Copyright Date:
2021
Edition Date:
2021
Release Date:
05/18/21
ISBN:
1-634-05976-X
ISBN 13:
978-1-634-05976-3
Dewey:
940
Language:
English
Reviews:
ALA Booklist
Three months after the Pearl Harbor bombings, rumors of racist mass eviction became reality when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, unlawfully condemning 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent into concentration camps across the western U.S. Following political leaders spouting conspiracy theories and manipulated by the Japanese American Citizens League, the majority of Japanese Americans followed evacuation orders, sacrificing businesses, homes, and their very freedom to live within barbwired prisons. Journalist/activist Abe and historian/writer Nimura deftly upend the compliant narrative with impeccably documented stories of resistance and rebellion. Three major voices drive the inspiring history: Seattle college student Jim Akutsu, who witnesses his father's unlawful arrest and refuses to be drafted from prison camp; California high-school graduate Hiroshi Kashiwagi renounces his citizenship to keep his family together; California typist Mitsuye Endo takes her lawsuit to the Supreme Court. Their individual accounts are graphically enhanced by illustrators Ishikawa and Sasaki, who provide distinct artistic identities. Made urgent yet again, the trio's courageous refusals to accept the U.S. eir! vernment's heinous miscarriage of justice should irrefutably embolden new generations.
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Three Japanese American individuals with different beliefs and backgrounds decided to resist imprisonment by the United States government during World War II in different ways. Jim Akutsu, considered by some to be the inspiration for John Okada's No-No Boy, resisted the draft and argued that he had no obligation to serve the US military because he was classified as an enemy alien. Hiroshi Kashiwagi renounced his United States citizenship and refused to fill out the "loyalty questionnaire" required by the US government. He and his family were segregated by the government and ostracized by the Japanese American community for being "disloyal." And Mitsuye Endo became a reluctant but willing plaintiff in a Supreme Court case that was eventually decided in her favor. These three stories show the devastating effects of the imprisonment, but also how widespread and varied the resistance was. Frank Abe is writer/director of the film on the largest organized resistance to incarceration, Conscience and the Constitution (PBS), and co-editor of JOHN OKADA: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press). Tamiko Nimura is a Sansei/Pinay freelance writer, editor, and public historian, contributing regularly to Discover Nikkei and the International Examiner . Ross Ishikawa is a cartoonist and animator living in Seattle. Matt Sasaki is the artist on Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda.