the word.

LILY:

Mama. It's Papa!

PAPA:

Mini-chan? Mini-chan! Oh! Oh!

LILY:

Kiss your grandpa.

PAPA:

Oh, thank you!

SCENE 66The Kawamura family walks to their barracks.

SCENE 67

LILY (VO)

Papa Kawamura never was happy at the camp. People whispered and

whispered. Silly, spiteful rumors that he had given information

to the FBI when he was at Fort Lincoln. It wasn't true, but it

didn't matter. In those days, people only believed the worst.

No one would talk to him and he got lonelier and lonelier.

Sadder and sadder.

SCENE 68

JOYCE:

Alice Noguchi! How could they pick her? She's got a face like a

latrine bucket.

DULCIE:

Big tits! They always pick the one with big tits.

FRANKIE:

They're not so big.

SCENE 69Mr. Kawamura sings to Mini.

SCENE 70A man is attacked in the camp.

SCENE 71

JACK:

Thanks for stopping.

MAN:

If you can find room back there, you're more than welcome,

soldier. You all right?

JACK:

Yeah.

SCENE 72

MPs

Hey, Kenji! Come on! Let's go!

SCENE 73

HARRY:

One of the JACL-ers has been beaten up. They're blaming the

kitchen union people. There's going to be trouble. We should

get home, Mama.

MAMA K:

Where's Charlie?

HARRY:

I don't know Mama.

SCENE 74

MAN:

Where you stationed?

JACK:

Fairmont.

MAN:

On a 24-hour?

JACK:

What's left of it.

MAN:

You got friends down at the camp?

JACK:

Yeah, kind of.

MAN:

Real good people, some of them Japs. Had a couple of them

working for me. Real hard workers. Trouble is, you don't know

which ones to trust, which ones will shoot you in the back. Hard

problem. Beats me.

SCENE 75Demonstration at the camp.

SCENE 76

MAN:

What's going on here?

SOLDIER:

Road's closed, sir. You're going to have to back up.

JACK:

What's going on?

SOLDIER:

The Japs in the camp are rioting. They say a whole bunch of them

have been shot. It's a mess down there. Okay, sir. Back it up.

Try again tomorrow.

SCENE 77

MAMA K:

I heard guns. I definitely heard guns.

JOYCE:

I think I saw tanks.

FRANKIE:

They were trucks. Tanks have guns sticking out, stupid.

JOYCE:

I know what a tank looks like!

LILY:

Charlie will be okay, Mama.

HARRY:

God willing.

LILY:

Stay away from the window, there's nothing you can do.

MAMA K:

I heard more guns.

JOYCE:

I wish they'd stop that chanting. It's kind of scary.

LILY:

Charlie will be home soon, Mama.

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