The Buddha in the Attic characters

Also known as The Picture Brides

Appears from the start

A collective of young Japanese women crossing the Pacific to marry men they know chiefly from photographs and letters. They differ in class, region, age, education, and expectation, but the narration joins their individual experiences into a shared first-person voice.

First appears in chapter 2

Japanese immigrants already living in the United States who have arranged marriages with women from home. Many sent flattering or outdated photographs and promised easier lives than they can provide; the brides often find aging laborers instead of the prosperous men they imagined.

First appears in chapter 3

Farm owners, householders, shopkeepers, and other white Americans for whom the women and their husbands work. Some are considerate and some exploitative, but even sympathetic employers occupy a social world from which the Japanese laborers remain largely excluded.

Also known as The Nisei

First appears in chapter 5

The American-born sons and daughters of the immigrant women. They grow up speaking English, attending local schools, and often feeling embarrassed by their parents' accents and customs. Their lives appear more American than their mothers' lives, though prejudice continues to define how others see them.

First appears in chapter 6

Federal and local officials who begin visiting Japanese homes after the United States enters the war. They question families, remove community leaders, impose restrictions, and ultimately administer the forced departure of people of Japanese ancestry.

First appears in chapter 8

The white residents who remain after their Japanese neighbors are forced away. Their collective voice notices abandoned houses and businesses, repeats rumors, and gradually allows the missing families to fade from daily conversation.