in society. Koichi was an outcast in Japan because
of its political turmoil; he is considered alien in
America because he is not white. Toyoko was seen
as an outsider in Japan because her father is Ger-
man; in America, she does not feel welcomed be-
cause she is only half white. Even in the colony she
is treated differently, not just because she is only
half Japanese, but because she is a girl. Women in
traditional Japanese society are expected to obey
men without question and are left out of the de-
cision-making process concerning the colony.
Toyoko sees her situation as a challenge to prove
herself to the others as a useful member of the
colony. She works hard, and by doing so she gains
self-respect and the respect of Koichi, who watches
her take care of the silkworms and other tasks with
competence and without complaint.
The racism from the white settlers eventually
causes the downfall of the colony. The white set-
tlers find a way to block the stream that the colo-
nists rely on to irrigate their fields. Even though
the colony fails, Koichi is given the opportunity
to mature by learning about different cultures
and people. He learns that some people are will-
ing to look past racial and gender differences and
some are not. More important, he learns how to be
open-minded and more tolerant of other people.
Anne BahringerSantos, Bienvenido N. (1911–1996)
The poet, novelist, short-story writer, and essayist
Bienvenido N. Santos was born in Tondo, Manila,
to Pampango parents from Lubao. His childhood
and first literary experiences were influenced by
the three languages that surrounded his life: Pam-
pango at home, Tagalog in the streets, and English
at school.
When he left for America in 1941 to study for
a master’s degree at the University of Illinois, he
was already an established short-story writer in his
country. But when World War II broke out and the
Philippines was invaded by Japan, he was forced to
stay in the United States while his wife and three
daughters remained in the Philippines. This sep-
aration was crucial in his life and influenced his
writing, as exile became a central theme to his fic-
tion. During the war, he studied at Columbia and
Harvard Universities and served the Philippine
government in exile in Washington, D.C.
Santos went back to the Philippines in 1946
and stayed there until 1958, when he returned to
the United States with his wife. In 1961, he again
returned to the Philippines to take a position as
dean and vice president of the University of Nueva
Caceres. In 1965 he received the most prestigious
literary award in that country, the Republic Cul-
tural Heritage Award in Literature. Returning to
the United States in 1965, he attended the Writers’
Workshop at the University of Iowa. From 1973
to 1982, Santos was Distinguished Writer-in-Resi-
dence at Wichita State University and in 1976 he
became a U.S. citizen.
His first two novels, Villa Magdalena and The
Volcano, were published in Manila in 1965, fol-
lowed by a serialized novel, The Praying Man.
While these first three novels deal with the politi-
cal situation and anti-American sentiments in the
Philippines, his next works deal with the experi-
ences of Filipino immigrants in the United States,
especially as they move between their homeland
and the adopted land. As the characters look for
a place to call home, they are forced to negotiate
their feelings of isolation and ambivalence not
only in their adopted land but also in their home-
land. In America, they miss living in the Philip-
pines; in the Philippines, they miss living in the
United States.
The maturity of his writing and literary experi-
mentation is shown in texts such as “Immigration
Blues,” which won the Best Fiction Award given
by New Letters magazine in 1977. To examine the
ways in which immigration affects people’s lives,
Santos creates the character of Alpino, who is
asked to marry a fellow countrywoman to allow
her to stay in the United States. In Scent of Apples,
a book of short stories published in 1980 by the
University of Washington and winner of the 1981
American Book Award from the Before Columbus
Foundation, Santos again explores the cross sec-
tions between culture and identity, between theirSantos, Bienvenido N. 261