Wilshire Bus Hisaye Yamamoto

Hisaye Yamamoto was a woman who experienced the shifts of society during a time where tensions were high. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto and her family were put into a Japanese concentration camp in southern California. Even though her circumstances were against her, she refused to stay silent and gave voice to those like her through her stories. In her work, “Wilshire Bus,” Yamamoto tells a narrative of an incident between a drunk American man and a Chinese couple from the point of view of a young Japanese American woman named Esther, a bystander. By the end of her story, it is evident that Yamamoto is critiquing white society and their view on immigrants as “others” through the drunken white man on the bus, but among critics a divide exists about the main character Esther and the story she tells. I agree that social norms stemming from culture and history force Esther to hold her tongue and I argue that Yamamoto also critiques America for its lack of voice during a time of injustice against people of Japanese origin.
Esther in the “Wilshire Bus” displays an ingrained
It can be agreed that Yamamoto specifically parallels the experience of the passengers to that of America as a whole during the 40s and 50s, but I believe that many parallels still exist today. Take the effects of the recent election for example. Muslim women are harassed because they wear hijabs, a clear marker of who they are. This is like how “the physical characteristics of Asian Americans were immediately recognizable, making them easy to identify” (“Farewell…” 233). All people of color are experiencing similar situation with varying degrees of insolence and prejudice. But what can make this different is the stance that the passengers take. They can all be like Esther and face their sin of omission, or they can be something new and make a