The mother
The mother is an unnamed Asian woman who appears from the beginning of the novel. The first chapter of the novel is told from her perspective and after that her importance slowly diminishes. While her name is never given, it is hinted that she is quite wealthy, being a member of the middle-class. She is in fact wealthy enough to have a maid with whom she meets again in the camp. The mother is forced to take care of her family after her husband is arrested, a few months before the Asians are forced to leave their homes. While her actions may seem cold in the beginning, it becomes quickly obvious that she only wants to protect her children and her family. After reaching the camp, the mother becomes almost distant, spending her time doing nothing and sleeping, dreaming about the time when she was in Japan. When the family is allowed to return home, the mother is the one who has to work to sustain her family and thus she is almost completely absent in the last chapter.
The father
The father is a character who is absent from the novel and who appears only towards the end. The father is taken prisoner a few months before the novel started but he is present through the letters he sends to his family regularly. The father never talks about the time he spent in prison but it is revealed that he was treated harshly and in an unjust manner. His profession is never mentioned and his name is never revealed as well thus transmitting the idea that what happened to him could have happened to anyone. The author focuses more on him after he is released from prison and after he returns home. Then, he is unable to find a steady job because of his status of an ex-prisoner and because his health deteriorated during his stay in the prison. Because of this, the father falls into something akin to depression and he becomes ill-tempered and not interested in life in general. The father is used here to show just how the lives of the Japanese who were not guilty of anything were affected by the fact that they were wrongfully imprisoned.
The girl
The girl is the mother’s daughter that also remains unknown in the novel. In the beginning, she is just a regular child, a Japanese child who assimilated the American culture completely. Despite this, she is aware of the differences that exist between her and the rest of the American population and she always compares herself with the ideal transmitted through the media. The girl changes drastically after she arrives at the camp and she transforms into a rebellious teenager, disobeying her mother, spending her time with ill-behaved children and smoking behind buildings. When her family is allowed to return home, her behavior changes once more and the girl transforms from the disobedient child she was in the camp into a child who listens to what she is told and who does everything she can to not cause any type of trouble, knowing that if she were to do that, her family will have to suffer. The second chapter is related from her point of view and she is also a narrator in the last chapter.
The boy
The boy is the youngest child in the Asian family and his name remains unknown as well. The boy is the narrator of the third and also narrates part of the last chapter with his sister. The boy is naïve, and childlike and he worships his father who is absent from a big portion of the novel. The boy has a passion for animals that represent for him freedom and liberty, things he is denied since he is an Asian. Just like his sister, when the boy returns home, he becomes extremely obedient and is careful not to talk back to anyone and to be as good as possible.
Joe Lundy
Joe Lundy is the name given to the store clerk that appears in the first chapter when the woman goes to buy supplies to pack her things. When the woman enters the shop, Joe scrubs vigorously a stain near the cash register on the counter. Joe refuses to take any money for the things the woman buys claiming that she can pay him back when she returns. Joe is thus used here to make reference to the American population that did not have a problem with the Japanese and even felt shame at the way their government chose to deal with the situation.
Ted Ishimoto
Ted is a man the girl meets on the train when she went to the bathroom. Ted was once a wealthy Asian man who lost all his possessions when he was asked to relocate. The girl lies to him when she tells him that their father doesn’t write to them and that they don’t know where he is.
Mrs. Ueno
Mrs. Ueno is the mother’s former maid. She appears in the third chapter when the woman meets the former maid in the camp. Even though the woman refuses to let the maid help, Mrs. Ueno still claims that it is her duty to help her former employer.
