Susan Nunes（1937年）女士出生於夏威夷，母親是日本人，她的作品呈現東西文化的融合與差異。

瘦弱的母親停下手邊的工作，失神地聽著推土機轟隆、轟隆作響。屋子要拆了，父母親要搬到養老院，母親把東西分成兩堆；大堆的留給三個女兒，小堆的留給自己。她決心要將過去全扔掉，三個女兒在抽屜、衣櫥、碗櫃的角落間翻找，找到好多東西。有張照片是母親二十多歲時，她一手放在欄杆上、一手拿著手帕，神情好像在盼望著什麼。她壓低著聲音說這是結婚前父親幫她拍的，他現在一定忘了。父親坐在陽台安靜地看書、抽煙斗，屋外的推土機已經把北村家夷為平地了。

She says, your father took this photograph in 1940, before we were married. She lowers her voice confidentially and adds, now he cannot remember taking it. My father sits on the balcony, an open book on his lap, peacefully smoking his pipe. The bulldozer tears into the foundations of the Kitamura house.

每項物品都有它的故事，例如︰用龜殼雕刻的小漁船是尾泉先生送的。尾泉先生最喜歡在地圖上把他到過的地方做記號，但在珍珠港事件時，他不得不燒毀蒐集的地圖以免被美軍逮捕。外公也在戰時被迫撤離他創辦的日本學校，教室的書籍被沒收燒毀。看到小船就會想到小時候我弄斷船帆，母親生氣地說這不是玩具，不要碰這些東西。現在她從日本帶來的碟子、漆器、照片、刺繡品及信件卻都要送我們。她說：「拿去！不然就扔掉了。」

Now she wants to give everything away. We have to beg her to keep things. Dishes from Japan, lacquerware, photographs, embroidery, letters. She says, I have no room. You take them, here, take them. Take them or I'll get rid of them.

小時候顧不得被罵，我們常偷帶她的收藏出去獻寶，一不小心就弄破一角或被刮到。她擋不住我們，就如同她也無法強迫我們遵守一些傳統的紀律。母親在少女時就學彈琴、插花、書法及刺繡，我與妹妹不受母親的約束也不覺得須要學這些才藝。搬到檀香山後，母親不再教書而改行做行政工作，忙得沒時間照顧我們的生活細節。她經常傷心地說沒做好該做的事，我知道她難過因為幾百年的祖國文化在忙碌的生活中都遺失了。

She would often say, there's simply no time anymore to do things right. I didn't understand then why she looked so sad when she said it, but somehow I knew the comment applied to us. It would be terrible if centuries of culture are lost simply because there is not time.

母親下定心意，將大部分的舊物和收藏留給我們。陽台上，父親把煙斗裡燃燒完的灰燼彈入煙灰缸中，而推土機也終於靜止無聲了。

However, my mother is a determined woman. She will take nothing with her if she can help it. It is all ours. And on the balcony my father knocks the ashes of his pipe into a porcelain ashtray, and the bulldozer is finally silent.