Toy Story

I could quickly do all of the tricks like Around the World, which was easy, Walking the Dog, Loop the Loop, and Rock the Cradle. I was hot stuff until we began the yo-yo battles. You stood about 12 feet apart and flung your yo-yo at your opponents. This, unlike the kite flying, often had the result of one yo-yo flying into three distinct pieces while the winner jumped up and down in glee. I was good at the tricks but not at the fighting, and lost several yo-yos. And then Uncle Mot carved Momotaro (Peach Boy), a half-pound, pure maple yo-yo carved from an old piece of furniture. It was named after the legendary hero born from a peach pit. It smashed every other yo-yo for two days until the other kids learned, DO NOT challenge Momotaro-san. So I was left to strut around doing cat cradles with a yo-yo so large that it would barely swing through the cradle. I kept it for years, and then suddenly one year, it disappeared.

The kites and yo-yos were my first experience of the art of gaman—using found materials to create objects of great utility or beauty as a way of coping with the unbearable hardship of incarceration.

About the contributor: Jon Yatabe was born in Berkeley in 1937 and grew up in Redwood City, CA, where his father, Tak Yatabe, grew flowers. From Topaz, his father joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and fought in Europe. The Yatabes settled in Berkeley after the War. Jon graduated from UC Berkeley and received a PhD from the University of Illinois. After a long career in Washington and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he retired and lives in Bodega Bay, CA. “Toy Story” is excerpted from Jon’s memoir, Letter to My Grandchildren.

Copyright 2019, Jon Yatabe. All rights reserved.