- Continuing with the flashbacks, this chapter details when the FBI came to arrest Hisao Imada and seize a bunch of his weapons and paraphernalia. When they discovered some dynamite he wasn't allowed to have, Hisao was arrested. He later learned that the FBI magically found grounds to arrest a bunch of other Japanese American men at that same time.
- Then, we get the lowdown on some tensions between teen Hatsue and her mother. During a conversation about relations between the hakujin (a Japanese term for white people) and Japanese Americans, Hatsue tried to defend the former from her mom. Fujiko wasn't really having it and tried to convince her daughter that mingling with the hakujin would not end well.
- Despite being defiant with her mother, Hatsue had serious doubts about her feelings for Ishmael and their future together (you know, given the political climate).
- She tried to float these concerns to him during one of their secret meetings in the hollow tree. He had assured her that things would be fine, but she wasn't so sure.
- Well, it turns out Ishmael was wrong; soon after that talk, the plans for Japanese internment were announced.
- At this point, the book zooms its focus out a bit and discusses the impact of this policy on the Japanese American population of the island. There's a lot of detail about the arrangements people needed to make for all their property and animals.
- Meanwhile, Hatsue and Ishmael arranged a way to send secret (they hoped) letters to each other. Ishmael would send her letters with the school newspaper listed as the return address, and Hatsue was to send her letters with Kenny Yamashita as the sender.
- With all that business squared away, things got a bit steamy. Ishmael proposed marriage to Hatsue and started initiating sex with her. However, Hatsue inwardly felt that what was happening between them at that moment was not right.
- Oblivious to where her head was at, Ishmael tried to forge ahead with the sexytimes, but Hatsue pushed him off. She unequivocally refused to get married, saying that it would never happen.