How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"When your mother and your father are having a fight, do you want them to kill each other? Or do you just want them to stop fighting?" (1.7.68)
This is Papa talking to his interrogator, and no, he's not remembering some domestic crisis in his own family. He's equating Japan and America to a mother and father fighting, which makes the whole war between Japan and America a lot more personal.
Quote #5
With Papa back our cubicle was filled to overflowing. Woody brought in another army bunk and tick mattress, up next to Mama's. But that was not what crowded the room. It was Papa himself, his dark, bitter, brooding presence. Once moved in, it seemed he didn't go outside for months. He sat in there, or paced, alone a great deal of the time, and Mama had to bring his meals from the mess hall. (1.8.1)
Sometimes all it takes is one person to disrupt a family dynamic, especially when that person is the head honcho and the whole family revolves around respecting him.
Quote #6
For all the pain it caused, the loyalty oath finally did speed up the relocation program. One result was a gradual easing of the congestion in the barracks. A shrewd house hunter like Mama could set things up fairly comfortably - by Manzanar standards - if she kept her eyes open. But you had to move fast. As soon as the word got around that so-and-so had been cleared to leave, there would be a kind of tribal restlessness, a nervous rise in the level of neighborhood gossip as wives jockeyed for position to see who would get the empty cubicles. In Block 28 we doubled our living space - four rooms for the twelve of us. (2.12.5)
There's a reason why the move to Block 28 starts off part II of the book: it really is like a new start for the family. No wonder families jockey for the space.