Shallow Graves

pitched the campaign to the furrier. Most concepts get rejected by the client. This one said, ‘Go for it.’ “
    “What was the campaign?“
    “A series of young models, instead of the older, ‘Martha, you’ve raised our children and you deserve a mink’ types. Only these were going to be exotic girls, not cheerleaders, follow?“
    “And Mau Tim was exotic.“
    “Oh, John, you have no idea. Honestly. One of the few girls who never took a bad photo. Every shot a piece of art. Anyway, I met her as we were executing that campaign. She was just breaking in, and I was able to give her career a boost.“
    “And you started seeing her personally?“
    The smile wavered a little this time. “Yes.“
    “How long did you see her?“
    “Six, eight months I guess. It wasn’t the usual.“
    “The usual?“
    “Yeah. In this business, John, you get all sorts of opportunities. You look like you’re about my age?“
    “Probably.“
    “Well, I’ll tell you, the younger ones do keep you younger. But you get tired of them after a while. They don’t have any depth.“
    “But Mau Tim did.“
    “Some.“ Shinkawa swayed back in his desk chair. “She was interested in the sixties, for example. Made me tell her all the expressions, like ‘too much’ and ‘far out.’ Remember?“
    “Most of them.“
    “Well, she’d change them to suit herself. Like in bed, she’d say things like ‘too, too much’ or ‘far, far out.’ Her way of showing that she understood me but could still personalize things for herself.“
    “Adapting to a culture she never experienced.“
    Shinkawa stopped for a second. “You know, that’s a nice turn of phrase, John. Very nice. She was like that about my being Japanese-American, too.“
    “What do you mean?“
    “Well, she was always asking me what it was like to grow up Asian in America. Maybe because she had a Vietnamese mother and I think an Italian—Italian-American, I mean— father.“
    He thought. “You never met her family, then?“
    “No. No, but she was always asking about mine. Japanese customs and relationships. I wasn’t born till forty-eight, but before World War II my parents lived in California. They were Nisei. Know what that means?“
    “Born in this country of parents from Japan?“
    Shinkawa gave me the “nice-turn-of-phrase“ look. “Basically. My mom and dad met when they were being interned. You know about that, too?“
    “Not much.“
    “Well, let me tell you a little then. Right after Pearl Harbor, the authorities started rounding us up. By the time they were finished, over a hundred thousand men, women, and children of Japanese descent were herded into ‘relocation’ camps, John. Two thirds of us were American citizens, but that didn’t matter. No charges, no trials, no convictions. Everybody just lost their jobs and property and got locked away in the desert. You remember all the uproar over that Judge Bork being nominated for the Supreme Court?“
    “Sure.“
    “Well, they went after him because of his record on civil liberties, right? Let me tell you, when I was in college, I decided to do my senior thesis on the Nisei. In early 1942, one of the strongest voices calling for the internment testified before a Congressional committee that we Japanese immigrants and citizens had settled intentionally in strategic areas on the West Coast, that we were racially and psychologically tied to the Emperor, and that we were just awaiting the order from Tokyo to strike treacherously at the heart of the American defense industry. You know who that voice belonged to?“
    “No.“
    “The then attorney general of the state of California. The honorable Earl Warren, future Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.“
    “You’re kidding?“
    “Wish I were. I could never understand how that didn’t come out more when they were going after old Borkie.“
    I wanted to get Shinkawa back on track. “So you told Mau Tim about your parents’ situation back then?“
    “Oh, yeah. Yeah, that and all kinds of other things. The kid was a sponge for it, asking me if I’d ever been to Hawaii or any other areas where Asian-Americans were like a majority.“
    “And?“
    “And I had to tell her, ‘Mau, after the war, my folks moved to the Midwest. I was born and brought up in Madison, Wisconsin, you know? All of this stuff is just history to me.’ “
    “She have any enemies you know of?“
    “Enemies?“ Shinkawa lost his smile altogether for the