The Buddha In The Attic By Julie Otsuka

In Julie Otsuka’s novel “The Buddha in the Attic,” the stark discrepancy in the image the Japanese picture brides had of America as a place of promise and the harsh, unaccepting America they actually encountered is a disparity fueled by the exclusivity and oppression of the dominant culture that subjugated them. Otsuka actively challenges the romanticization of the American Dream and exposes the truth of the concept, emphasizing the secluded nature of the immigrant American story that closely parallels my own family’s experience living in the Bay Area.
America has long held an international reputation as being the land of utmost opportunity, which is responsible for the notion of prosperity that drove the Japanese picture brides and my parents

Contrary to anything they had hoped for when coming to America, the Japanese picture brides experienced cruelty derived from the white community: “They did not want us as neighbors in their valleys. They did not want us as friends. We lived in unsightly shacks… Sometimes they dynamited our packing sheds… and we wondered if we had made a mistake, coming to such a violent and unwelcoming land” (35-36). It is clear that the white community was the clear antagonist of the Japanese women, as they stood in the way of their attempts to integrate into society. As can be seen through this passage, the dominant culture wanted to maintain a homogenous society containing only people with similar identities to their own, causing them to isolate the Japanese picture brides as a way to exert their power over them. The women were not allowed as “neighbors in their valleys” and had to resort to “liv[ing] in unsightly shacks,” imperceptible to any human eyes, as if they were invisible and did not exist. The dominant culture even resorted to physical means to widen the gap between them and the women they perceived as inferior, performing evil acts like “dynamit[ing] [their] packing sheds” as a clear tactic to get rid of their most prized possessions and prevent them from making any advances on their contributions to American society that could surpass their own. When juxtaposed with the hopeful image seen earlier of an America that could provide them with a place to refresh their lives and identities, the phrase “violent and unwelcoming land” demonstrates the idea that this raw, unfiltered version of America they came to