Echo

These events see the dramatic conclusion of the uncertainty the Lopez family faces. We see the deep conflicts Ivy faces: she wants to do what is best for her family, but also what is right for her country. Plagued by suspicions the Ward family has passed on to her, she decides these two things may be in conflict. Ultimately, even after her treatment as “separate” and inferior to white American children, she decides that she, like her brother, must act patriotically. She tells her family and Mr. Ward about the secret room she has found.

In these chapters, the difference in understanding between adults and children is stressed once again. When Ivy first sees this room, she feels it is a terrible secret. When the adults see it, though, they have enough information to make more sense of it: it is not an illegal hiding place for nefarious material, but a room built out of kindness and love for the Yamamotos’ neighbors, and for music. It stores the instruments of Japanese Americans while they are away in internment camps.

The importance of music in difficult times is stressed once again: the Yamamotos work day and night and risk their neighbors’ suspicion to protect their instruments. Kenneth asks to send his sisters their flutes, and he himself asks to hear Ivy’s harmonica playing. Motivated by the insight that Kenneth, too, needs comfort, she gives up her harmonica.

While Part One and Two of the book end ambiguously, the ending here is clearer: the boy on the bicycle goes to the Lopez’s house to tell them that Fernando has suffered an injury or died. However, it is implied that Kenneth, the new owner of the enchanted harmonica, will survive the war.