Come See the Paradise Page #7

MAMA K:

Charlie would never get into any trouble.

HARRY:

That was before they took him off hamburgers. Now are "All

American" has a rising sun tattooed on his backside. He's

changed, Mama.

LILY:

No one changes inside.

SCENE 78Charlie demonstrates.

SCENE 79

LILY (VO)

When they finally opened the camp two days later, your Papa could

come visit us. We hadn't seen or heard from him for seven whole

months.

SCENE 80

JACK:

So was Charlie hurt bad?

JOYCE:

No, he got hit on the head with a rifle.

DULCIE:

He says he's okay, but they put him in the camp hospital anyway.

More tea, Mama?

MAMA K:

No. I have to go to the lavatory. That tea does terrible things

to my bladder.

DULCIE:

Come on, Joyce. Let's take Mama to the bathroom.

JOYCE:

It's a long walk.

DULCIE:

I don't care. Get your coat on. You're coming. Mini, you wanna

come, too?

MAMA K:

Jack, don't go before you say good-bye.

JACK:

All right, Mama. I'll be right here.

LILY:

She'll be twenty-two minutes.

JACK:

Twenty-two minutes?

LILY:

Uh huh. Mama looked all over the camp for a toilet she liked

that wasn't broken and had partitions, and it's on the K block.

It takes her eleven minutes to walk there, and eleven minutes to

walk back. Why do you think we gave her so much tea?

JACK:

Frankie?

LILY:

School.

JACK:

And your Papa?

LILY:

He's at the hospital with Charlie. He sits there all day in a

chair next to his bed. Neither of them will talk.

JACK:

Why?

LILY:

Because Charlie thinks that Papa gave the FBI information at Fort

Lincoln. Papa hates him for believing it.

JACK:

So, we have twenty-two minutes?

LILY:

Twenty-two minutes. And then I have to get back to work.

JACK:

Work?

LILY:

Mm hm. Camouflage nets. We make five nets or work eight hours.

For fourteen dollars a month.

JACK:

Fourteen dollars a month?

LILY:

Don't fret! Doctors only make nineteen a month. People say

they've been giving us Army K rations, with all that salt

peter...to reduce our sex drives.

JACK:

They have?

LILY:

It's not true.

SCENE 81Mama, Dulcie, Joyce and Mini walk back from the

bathroom.

SCENE 82Papa sits quietly by Charlie's bed.

SCENE 83

JACK:

Bye-bye Mini Mouse. You gonna be okay?

MINI:

O.K.

DRIVER:

Come on, fella! Are we goin' or what?

JACK:

Okay.

DRIVER:

Come on! Come on! I got a schedule to keep!

SCENE 84

MINI:

Did Papa get into trouble?

LILY:

A little. By the time he got back to Fairmont, he was three days

absent without leave. But he was okay.

MINI:

And Papa Kawamura?

LILY:

He just wouldn't talk to anybody.

MINI:

Why was he so unhappy?

LILY:

Because every day he was in America, he talked of one day going

home to Wakayama a rich man. But any money he'd have he lose.

He'd lost his shirt so many times it never mattered to him.

"Shikataganai" he'd always say. But once you lose your self-

respect, only then do you truly have nothing.

MINI:

Poor Papa Kawamura. He must have been so sad.

SCENE 85

LILY (VO)

For a whole year, he just dug away in his vegetable patch. Or

he'd work on his chair. When the chair was finished, he just sat

there for hours. We all wanted so badly to have a life here.

It's a beautiful country, if only you have eyes to see it. But

suddenly, we all felt like a blind man peeping through a fence.

SCENE 86

DULCIE:

I don't get it. We all have to sign this thing?

LILY:

Everyone over 17.

DULCIE:

Read it again.

LILY:

Answer yes or no. Number 27: Are you willing to serve in the

armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever

ordered?

JOYCE:

We have to go in the Army?

DULCIE:

No! Answer no. I don't want to go in the Army. It's bad enough

they put us in here!

LILY:

Wait. There's worse.

MAN:

Lily, can I have a word with you, please? Your mother is not

allowed to work. She's a Japanese national.

LILY:

We know that.

MAN:

Then could you ask her to leave?

LILY:

No, why should she? She's not getting paid. She's bored. She

has nothing else to do. She's just sitting here with her family.

MAMA K:

Is there something wrong?

LILY:

No, Mama. Sit down.

MAN:

Sorry, it's the law.

LILY:

The law? Don't talk about the law. What law protects innocent

American citizens from being locked up for no crime?

MAN #2

Your mother cannot work. She's Issei. Foreign nationals cannot

do war work.

LILY:

She's not working!

MAN #2

Then ask her to leave.

MAMA K:

Lily, maybe I should go.

LILY:

No, Mama. Sit down! She will not leave! Why should she?

MAN #2

Camp rules.

LILY:

Rules?

MAN #2

Camp rules.

LILY:

Camp? You call this a camp? This is a goddamn outdoor jail!

SCENE 87

HARRY:

Number 28:
Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United

States of America and faithfully defend the United States from

any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces...and forswear

any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor, or

to any other foreign government, power or organization? Answer

yes or no.

MAMA K:

But how can we do that? We can't be U.S. citizens. It's against

the law. If we say "yes," we won't have any country.

CHARLIE:

So say "no."

HARRY:

If we say no, they'll keep you in the camps forever.

CHARLIE:

If you say yes, you'll be in the Army shooting at other Japanese.

Or end up being sent home in a wooden kimono.

HARRY:

But we're Americans.

CHARLIE:

We stopped being Americans the moment they put up the barbed

wire!

HARRY:

We have to say "yes," Mama. Papa? Charlie?

CHARLIE:

No. No. What about you?

HARRY:

I'm gonna go in the Army.

SCENE 88

JACK:

Joycie?

JOYCE:

Jack!

MINI:

Papa?

JACK:

Mini? Mini! Oh, Mini! Mini! You're so big I didn't even

recognize you!

JOYCE:

Hi.

JACK:

Did you lose a tooth?

MINI:

Yes.

JACK:

You did? Where's Lily? No one's home.

JOYCE:

They're at the hospital. Papa's sick.

SCENE 89

JACK:

Lily?

LILY:

Jack! Oh, Jack! You didn't tell me you had leave.

JACK:

It was sudden. They ship us out in a week.

LILY:

Where?

JACK:

They won't tell us.

LILY:

Mini? I'm going to take you home now, okay?

JACK:

I'm gonna stay here with your father for a while.

LILY:

Okay.

PAPA K:

Water. Water.

JACK:

It's Jack, Mr. Kawamura. I need your help, sir. You see, I'm

not here on leave. I ran away from the Army. God knows why, but

I thought that if I could be here with all of you that maybe I

could help. But then when I came through those gates back there

I realized I can't help, not one little bit. And I just know

that this whole terrible thing that's happened is my fault...the

big part and the little part. But I just wanted to say

that...even if you don't want to hear it...I love you all so

much.

PAPA K:

You go back.

JACK:

I can't.

PAPA K:

Go back.

JACK:

I can't leave you all here. I have to do something.

PAPA K:

Just love Lily. That's enough.

JACK:

Papa.

SCENE 90Jack leaves the camp.

SCENE 91

CAPTAIN:

You were married in Seattle?

JACK:

Yes, sir.

CAPTAIN:

Your wife is Lily Yuriko Kawamura?

JACK:

Yes, sir.

CAPTAIN:

And you were drafted May 11, 1942?

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