41 pages • 1 hour read
David PatneaudeThin Wood Walls
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapters 15-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3
Part 3, Chapter 15 Summary
Mike leaves for the war. Later that same day, Joe is shocked when his father walks into the barracks. For whatever reason, Mr. Hanada has been released from his separate incarceration and reunited with his family. Joe’s father is sad that Mike has joined the army and won’t be able to see him, but he’s grateful for reuniting with his family. Joe resolves to be more like his patient, upstanding, and brave father.
Part 3, Chapter 16 Summary
Mr. Hanada gets a job with the farming team. A soldier shoots a man on the crew, Shoichi James Okamoto, on suspicion of trying to escape. An investigation is demanded, but the soldier is found innocent of any wrongdoing to Okamoto.
The Hanadas scour the newspapers for any sign of Mike’s unit, the 442nd. They hear news that Japanese American regiments have been fighting heroically overseas. Many Japanese Americans are losing their sons to the war, and Joe worries about Mike dying. Joe continues his correspondence with Ray, though it’s been years since they’ve seen one another. Ray reports that a new family has moved into the Hanada household.
Sandy bids goodbye to the Hanadas as he is being shipped to Japan for the war. Mike writes to let his family know that he’ll be landing in Italy to fight with the 100th Battalion, a famously decorated Nisei unit.
Conditions at Tule Lake become worse as tensions increase. A man is stabbed to death. Meanwhile, some of the American news coverage of the war has finally started noting the heroism of the Nisei soldiers, though most of the coverage still paints Japanese Americans as traitors.
Part 3, Chapter 17 Summary
Joe carefully reads the newspapers, searching for any sign of Mike, who has been transferred to France. The news from the war front sounds like Germany, Italy, and Japan are losing. Many Americans are also losing their lives. A black car of soldiers pulls up to the Hanada barracks with bad news. Mike has been killed in action, saving a troop of stranded Americans in France.
Part 3, Chapter 18 Summary
As the Hanada family deals with their grief, Mae writes with news that her family has found a sponsor for the Hanadas. Some paperwork needs to be filed, but the Hanada family will leave their prison camp for a new free life in Oregon. Joe opens the packet of Mike’s belongings, which the army provided after his death. Joe opens Mike’s journal. Most of the pages are empty. But deep in the journal, Joe finds Mike’s haiku.
Part 3, Chapters 15-18 Analysis
The final chapters of Thin Wood Walls are both sad and hopeful. The return of Mr. Hanada is unexpected, and the moment’s joy is tempered by the fact that Mike and Mr. Hanada miss one another by only a few hours. Patneaude includes this tragic irony to heighten the traumatic nature of forced family separation. The reader wants a happy ending for the Hanada family, but it would be historically unrealistic to keep them happy and together. Countless Japanese American families were torn apart by Executive Order 9066 and World War II. Patneaude creates tragic circumstances to emphasize The Dangers of Racism and Xenophobia.
Though Joe is happy to have his father back, the reunion occurs at a precarious time. After bringing in thousands of “No-No” prisoners, Tule Lake has grown even larger. It has become the largest internment camp and the only one to become a maximum-security prison. The soldiers patrolling the camp are jumpy and even more racist. Prisoners advocate for their rights to safer conditions, but their protests are termed “riots” to villainize them even more.
The murder of 30-year-old Shoichi James Okamoto at Tule Lake in 1944 was a real historical event. Okamoto was following orders, but private sentry Bernard Goe forced him out of a truck and toward the gate. Okamoto hesitated, worried that proximity to the gate would make him look like an attempted escapee. Goe reportedly pushed and then shot Okamoto, who died of his injuries. Protests at the camp successfully advocated for an investigation, but Goe was found guilty only of misusing government property. This sent the message that soldiers at Tule Lake had free reign, and that Japanese American lives did not matter.
Meanwhile, the Nisei battalions, Mike’s 442nd and the 100th, were famously defending the United States all over the world. The 100th battalion comprised five teams of 1,400 Nisei soldiers. Nicknamed the “Purple Heart Battalion” for their valor, the 100th fought admirably. The 442nd battalion became the most decorated battalion in World War II. The 442nd won 9,500 Purple Hearts and one Congressional Medal of Honor, among other awards. They were most famous for saving the lives of 211 trapped Texan soldiers known as the Lost Battalion. The 442nd lost a lot of lives saving other Americans, even though white Americans did not return the favor.
Joe regains his father, but loses Mike. Mike was Joe’s best friend, protector, and confidant. His courage and valor earn his family respect from the government, but he sacrificed his life for it. Patneaude kills off Mike to challenge his readers. What is it all for, if Mike dies before reuniting with his family and seeing the rest of his life unfold? Mike’s death represents the sacrifices the Japanese American community was forced to make during World War II. In dying on the battlefield in Europe, Mike dies like many other Americans—white, Black, and brown. In death, Mike finally achieves equality.
Through haiku, Joe reconnects with his brother metaphysically and spiritually. In a time of war and incarceration, in which the natural world is at its ugliest and human nature is at its least compassionate, haikus add hope to Patneaude’s novel. They symbolize Joe and Mike’s ability to see the world through their Japanese heritage, and their resilience.
