The “connection” in this story by Hisaye Yamamoto is a correspondence relationship between a widowed Japanese-American poet living in California and a young Eskimo man jailed in a federal penitentiary. Although initially reluctant to write due in part to differences in age, family situation, culture and social situation, the woman empathises with the young man because of her own experiences in a wartime internment camp. This clouds her judgement, and she naively overlooks hints that he may have a capacity for extreme violence. Themes include loneliness, compassion, matriarchy, family struggle, interethnic bonding, art and writing, violence, imprisonment, religion. More…