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Back This Time Will Be Different Save as PDF
Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
  6. 3
  7. The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
  20. 13
  21. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
  22. 14
  23. 15
  24. 16
  25. 17
  26. 18
  27. 19
  28. The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. 25
  36. A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
  41. 29
  42. 30
  43. 31
  44. 32
  45. 33
  46. 34
  47. 35
  48. 36
  49. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. 42
  56. 43
  57. 44
  58. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
  59. 45
  60. 46
  61. 47
  62. 48
  63. 49
  64. 50
  65. 51
  66. 52
  67. 53
  68. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
  69. 54
  70. A Note from the Author
  71. Index of Flowers and their Meanings
  72. Acknowledgments
  73. About the Author
  74. Praise for This Time Will Be Different
  75. Books by Misa Sugiura
  76. Back Ad
  77. About the Publisher

I’ve heard the Katsuyama Comeback story a bunch of times; Hannah loves to tell it. This first part is a little sad, but don’t worry. It gets better. Remember: Katsuyamas never quit.

1890

Mom and Hannah’s great-grandfather Ippei Katsuyama immigrates to California from Sanda, Japan. He works as a field laborer, marries a picture bride, and has five children. Two of them start a tiny little company called Katsuyama Brothers Seed Company. I’ll let you guess what they sold.

1938

Ippei’s son Toshio (my great-grandfather) sells his share of the Katsuyama Brothers Seed Company and opens a flower shop called Heart’s Desire. Toshio is a hardworking, harmonica-playing, people-loving guy with a family of his own: his wife, Mary, and their three sons: George (after George Washington), Tom (after Thomas Jefferson), and Frank (after Franklin D. Roosevelt).

December 7, 1941

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

December 8, 1941

Toshio goes to work in the morning to discover that someone has painted GET OUT DIRTY JAPS on the sidewalk in front of Heart’s Desire.

Frank (my granddad) punches Robbie McAllister Jr. in the nose when Robbie Jr. and his friends start chanting, “Japs, go home! Japs, go home!” at recess. Frank is suspended from school.

February 19, 1942

President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066. As the order goes into effect over the following months, Japanese Americans on the West Coast have to figure out what to do with their homes, their businesses, and all their worldly possessions before they are banished to who knows where, for who knows how long.

March 1942

Robert McAllister Sr. (as in McAllister High School and McAllister Venture Capital, lest you forget) offers to buy all of Toshio’s property for one thousand dollars. It’s worth at least ten times that. But Toshio has no one to run the business in his absence. He has no renters for his soon-to-be-vacant house. What choice does he have?

One day before the family leaves town, Toshio sells his home, his business, and everything inside to McAllister for the price of a Ford station wagon.

8

IT’S BEEN KIND OF A BUMMER OF A MONDAY afternoon, what with the financial pronouncement that Mom made yesterday. Plus, my assignment today is an order for someone whose friend just had a miscarriage; florists don’t only do happy occasions. Hannah suggested a potted arrangement of succulents, which stand for grief, solace, or enduring love, depending on the context. Or all of them, in this case. Of course, no one wishes grief on a friend, but I guess it makes sense to acknowledge it. I imagine the little aloe plant whispering words of solace as I place it in the pot and pat the dirt around it.

I wish that flower magic was real and we could use it to solve our money problems. Jade plants, another succulent, are supposed to help bring in money. Maybe we should order a bunch of jade in big ceramic pots. I bet Owen’s dad could get us some.