57 pages • 1 hour read
Yoshiko UchidaPicture Bride
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary
Spring arrives, and Taro leaves on another missionary trip with Dr. Kaneda. They provide goods and spread the gospel to Japanese farmers working in rural California. Taro admires their hard work but is troubled by their difficult lifestyle. He meets one woman who sent her children to live in Japan so that she and her husband would be free to work.
Taro returns to Oakland and his shop, where he runs into a woman from church. The woman explains that she tried to enter the shop earlier but it was closed. When Taro goes upstairs, he asks Hana about her day. She informs him that Yamaka came over for lunch, and she closed up the shop while they ate. Taro reprimands Hana for her indiscretion and admits that he knows Hana has romantic feelings for Yamaka.
The accusation triggers a flashback for Hana. When Yamaka came over for lunch, he kissed Hana and tried to sleep with her. However, Hana stopped his advances and asked him to leave. Even though she did not commit infidelity, Hana knows that she will struggle to regain Taro’s trust.
Chapter 9 Summary
Hana, now pregnant, hopes to please Taro by giving him a son. Meanwhile, influenza spreads throughout the community. Local churches and schools are converted into temporary hospitals to accommodate the high volume of patients. Kiku tells Hana that Yamaka is deathly ill with influenza; Hana, who had scarcely seen Yamaka since their ill-fated romantic encounter, visits him at their church. Weak from influenza, Yamaka describes his hopes for his next life: “I’m going to be a bird…I’m going to soar in the sky…and never have to hold a broom…or wash a window…or…love the wrong person” (57). Hana comforts him briefly before letting him rest. When Taro returns home, Hana tells him about Yamaka’s feeble state. Taro immediately visits Yamaka, staying with him until he dies the following morning. Several days later, Hana herself falls ill. As Hana lies bedridden, she considers the illness punishment from God for her thoughts of infidelity. Hana gives birth to a son prematurely, but the child dies instantly.
Chapter 10 Summary
The novel jumps forward in time to 1920. Hana and Taro now have a six-month-old girl named Mary Yukari Takeda. Taro searches for a larger home for the growing family but finds that most white landlords refuse to have Japanese tenants. However, the family finds a suitable house to rent in a predominantly white community.
Hana reflects on the time since her son died in childbirth. While she initially resented the Christian God, she eventually found strength in Christian salvation. The church baptized Hana, and she has become more active in church activities.
Shortly after the Takedas move, four white men from the neighborhood visit and allege that others in the neighborhood have complained about having a Japanese family in their neighborhood. Taro invites these unneighborly neighbors to visit his house. Unsure of how to respond, the men promptly leave. One man, named Johnson, stops to shake hands with Taro.
Hana is proud of Taro’s courageous yet calm repudiation of the men. As she lies awake in bed, she thinks of her loved ones in Japan and America. She muses that God has stopped listening to her.
Chapter 11 Summary
The complaining neighbors never return. However, the incident makes Taro conscious of how his neighbors perceive him and his family. Taro and Hana work to give a good impression by maintaining a pristine house and lawn.
Kiku visits Hana with troubling news: Henry has lost his job. Henry is sick of city life and has decided to work in the country as a farmer. Kiku, though initially reluctant, agrees to join him.
Hana, increasingly enveloped in church life, is elected treasurer of the church’s Women’s Society. One day, the superintendent of the Sunday School visits Hana. He asks Hana to loan him the Women’s Society’s funds; he claims that Kenji Nishima, the church’s resident seminary student, needs the money to pay for Sunday School materials. Hana gives the superintendent the money, feeling that she is helping a good cause.
Chapter 12 Summary
At the end of a church service, Dr. Kaneda announces that the superintendent has fled to Japan. The superintendent used the Women’s Society to finance his journey. The event overwhelms Hana and Kenji Nishima—the subjects of the superintendent’s deception—with shame. Taro promises Hana that they will work together to pay back the church. However, the Takedas were already in a dire financial situation due to child expenses, higher rent, and new furniture.
Hana decides to work as a housekeeper for a woman named Ellen Davis, for whom Kiku worked before she left. Taro gifts Hana pickled radish as a sign of support. While riding home from Taro’s shop, other bus riders complain about the stench of Hana’s radish. Embarrassed, Hana walks the rest of the way home, holding Mary. A woman named Mrs. Johnson is waiting for Hana upon her return. She inquires if Hana would be interested in completing housework for her. Irritated by the proposition, Hana responds “No [...] I am the daughter of a samurai” (80). Mrs. Johnson leaves, not understanding Hana’s frustration.
Chapter 13 Summary
Hana meets Ellen Davis for the first time and recognizes her kindness immediately. Mrs. Davis shows Hana her large house and outlines her duties. Mrs. Davis lives with her husband, Dr. Davis, and her son, Victor. All of the family members are organized, clean, and respectful. Hana learns that Mrs. Davis lost a young son to diphtheria. This serves as a moment of connection for the two women, and it also triggers Hana’s grief-ridden memories for a moment.
Hana returns home exhausted from her first day of work. Taro, easing his wife’s workload, cooks dinner. He also reports that Kenji disappeared. After the superintendent incident, Kenji grew homesick and fell behind in his studies. Hana decides to make Kenji a meal and seek him out.
Chapter 14 Summary
Hana makes sushi and brings it to the church. She shares it with Reverend Okada and his wife. Hana and Mrs. Okada go to the nearby dormitory to find Kenji. The dormitory appears empty, but Kenji eventually reveals himself.
After a week of recovery, Kenji confides in Dr. Kaneda. The superintendent’s betrayal, along with Kenji’s academic struggles, sent him into depression and withdrawal. He had been hiding away in the attic out of shame. Hana recalls Kenji’s empathetic work as a Sunday School teacher. Hoping to help Kenji recover, Hana invites him to stay with the Takedas for the summer. Hana does not discuss the matter with Taro beforehand, but he nevertheless supports her offer. Hana wonders if her desire to help Kenji is rooted in her inability to help Yamaka.
Chapters 8-14 Analysis
The romantic tension between Hana and Yamaka reaches its climax in Chapter 8 when Hana rejects Yamaka’s sexual advances. The circumstances are juxtaposed with Hana’s marriage; she does not love Taro but is compelled to accept him, while she loves Yamaka and must reject him to maintain her honor. Yamaka’s death cements the end of their would-be relationship and represents another way that life in America doesn’t match up to Hana’s expectations.
Hana feels guilt for her thoughts of infidelity and believes that her son’s death is God’s punishment for her relationship with Yamaka. As Hana recovers from influenza, the narrator describes her profound guilt: “[Hana] felt a strange premonition that something worse was yet to come. It was as though the illness were only a prelude, that she still had not been properly punished for her improper love” (60). In her eyes, Hana failed to save both her son and Yamaka. As the novel continues, she experiences Divine Absolution and the Difficulty of Human Forgiveness through helping others. Forgiveness is a central element of Christianity, and Hana’s pursuit of forgiveness parallels her growing relationship with Christianity. Religion is an ambiguous force in the text, providing a moral compass for Hana while also making her feel responsible for things that aren’t her fault, like her son’s death. Likewise, the superintendent uses others’ faith to steal from them. His deception also furthers Hana’s need for self-development. By helping Kenji Nishima and working for Mrs. Davis, Hana seeks redemption for her prior failures.
Hana’s critical self-evaluation is rooted in pride. Even as she takes on a rigorous work schedule, she hopes to maintain self-respect. An example of her pride arises when Mrs. Johnson visits her home. When she first arrives, Hana thinks she earnestly wants to befriend and welcome her, but her hopes are diminished when Mrs. Johnson asks her to be her housekeeper. Hana recognizes that Mrs. Johnson sees her only as a servant, not as an equal, a microcosm of anti-Asian racism in the US during this period. Hana’s declaration that she is “the daughter of a samurai” displays the pride she holds in her heritage (80). Samurai were disciplined Japanese warriors who followed a code of ethics. By repudiating Mrs. Johnson’s insulting request, Hana maintains a samurai’s sense of honor and subverts racist expectations by asserting that she is not inferior to her white neighbors.
Following the time jump from 1918 to 1920, the novel expands its focus to further contextualize the novel’s historical setting. While Hana finally begins to feel comfortable within her Japanese American community, she faces racial discrimination for the first time. Searching for a better quality of life, the Takedas seek out a larger home to rent but find that most landlords avoid renting to Asian families. Even when the Takedas settle into a house, men from the neighborhood attempt to intimidate them. This causes Taro and Hana to be overly conscious of their outward identity, and they work hard to appear as pleasant and responsible as possible. Taro, especially, wants to give white America a positive impression of Japanese Americans. “We are on trial, Hana,” Taro says after the incident, “The way we live and comport ourselves may someday affect the way the second generation of Japanese Americans, Mary and her friends, are treated in this country” (69). Up to this point, Taro has coveted an American identity: He embraces the religion, clothing, and lifestyle indicative of the American Dream. While this might first appear self-advancing, this section clarifies that Taro cares deeply about Planning for Future Generations. Even as he faces hardship and discrimination, Taro hopes that descendants of Japanese immigrants will find greater success and independence.
The section also alludes to discriminatory laws such as the Gentlemen’s Agreement, which denied American immigration to Japanese laborers, and alien land laws, which restricted the landowning rights of Asian Americans. Historical allusions such as these establish the social limitations faced by 20th-century immigrants. Discriminatory laws and practices create additional barriers to the Takedas’ prosperity. By narrativizing the Japanese American experience in Picture Bride, Uchida makes the historical period more understandable.
While the setting remains oriented around the urbanity of Oakland, this section explores the experiences of Japanese immigrants in rural California. Chapter 8 details Taro’s missionary trips, where he witnesses the labor and sacrifice necessary for rural living. Still, Henry Toda’s disenchantment with city living underscores the limited options that Japanese American immigrants had during the early 20th century. When Kiku tells Hana about their dire situation, she says, “I must either leave Toda or move with him the country” (71). Kiku and Henry have already lived in America for years, but they still struggle to secure a sustainable lifestyle. Kiku’s situation outlines the limited options for many Japanese American immigrants: they may complete mundane city jobs, work as farm laborers, or return to Japan. Hana will continue to find characters troubled by these limitations. Their difficulties in these chapters highlight The Burden of Assimilation and foreshadow the family’s future struggles and eventual time in concentration camps.
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