Allen is Ming-Chen Wu’s housemate during graduate school. Like Wu, Allen is originally from Taiwan. After the Attack on Pearl Harbor, some local people violently beat Allen in retaliation, ignorantly believing that Allen is of Japanese descent (and also ignorantly believing that all people of Japanese people are to blame for the attack). Though Allen goes on to have a family and becomes quite successful, he suffers headaches for the rest of his life because of the attack, and he eventually dies by suicide.