Chapter 1, The House above Grove Street Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1 begins with the author reminiscing about growing up as a second-generation Japanese child of Japanese immigrants before World War II. The author's family lives in Berkeley, California, above Grove Street. The only thing unusual about the author's childhood in America, in fact, is that her family is Japanese-American. Somehow, their family is allowed to live in a white neighborhood, despite racial discrimination by local realtors against Asian immigrants. Despite living through the depression, the author's family never notices it, due to her parents' thrift and self-denial.

The author's father, Dwight Takashi Uchida, immigrates to California in 1906, landing in San Francisco three months after the great earthquake. He finds a job working for a Japanese entrepreneur, M. Furuya. In 1917 he marries Iku Umegaki, who is sent from Japan the previous year...