They took us with our white silk kimonos twisted up high over our heads and we were sure we were about to die. "They took us by the elbows and said quietly, 'It's time.' They took us before we were ready and the bleeding did not stop for three days. Occasionally a single voice will break through and the effect is startlingly good. Otsuka makes no distinction between them, relying on the rhythm of her words to pull the reader along. Some of the women's experiences are harrowing, some stilted, some humorous. In a devastating chapter entitled "First Night", Otsuka recounts the physical consummation of these new relationships. The reality that confronts the women deals a blow from which they never fully recover. When they arrive, they are disillusioned by "the crowd of men in knit caps and shabby black coats waiting for us down below on the dockā¦ the photographs we had been sent were 20 years old." The opening chapter sets the scene on the boat as the women make their crossing to America, clutching photos of the handsome young men they believe to be their new husbands.
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