A novel, sort of, narrated in the first person plural, following a group of Japanese picture brides from their sea voyage, through marriage, motherhood, and labor, up to the point of the internment. The narrative flowed from woman to woman, doling out only a sentence or two before moving on to the next character. Most of the women were named, but it was impossible to pick out the threads of individual stories braided throughout the story, leaving you with the feeling of a single collective narrator. (Which, as Courtney pointed out, is much the way that the Japanese think of themselves - as a group rather than a collection of individuals.)

Then came Pearl Harbor, and the tenor changed. The style continued as before, with each sentence contradicting the one before it. But now, instead of each one detailing the experiences of a different woman, they listed the various rumors swirling about the group, scattered throughout the cities and farms of California. And soon to become a physical collective again, although far from the ocean where they started their journey.