"Fictive Fragments of A Father & Son" by David Mura

This story is about a son who with time learns that his father has practically abandoned his Japanese roots. The father has become fully submerged in the American culture. As the story goes on there is a mention of the father being proud to be an American, however, in no moment was there a mention of the father being proud to be Japanese. The fact that Mura's father has completely abandoned his culture could be the result of the scorn his culture may have received in the past. At one point the Japanese-American were considered less than African-Americans. Mura's father was obviously ashamed of his ethnic background and made the decision to slowly abandon his roots completely. 

Although some people may find it unfair to Mura for Mura's father to have abandoned his Japanese roots; I can honestly understand his father's reasons. It has always been hard and is still till this day hard for immigrants to have the same opportunities as Americans. Or to say in the most bluntest manner; it is hard for immigrants to have the same opportunities as "whites." Mura's father had to work ten times harder to get to where he is just because of his cultural background, he had to adopt the American ways and in a sense be more American than the Americans. Therefore the father, throughout his life converted himself by changing his name, changing his beliefs and converting to Christianity. Mura's father’s decision to become a Christian gave him a sense of fitting in with the American way of life. What he was escaping from was the burdens that had shaped his parents or his fathers life. 

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” ― Oscar Wilde