Honolulu Quotes
"A dragon embodied the yang, the masculine principle of life, and it was thought that if a couple expecting a child prayed to the dragon’s egg, their offspring would be male."
"As for me, my parents named me 'Regrettable'—eventually shortened to simply Regret."
"Koreans seldom address one another by their given names; we believe a person’s name is a thing of intimacy and power, not to be used casually."
"In truth, my father was merely old-fashioned and conservative, a strict adherent to Confucian ideals."
"It is a journey measured not in time or distance, but in the breadth of one’s soul and the struggle of becoming."
"You, blue stream, flowing around mountains, Do not be proud of moving so swiftly. Once you get to the open sea, You will never be able to return."
"I have traveled far from the land of my birth, and even farther from who I was then."
"I was anxious to finish my chores and go out to play."
"But this morning the police merely hurried by, taking no notice of us, and Mother and I let out a shared breath as they passed."
"We were fortunate," she said, "they didn’t shut the whole house down."
"Blossom and I observed this pageantry from atop the wall of the Inner Court."
"In addition to reading and discussing literature, she taught me a few songs that had found favor at the royal palace."
"When I saw him the next morning I caught him glancing at my swollen, discolored eye and I finally saw a twitch of guilt disturb his stony face."
"He laughed. The notion was obviously hilarious."
"To be beautiful and clever, that is what men expect of a kisaeng."
"Dispirited, I could see no solution to my problem."
"It cannot be ended because we still have much to discuss."
"I have already brought disgrace to the family."
"What I had done was far, far more than just an insult to them; it was an insult to society."
"Go, then. Marry whomever you like. But should things not work out as you hope, your ship might as well sink into the Pacific Ocean, because you shall never set foot in this house again."
"The truth is I cried myself to sleep, uncertain if I truly was doing the right thing."
"I could not bear to be in the house another second."
"We are far from the lands we knew, and Koreans are a small minority here in Hawai’i."
"I was lost in grief, and strangely empty of rage."
"This is the life you chose, child. You must learn to make the best of it."
"The mood in the street was festive, as if we had stumbled into the middle of a party—and indeed, the men around me were acting more and more like revelers."
"Go on in, then"—he gave me a wink and a smile—"and make yourself at home."
"In a way I had, but it was a much different kind of crop that was sown here at Iwilei."
"You want virgins, go jump in a volcano! G’wan, get lost!"
"So what gives, hon? You F.O.B.—fresh off the boat?"
"This device could sew more stitches in a few minutes than I could in half an hour!"
"These people," she said proudly, "are my nation."
"You see this new movie man, Douglas Fairbank? Ooh, he one sexy haole."
"You’ll stay in touch with Esther and Joe, right? I can always ask them. Don’t worry, it’s a small island. I’ll find you."
"Now that I knew what it felt like to be truly free, I realized I could never go back to wearing the shackles of Confucian dictates."
"I could not bear the thought of another wedding night at the Hai Dong Hotel, so we simply retired to our new shared home and suppered on leftovers from the wedding banquet."
"I promised her that she would never, ever feel that she was anything but a blessing to her parents."
"I was happy that one of my first friends in Honolulu could be here today, though I was disappointed that Joseph Sr.’s new job as a streetcar conductor kept him from attending."
"Little had May dreamed that the 'uppity Brit' in the room next door—who 'looked down his nose' at her, and whose pomposity she took such delight in puncturing—would one day exact his revenge on her by appropriating her for a character in a short story."
"I have time to think of ways to soften your father's resolve. Don't cry, yobo."
"He was not unhandsome, with cheerful eyes that brightened his long, typically stoic Korean face, but he was much older than I."
"The next weekend, I thanked May for giving me the courage to change my situation."
"In summer the cannery was in operation twenty-four hours a day, with three rotating shifts of workers to accommodate the tons of pineapple being processed."
"Divorce, after all, was not just an ending but a beginning as well."
"The one thing they never stop loving is their keiki."
"It’s not the game that’s bothering you, is it?"
"Success will come to each of us, in turn, we sisters of Kyŏngsang."
"Happiness be damned, I will settle for success."
"I will not report a man for that—not even a Japanese."
"By this time Wise Pearl’s keiki numbered four, while Jade Moon struggled to keep her brood of five out of trouble on the beach."
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" he declared as his fist shattered a cylindrical tower the same shape as his sand pail. "No roof! No roof!"
"In the fashion (and law) of the day, the men wore one-piece gray woolen swimsuits and the women were even more ensheathed, in knee-length bloomers and blouses with absurdly long sleeves."
"My husband and I are prepared to offer you the sum of one hundred dollars—two hundred yen—to dissolve Blossom’s obligation to the clan."
"Walking over the peak at Arirang, The sorrows in my heart as many as the stars in the sky."
"Mrs. Ko would not have to struggle to pay her bills."
"Do what we say and you will see your son again. Fight us and you will never see him again, nay, he will be but a shadow: lifeless."
"The girl consented," Pascual reminded Esther. "She said so at the trial."
"If you confess, we’ll have the case taken over by the Army. A soldier never hangs."
"I cried out, ‘You’ve knocked my teeth out,’ and he told me to shut up."
"Joe, like his parents, was a devout Catholic—he would no sooner hit a woman for praying than he would rape her."
"I didn’t think about the car. Mr. McIntosh asked about it."
"By the end of the day it was apparent that there was much that Mrs. Massie did not remember, and yet much that she remembered in conveniently full detail."
"No matter his reasons, Governor Judd’s actions were wrong and served only to demonstrate, as John Kelley had said, that there were two standards of justice in Hawai’i: one for haoles, and one for everyone else."
"This is what America is: the opportunity to become something more."
"We are all reaching the same crossroads, dear friend—I’ve just arrived there a little sooner than you. Our husbands are growing old, and it is up to us now to fill the breach and provide for our families’ futures."
"It was with both pride and sadness that I realized I was filling that breach already."
"My heart sank like a stone, but she went on excitedly, ‘And we are learning not just what it means to be a good wife and wise mother, but how to be a loyal citizen of the Japanese Empire.’"
"‘It means he reduced the ten years they would have had to serve in prison,’ she said, ‘to one hour in custody of the High Sheriff.’"
"But once upon a time, I grew up in this house."
"I could not help but feel as though we are losing something of what we are."
"The horrifying image of Joe’s body, shattered and swept out to sea, brought angry tears to my eyes."
"I realized I had never seen Wise Pearl cry before; she had always been too calm and self-possessed for that."
"They make our children learn Japanese and would have us honor their Emperor as they do, as a god."
"The police have forbidden us to wear our traditional white garments."
"So you see, Korea is still not free. And now China is lost as well."
"Before my Japanese daughter reports our suspicious behavior to the High Police."
"But the war still raged far from Pojogae, which for the moment rested peaceably in its little dimple of land."
"You are a very fine seamstress," she said proudly.
"It is a fine chogak po you have made. Far richer and more colorful than you would ever had stitched together here in Pojogae."
"Nonsense," she told me. "It is a fine chogak po you have made. Far richer and more colorful than you would ever had stitched together here in Pojogae. And it is far from completed."
"Dearest sister-in-law: A road need not be paved in gold to find treasure at its end."