Stubborn Twig

Stubborn Twig is a 2008 novel by American writer Lauren Kessler. The novel follows three generations of a Japanese-American family, the Yasuis, as they live in Oregon. As the Yasuis strive to forge American identities while retaining their ties to Japan, they grapple with America’s shifting climate of racism and xenophobia, influenced by the two World Wars and changes in American rhetoric about “outsiders.” They struggle to make sense of the chaos of these political moments from the invasions of Japan, to the atrocities of lynching and concentration camps, to the specters of slavery and systemic injustice. Through it all, the Yasuis hold on to their dignity, coming to deeply appreciate America’s land, the citizenry, and founding principles, even when the latter are mismatched by America’s reality.

Stubborn Twig takes place in three parts, each following a successive generation of the Yasui family. The first, “Issei,” starts in a region of Oregon called the Hood River Valley. In 1908, twenty-one-year-old Masuo Yasui disembarks from a train originating from elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, along the Oregon Trail. He is part of one of the largest waves of immigrants to reach Oregon in American history. Previously, he had a job as a railroad worker, where he was a local legend for his ability to hunt for rabbits by throwing a monkey wrench from a moving train car. He went on to open a shop that sold orchids, building it into one of the best floral shops in the area. Most of his children were also hard working and successful. The story takes a sad turn when it relates that Masuo ended up losing his business and home, as well as most of his farmland, and missed several weddings, and the births of two of his grandchildren.

The next section, “Nisei,” takes its name from a Japanese word referring to the first-born American children of  Japanese immigrants. It concerns Masuo Yasui’s eight children, each of who attempts to make a living in Oregon. Having inherited discipline and a work ethic from their father and his stories of struggling as an immigrant, the eight children excel in school and athletics. Seven of them go on to become teachers, farmers, lawyers, and doctors. However, Masuo’s first-born son, tragically struggling to internalize his multinational identity, has a life characterized mostly by sadness and discontent. Even before World War II breaks, Hood River is plagued by anti-Japanese sentiment. On December 7, 1941, they are ordered as part of a group of 110,000 Japanese-Americans to leave their homes to be placed into an internment camp. Masuo is arrested on suspicion of spying for the Japanese government. He is kept in prison until the war is over. Their situation, though helpless, brings shame to the Yasui family. One of the siblings triumphs, however, by escaping to Denver in 1942. The section ends in 1988 with the signing of the Civil Liberties Act.



The final section, “Sansei,” considers how, in the wake of World War II, the remaining members of the first and second generations of the Yasui family strove to reclaim their dignity. Two of Masuo’s grandchildren still live and work on his old farm in the Hood River Valley, where they grow cherries, apples, and pears. However, the Yasui family is now diverse in vocation and where they call home. One grandchild writes a play memorializing Masuo’s injustice at the hands of the U.S. government during World War II. This work of literature helps to expose and repair the emotional wounds that the tragedy inflicted upon Masuo and his children.

Stubborn Twig is a story of American perseverance, showing how even those who struggled with being cast out from American society were still singularly American.