This is not an ordinary book: it's a BookCrossing book! BookCrossing books are world travelers - they like to have adventures and make new friends...and every once in a while they even write home to say what they've been doing.

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Other copies on my BookCrossing shelf: 13710390 • 14414482

There are two stories here: the one told in the book, and the one about the book.

The story written by John Okada is about a young Japanese American who was sent to an internment camp and answered "No-No" to the infamous loyalty questionnaire rather than agreeing to serve in the US military during WWII. This was a difficult decision and the subject of much conflict within the Japanese American community: George Takei addresses it in his musical Allegiance and his graphic novel They Called Us Enemy.

The fate of the novel itself has been affected by the changing perceptions of its subject matter: when it originally came out in 1957 the so-called "No-No Boys" were generally not well-looked upon in the Japanese American community, which may have been one of the reasons the novel received little attention at the time. Its rediscovery in the 1970s (tragically just a bit too late for the author and his other work) was part of a surge of Asian Americans finding their voices and asserting their identities: this 1976 edition includes an introduction and an afterword about that rediscovery.

Apparently there is a controversial new edition of this book, which I won't be buying. Karen Tei Yamashita seems to have put a lot of thought into the introduction, but Penguin's decision to reissue the book seems to me to be questionable at best. (There is also a 2014 re-issue by the University of Washington Press which honors Dorothy Okada's copyright and includes an introduction by Ruth Ozeki.)

Admittedly, the later editions of this book have cover art that's less creepy...but this one does seem in keeping with when it was published.

Reserved for a wishlist tag.

My father was a young boy when WWII started, and his family had recently moved from California to Hawaii, so they didn't go to the internment camps. If his father had lived, though...they would have gone. If Dad had been a few years older (he was 10 in 1943), I wonder what his answers to the questionnaire would have been: having lost so much and knowing his rights as a citizen (even his parents were citizens, born in an American territory), would his sense of justice and outrage have outweighed his patriotism (he served in the US Army during the Korean War) and desire to conform, to do the "right" thing that so much of the community wanted? Maybe. I suspect he would have answered "Yes-Yes", but I think it would have been a difficult decision. He would have wanted to do whatever he felt was morally right but would also have wanted to choose what was best for his family: the backlash against those who didn't toe the line was fierce.

For many years the story of Japanese Americans in WWII was all about the injustice of the camps and the heroic exploits of the 442nd and the 100th, but the No-No Boys and the draft resisters are an important element too.

Monday, August 12, 2019: off to Indiana!

USPS tracking 9549 0104 3303 9224 7685 02
ETA 9/03/19

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I'm so glad you've found this book! Won't you make a journal entry so the previous readers know that it's safe with you?

How and where did you find the book? What did you think of it? What are you going to do with it next?

This is now your book, for you to do with as you please: keep it as long as you wish, pass it to a friend, or maybe even leave it where someone else can find it!

If you've ever wondered where your books go after they leave your hands, join BookCrossing and you may find out: you'll be able to follow your books as new readers make journal entries - sometimes from surprisingly far-flung locations.

BookCrossing: making the whole world a library!

Received today. (On my Birthday!)
Thank you, very much, for tagging me.
I hope to get to this one soon.

Heart-wrenchingly brutal tale of how easily and quickly people can turn against each other,
about how hatred breeds hatred, and how living your life trying to please other people, never works out.

To read or release.

Merry Christmas & Happy Reading!

I am so happy to be in receipt of a box of books from my friend. This was inside the box and it seems like a really good read. Thank you for sharing this with me.