Free Alien Rice; A Novel. by Ichiro Kawasaki

you said, Hanako or something? It does not convey anything."
    However, Alice realized that she was irrevocably married to a Japanese and that, legally at least, she herself had already become a Japanese citizen. Whether she liked it or not, her son or daughter would duly be registered as a member of the Tanaka family in the family ledger-book kept in the Nagoya civil registration office. So Alice reluctantly agreed to Saburo's suggestion.
    Toshio was a big boy, weighing a little over eight pounds at birth. When Saburo first saw him through the glass partition window he was surprised. The baby was almost a Caucasian, with a sprinkling of silver hair, and, unlike his father, he was very fair. The baby bore almost no resemblance to Saburo. If there were any resemblance at all, the baby had a rather flat nose.
    A staff nurse in the obstetrics department opened the door and cheerfully announced, "A visitor for you, Mrs. Tanaka," and ushered Saburo into the small semiprivate room.
    "Saburo, darling!" Alice held out her arms, wincing slightly as the movement caused her to change position in the bed.
    Saburo went to her, kissing her tenderly, and said, "Alice, are you feeling all right?" For a moment he held her tightly.
    "Saburo, you wanted a boy and you have him now." Alice smiled.
    "It's a big, healthy boy and looks very much like you," Saburo said.
    "Well, I felt it even in the womb and I'm glad he was born that way." Alice was proud.
    The Tanaka apartment in the Tozai compound suddenly assumed animation. It was customary for a Japanese with a Western wife, no matter how small his salary, to hire a servant when a baby was added to the household. So a young maid, a country girl who trembled when she first saw Alice, began to come every day to look after the baby and to help Alice in household work. The baby cried as boisterously as any other in the neighborhood. Diapers had to be dried in the sun on the tiny balcony, as there was no other space available. The maid soon got used to Alice and worked hard for the small sum the Tanakas paid her.
    Since arriving in Japan, Alice had often observed the way babies were brought up. Cots or playpens were not generally in use. When a baby started fussing before bottle time or bedtime, its mother in most cases acceded to her baby's wishes. If the baby put its fingers in its mouth or sucked its thumb, the mother would not slap its hand or try to break it of the habit. When a walking child fell on the ground, the mother would rush to help it stand up. In such ways the child's initiative was almost completely stifled and its spirit of independence nipped in the bud.
    Alice was determined not to follow such practices and trained her maid from the very beginning to put the baby on a strict feeding and sleeping schedule. So before the year was out the maid, as well as Toshio, had formed good habits, and Alice could safely leave the baby in the girl's care.
    Saburo was still very much away from home. While in London Alice had thought it was bad enough, but now Saburo's life was almost mortgaged to the company. To put it more bluntly, Saburo was nothing but a slave to the Tozai Trading Company, which had the power to end his career or starve him. Without the company Saburo did not exist. But in the eyes of the company Saburo seemed almost nonexistent, as he was a very small cog in the gigantic machinery called Tozai. Yet, he had no alternative but to carry on.
    There were thirty-four million Japanese like Saburo-what the Japanese called "salary-men." Once taken in by a business firm or any other place of employment, these people could not very well quit; no reputable firm would take a "drop-out" from another firm. One had to start from the bottom and climb up the ladder, regardless of what happened. Theirs was an employment for life which had its origin in the feudal system, but essentially it was the product of perennial poverty. The system was not without merit. It was a means of ensuring the