This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II

“The reason I never corrected you is because you kept saying how excited you were to have an American pen pal. I guess I just didn’t want to disappoint you that I’m not actually a ‘real’ American.”

This quote highlights’ Alex’s inner shame for his Japanese heritage even at a young age, for he waits three years before revealing his true appearance to Charlie. Charlie’s indignant reaction to his deception betrays a mirroring pain at her own internalized sense of “otherness,” for deep inside, she sometimes fears that she is not a “real” French girl just as Alex despairs of ever being seen as truly American.

“...you’re an idiot, Alex. Because you don’t say these kind of affections now. Not at 14 years old, not when we don’t have a chance of seeing each other for many years period no: you say it when you are 18 or 19, when you are old enough to travel to Paris and see me. When you are old enough to—maybe as a university student!—live here. That is when you say ‘I love you.’ You are an idiot!”

Charlie’s response to Alex’s confession that he loves her indicates that far from rejecting his feelings, she actually reciprocates them and shows her passionate, fiery personality. Alex initially misinterprets her feelings, and he will never have the opportunity to tell Charlie in person how he feels about her. Thus, these early childhood fantasies echo through the years and the tragedies that both pen pals endure, making their failure to find each other all the more tragic.

“But I am angry at the unfair things. All the nonsense I face because of who I am. Because I am Jewish. Our radios and bicycles taken away. Our phone lines turned off. We can’t use the public street phones, can’t enter parks or theaters or swimming pools or music halls or cafes, can’t borrow books from public libraries. Can’t even cross the Champs-Elysees.”

Charlie explains that the anger and frustration in her prior letter are derived from the increasingly hostile conditions she faces in Nazi-occupied Paris. Charlie’s description shows a vivid snapshot of the untenable situation that French Jews were being forced to endure: a direct parallel to the plight of Japanese Americans in early 1942.