Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Janice Mirikitani’s "Breaking Silence" is a searing, powerful testament to the resilience of Japanese Americans and their refusal to let the injustices of history remain unspoken. Written as a tribute to her mother, the poem explores themes of silence, oppression, and the transformative power of testimony. Through rich, visceral imagery and a poignant, unflinching voice, Mirikitani captures the weight of generational trauma, the necessity of breaking free from imposed silences, and the beauty of reclaiming one’s voice.

The poem begins with a reference to miracles, described as emerging from silence, “the glass caves of our ears,” and from physical and emotional wounds. These “testimonies waiting like winter” suggest a long dormancy, where truths have been buried under layers of imposed quiet and cultural conditioning. This framing underscores the tension between enforced silence—both external and internalized—and the speaker’s desire to break free from it. The miracles are not acts of divine intervention but acts of courage and defiance, borne from a refusal to remain muted.

Mirikitani explores the cultural and systemic forces that demanded silence, equating it with survival and expediency. Her mother’s experiences during the Japanese American internment are central to the narrative, as the government’s announcements—“Take only what you can carry” and “to be incarcerated for your own good”—reduce an entire community’s identity to something disposable and alien. The euphemisms of authority contrast sharply with the raw, lived reality of the internment, highlighting the dehumanization inflicted upon her mother and countless others.

The poem’s refrain, “Mr. Commissioner,” serves as both a direct address and a rhetorical device. It frames her mother’s testimony as a form of formal protest while underscoring the bureaucratic indifference that often accompanies injustice. The repetition of “to take, to take, to take” becomes a relentless accusation, emphasizing the systematic theft of land, property, dignity, and identity. Her mother’s words, described as “peeling from her like slivers of yellow flame,” evoke both fragility and fierce determination, capturing the act of testimony as one of both pain and empowerment.

Mirikitani’s imagery is deeply tied to her mother’s connection with the land. The act of farming—transforming “reed and rock and dead brush” into fertile gardens—is described with reverence and pride. Her mother’s labor is presented as an extension of her resilience and identity, a quiet but profound assertion of humanity. Yet this labor, this life built with care and hope, is “hushed” by the commands of authority. The juxtaposition of blooming fields with the barracks of the internment camps reflects the devastating interruption of a life rooted in purpose and growth.

The poem’s tone shifts in its second half as Mirikitani asserts her own voice, paralleling her mother’s defiance. The speaker declares, “Pride has kept my lips pinned by nails, my rage coffined,” but insists on reclaiming her history and identity. The reference to her youth “buried in Rohwer” and the ghosts of her family haunting other camps reinforces the multigenerational impact of the internment, where the scars of injustice reverberate through time. The act of speaking—of spilling words rather than tears—becomes an act of liberation and resistance.

The final stanza expands the poem’s scope, embracing the collective experience of Japanese Americans while connecting it to broader struggles against oppression. Mirikitani invokes powerful imagery of “cracks and fissures in our soil,” “barbed wire,” and the “red ashes of Hiroshima,” tying personal and familial suffering to historical and global contexts. The declaration, “We are lightning and justice,” transforms pain into a force of reckoning and change. By embracing their “rainforest of color and noise,” the speaker and her community reject the imposed silence and reclaim their humanity in all its complexity and beauty.

Mirikitani’s language throughout the poem is both lyrical and unyielding, capturing the tenderness of personal memory and the sharpness of righteous anger. Her use of repetition—phrases like “and then all was hushed for announcements”—creates a rhythmic tension that mirrors the cyclical nature of silence and resistance. The interplay between her mother’s testimony and her own voice creates a sense of continuity, where breaking silence becomes both a personal and communal act of healing and defiance.

At its heart, "Breaking Silence" is a poem about transformation. It acknowledges the weight of historical trauma and the ways in which silence can be both a survival mechanism and a prison. Through the act of speaking, Mirikitani and her mother reclaim their agency, turning memory into testimony and testimony into power. The poem’s closing lines—“We are unafraid. / Our language is beautiful”—resonate as a triumphant assertion of identity, resilience, and the enduring strength of a community that refuses to be erased.

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