We Are Not Free

As part of the theme of family and friendship, Mas’s Silvertone radio symbolizes the sustaining power of relationships. Despite the limit on belongings each person can take to the camps, Mas takes his Silvertone radio. The radio plays during important moments in the novel. It is first mentioned when Yum-yum realizes that, while she is not free, she is not alone. The second time the radio is heard playing is when Twitchy announces he has volunteered for the army. The radio is again mentioned during the party thrown the night before Tommy, Twitchy, and Frankie leave for boot camp. Keiko also mentions the radio just after the news of Twitchy’s death and while Shig is preparing to leave for Chicago. The radio is mentioned one last time in the final chapter as Minnow finds himself missing the familiarity of the camp.

Each time the radio is mentioned, it is an important moment in the lives of the 14 main characters. For Yum-yum, it is the background sounds of a family coming together. It has a similar meaning for Minnow who remembers it fondly when he thinks about the meaning of home. For Keiko as well, it is a sort of bringing together, a means by which she and her friends were drawn to one another and found happiness together. However, the radio is also a source of foreshadowing as it is plays when Twitchy joins the army—and it plays in the aftermath of his death. The radio symbolizes not only coming together for this group of friends, but a separation. Twitchy is gone, and Shig is leaving. In a way, the radio is also a promise: Although things are changing, there is still this one tangible thing that the friends share, and something they can always share even when they are apart. One special song can bring them all together in their memories of the first moment they heard it.

The scrap wood furniture is mentioned several times throughout the novel from different points of view. It symbolizes both perseverance and the insult of what the families have endured. When the families first arrive at Tanforan, their barracks are furnished with only cots. There are no shelves, no chairs, and nothing for clothing storage. To make the barracks a little more comfortable, many of the families gather scrap wood to build furniture. Yum-yum does this to create a better living space for her little brother and her sick mother. However, Yum-yum does this almost grudgingly because she resents being there. She also resents that her family was forced to give up all their belongings and was given nothing in return.

As a symbol of perseverance, the furniture represents each family’s attempt to embrace gaman and make the most of their situation. However, as in Yum-yum’s chapter, the furniture symbolizes the things each family was forced to leave behind. For Yum-yum, the furniture also symbolizes agency; she has no control over her life, but she can control the stable her family has been given to live in. Yum-yum exerts this little bit of control by designing and building the furniture with the help of her friends.