My Grandmami: Here she comes.
:: Jan 12, 10:34 AM

Every year since I moved to Tokyo in 2005, I have visited the Bay Area for New Years break. This year, I was able to spend two days in the company of my grandma. At 88, she is the rock of the family, saying everything with the conviction and confidence that only a grandma who named herself “Grandmami” can. And who always keeps a full bottle of Hennessy in her liquor cabinet.

Born in Kyushu, Japan on November 27, 1920, Grandmami is of Chinese descent. Due to the Sino-Japanese war and her blood, she was ousted by the pressures of the Japanese government in 1937.

My imagination fills this scene in with flickering black-and-white images. A 16-year-old Grandmami packs up a brown leather bag and sets off to somewhere she’s never been, with a language she has never spoken. Here I come, Shanghai.

The details are hazy. And isn’t it often us grandchildren who wonder why we never ask our grandparents the details. We’d rather play the can-do-no-wrong grandchild with the shiny bowl-cut, than the inquisitive historian.

So the film reel of my imagination is threaded and flickers on.

A few years after she arrives to Shanghai, she marries a Japanese-educated Chinese man. One child is born while the party wars rage. The Communist party proves victorious and everyone else is banished to Taiwan. So Grandmami, daughter in tow, packs up her brown leather bag. Here I come, Taipei.

In Taiwan, two more daughters are born, my mother being the youngest of three. By the time my mother is born, it is 1948 and the Sino-Japanese war had ended three-years prior. Semi-stabilized in Taiwan, the family stays on board in Taiwan for a couple more years, always intent on the fact that they will return to Japan. So while my mother is still a toddler, Grandmami, three daughters in tow, packs up her brown leather bag. Here I come, Tokyo.

Grandmami and her family live an upper-middle class lifestyle in Tokyo. Poodle skirts come and go. Grandmami opens a jewelry store in Roppongi, designing a diamond ring set into a platinum band that she still wears on her ring finger.

After her youngest child gets married, Grandmami gets a divorce. Grandmami, greencard (courtesy of the ex-husband) in tow, packs up her brown leather bag. Here I come, San Francisco.

All her children eventually end up in the San Franscico Bay Area to raise families and gossip on Sunday mornings. The brown leather bag must be in the attic somewhere, quietly ready-to-go.

1. I really enjoyed reading the story about your grandmami.

   There are much more to write about her. I hope some day you will publish a book about your grandmami. I think it will easily become a best seller.

   — mama    Jan 13, 12:57   

2. Hi, Yoko-chan!
   I knew you could write well but I did not know you had a potential to become a great story teller. Do plan on having an extensive interview with grandmami and write about her. You might help us discover the source of her strength and uniqueness. I admire her endless curiosity about what’s going on in the world.

   — bebe-oba    Jan 16, 02:33   

3. Yoko, this is great, when people ask about how my family has come to be this Japanese, Chinese mesh I try and gather what I know and it turns out to be this weird explanation that never makes sense. When people go into further details and ask for dates to the story it just confuses me further. It is great to know all the stories of our grandparents, as of now I can only remember silly stories that my grandfather (father’s side) spoke about DURING the war but nothing ABOUT the war. This piece really shows the strength of Grandmami and exactly how ahead of her time she was!

   — tomo    Jan 17, 07:02   

4. Thanks for all the great comments. Honestly, I patched together what I imagined might have happened. With the bits and pieces I’ve overheard from her and you guys, this is a basic quilt. I’d like to make a bigger one with more patterns though.

   — yoko    Jan 20, 19:13   

5. Your Grandmami is a super woman!

   — Chie    Jan 28, 22:15