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Relocation," a poem of forty-seven lines, has four major sections separated by asterisks. Within each major section are
three four-line stanzas, with the exception that the first section has only two stanzas and that an italicized haiku concludes the final section. The poem’s dedication reads, "for
Grandfather Uyemura," the central character in the poem. It is his several "relocations" that the poem describes. The physical removals from Japan to America, within America, and back to Japan are sometimes voluntary and sometimes coerced, and they result in either exhilaration and freedom or depression and oppression.
David Mura uses the format of the poem to deliver a sketchy biography of his grandfather, recounting the most significant events in his grandfather’s adult life. The poem also indirectly traces the emotions with which Mura’s grandfather responds to those life experiences and, even more indirectly, Mura’s own emotional reactions to those events that predate his own birth.
The first section begins with an expository stanza that makes reference to an Asian custom prevalent around the 1920’s. Asian men who had immigrated to America to seek their fortunes would send to their home countries a picture of themselves as a way of advertising for a bride of the same ethnic background. They would pay the one-way passage to America of any eligible woman who would be lured across the ocean by the picture and promise of marriage. Because the couple would not have previously met, the woman thus based her entire future happiness on the merit of a snapshot, and there were often unpleasant surprises at the dock if the man had misrepresented himself. Grandfather Uyemura, however, was so handsome that he did not hide behind a picture but returned to Japan in person to claim a bride. He was able to sail back to America with his arms around his chosen mate.
In section 2, Mura recounts his grandparents’ success in establishing a happy life in their new country. Through industry and hard work, Grandfather Uyemura has bought a greenhouse where he grows orchids and roses. He also has enjoyed a certain amount of luck in the gambling houses.
The mood shifts away from happiness and good fortune in section 3, however. World War II breaks out, and the Japanese people living in America, including Grandfather and Grandmother Uyemura, are herded by the government into various "
relocation camps" for the duration of the war. Instead of their pleasant home and greenhouse, the couple now lives with other Japanese-Americans in barracks surrounded by guards and barbed wire. Grandfather Uyemura is forced to plow fields and eat meals in a common mess hall with his wife.
The war has ended for some time by the final section, and the couple has a son whom they have named Kitsugi. He, however, adopts American ways with a new name—Tom—and a new religion—Christianity—which confuses and disappoints Grandfather Uyemura, a Buddhist. When his wife dies, Grandfather Uyemura returns to Tokyo and composes haiku in his old age.