Content Warning: This section features depictions of racism and xenophobia, the imprisonment of Japanese Americans, wartime distress and anxiety, and family separation. Additionally, the source material uses racial slurs and derogatory comments toward various ethnic groups.

Tomikazu (Tomi) Nakaji is the 13-year-old protagonist and narrator. He is an eighth-grade student and a dedicated catcher on the Rats, a homegrown baseball team consisting of his best friends, Billy Davis and Mose and Rico Corteles.

As a nisei, a native-born American citizen with Japanese immigrant parents, Tomi grapples with dual expectations. His family urges him to adhere to Japanese traditions, while his American friends and neighbors often perceive him solely as Japanese rather than American. Additionally, as the only one who can read English, Tomi serves as the family’s de facto translator.

Tomi occupies a unique space, straddling the American culture surrounding him and his family’s Japanese heritage. Despite being a native English speaker, he struggles with Japanese, and his family presses him to embrace their cultural norms. For instance, Mama insists on using “Ojii-san” instead of “Grampa,” a distinction Tomi finds unnecessary as the words share the same meaning. This seemingly small insistence demonstrates the fact that Tomi wants to be able to be both American and Japanese, even if he does not always realize this himself.