Fifty Words for Rain

In the 20th century, Japan was emerging as a formidable military power, which also led to a rise in its national pride. It invaded and annexed various parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands, including Taiwan and Korea, all in the name of the Japanese emperors who were revered and worshiped as deities. Even before World War II, tensions existed between Japan and the US as well, especially after the US passed the Immigration Act of 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Act), forbidding further immigration from Asia.

The Pacific Theater of World War II was also hard-won, with many casualties on both sides. Japan was strafed with firebombs, and the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima were hard-fought and bloody, with the US troops emerging victorious. After the devastation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan surrendered, and the Allied forces dissolved the Empire of Japan. The Japanese army was demilitarized, and the emperor’s power was dissolved. Allied forces occupied Japan under General Douglas MacArthur; these consisted of primarily US military forces. Many Japanese government and military officials were tried for war crimes and executed; the Japanese Emperor remained on as a figurehead, though he had no real power.

These historical events form the backdrop of the events that unfold in Fifty Words for Rain. Though they don’t directly appear in the novel itself, they explain the characters’ attitudes and insecurities. Nori’s grandparents, Yuko and Kohei, are part of the Japanese nobility and are related to the emperor. They are immensely proud of their royal bloodline and the power and authority that this gives them. However, they would have perceived Japan’s defeat by the Allied powers as a humiliation, especially the action of divesting the emperor of his power. This would have made them especially antagonistic toward the American military presence in Japan, and it explains some of their anger about Nori’s parentage—she was fathered not just by an American and a commoner, but by a soldier.

This historical backdrop also explains Nori’s insecurities about being fathered by an American soldier. Though she isn’t sure who her father is, she worries that he might be a soldier “for the other side” that had destroyed her homeland and its people; she feels this would make “her existence […] an embodiment of betrayal” (101). Nori is emotionally and culturally Japanese, so she shares the prevalent anti-American sentiment of the time. To console Nori, Akira lies that her father was a cook and that their mother met him before the war. He assures Nori that Nori is not American—he says she is Japanese, “one of us” (101). The American presence was unwelcome and othered by the majority of Japanese people.

Nori’s father was Black, so she also faces discrimination for her darker skin and curly hair. The roots of this discrimination run deeper than just the presence of American soldiers in Japan, and speaks to the history of colorism in the country. Even in ancient Japan, pale skin indicated a social status of wealth and nobility because rich, aristocratic people didn’t do farm work or menial labor, and thus didn’t tan in the sun (Jones, Trina. “The Significance of Skin Color in Asian and Asian-American Communities: Initial Reflections.” UC Irvine Law Review, vol. 3, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 1105-23). This idea of fair skin signifying a higher social class would explain why Yuko is so ashamed of Nori’s complexion and forces her to bathe in bleach; Yuko is very class-conscious and proud of her aristocracy.

Additionally, Japan considers itself to be a very homogeneous society, with a 98% ethnic Japanese population. This is why Nori’s appearance calls so much attention to itself—many Japanese people had never seen people who looked different. Nori, too, is confused about why she looks so different; this is why she is convinced her father must have come from America, since “she’d read there was every kind of person you could imagine” in that country (101). Other characters assume this, too, which casts Nori as an outsider among her people. Nori’s position mimics that of other Japanese children of multiracial heritage who were born at this time. Many American soldiers deployed in Japan had children with Japanese women, who were then left to raise their children alone. No international agreement was ever agreed upon that required American soldiers to pay alimony for their offspring with Japanese partners (Sims, Calvin. “A Hard Life for Amerasian Children.” The New York Times, 23 July 2000).

Though Nori’s sheltered life separates her from the worst of Japan’s post-war devastation, she is still aware of the prevailing attitudes regarding the American military presence. During her return to Japan in the 1960s, she witnesses its regrowth and development after its return to sovereignty, and she participates in its prosperity by joining the aristocracy.