On page 16 grandfather and grandmother are pictured in a meadow with a baby girl, and on page 17, as the daughter grows grandfather begins to think about "his own childhood" and his "old friends" -- in other words, he is thinking about his home country. On page 19 he, his wife and his daughter -- who was "nearly grown" -- leave for his "homeland." The village of his childhood was "…not a place for a daughter from San Francisco," so grandfather bought a hose in "a large city nearby."
The daughter -- who turns out to be the author's mother -- having been raised in a modern city like San Francisco, is plenty smart enough and strong enough as a woman to live by herself in a big Japanese city. Perhaps if she had been born and raised in Japan, she might not have moved to a big city; the gender issue enters at this point in the book. When the young woman grew up she fell in love and got married. Grandfather was pleased, and planned a trip back to California. But WWII arrived, "Bombs...
Page 27, sadly, shows people standing on rubble, "where my grandparents had lived." In that illustration, a mother has a baby on her back and there are five children with her. It will be the woman's job to raise these children as their father has apparently been killed in the war (that's the implication from the art).
His grandfather never did return to California, although he longed to return. But the author did come to California. On page there is a picture of Say in Western dress with palm trees behind him. It would appear that he, like his grandfather, came solo to the U.S. And perhaps when he finds a suitable place to live, he will settle in then return to Japan to marry his childhood sweetheart, and bring her back to California.
Works Cited
Say, Allen (1993). Grandfather's Journey. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
