No-No Boy (Classics of Asian American Literature) Paperback – February 1, 1978

A little-known fact about American history: at the time of World War II, the U.S. War Department required men of Japanese descent to answer two “loyalty” questions: “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States? Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of American and faithfully defend it?”Most answered “yes”; those who answered “no” were referred to as No-No Boys. Their reasons were complex; some had family living in Japan, others didn’t understand why they should give their lives to a country who had stripped them of all rights of citizenship (despite being born in America).And that preamble brings us to this novel, written in J957 by John Okada (the Seattle-born author himself fought for America in the war). At the opening of the book, his No-No Boy, a disgraced Ichiro Yamada, has spent two years in prison at a time when war fever was at a peak pitch. He is universally despised by Americans (including those of Japanese descent) and his family – a half-crazy mother who believes Japan has won the war, a passive father, and a younger brother who despises him – makes him feel like a stranger in a strange land. In one particularly strong passage, Ichiro says “It is not enough to be only half an American and know that it is an empty half. I am not your son and I am not Japanese and I am not American.”Who is Ichiro Yamada then, and where does he belong? That is the question at the crux of this novel. Riddled by shame, seething with anger, coping with mixed feelings about the only country he has known – its horrific treatment of those of Japanese descent combined with its its generosity of heart – Ichiro’s radicalized persona is a stand-in for second-generation Japanese men who were forced to confront this darkness.” Upon meeting one kind man, Ichiro ponders, “What words would transmit the bigness of his feelings to match the bigness of the heart of this American who in the manner of his living, was continually nursing and worrying the infant America into the greatness of its inheritance?”With his secondary characters—Ichiro’s brother, his draft resister pals, and those who took a different path (notably Kenji who is slowly dying of his wounds and Ralph, who reenlisted), John Okada provides a 360-degree look at the men of those times. As a literary book, it can be a bit rough around the edges; it’s not perfect. But it is still compelling and unique and courageous. Ruth Ozeki, herself a wonderful writer, pens a superb foreword that captures the book’s meaning for a whole new generation of writers of Japanese descent. The questions this book raises are timeless and universal.

No-No Boy is a novel written by John Okada in 1957. No-No Boy is about Ichiro Okada, a Seattle-born man of Japanese descendent, returning to Seattle, his hometown, after being imprisoned during World War II for not denouncing the emperor of Japan and refusing to report for U.S. military duty.I learned about this book because of some recent controversy over the re-publication of this book by Penguin Books. Penguin claims the work was not properly copyrighted and is public domain property. Since 1976, University of Washington Press had been publishing No-No Boy (and sending royalties to the Okada family). I bought and read the UW Press edition.Ichiro is shunned by the Japanese Americans that served in the military and saw him as a traitor to the United States. He is shunned by Whites because he looked Japanese. He was stuck in a no-man’s land of being seen as neither Japanese nor American. While this book is fiction, the emotions and situations were real. The Japanese Americans returning to their homes after the WWII internment was extremely difficult, and for those that were “no-no boys”, their experiences had to have been heart-wrenching. This book captures powerful emotions.What makes this story remarkable is that it was written at a time when no one talked about the Japanese American experience and how it affected them. Okada does a wonderful job of presenting the nearly hopeless, desperate dilemma faced by Ichiro. Okada’s writing style is almost poetic; it has rhythm.Okada does an admirable job of describing life in post-war Seattle, identifying streets and landmarks by name. One curious technical error is a reference to watching the local Seattle baseball team on television. At the time, televisions were available to the public but prohibitively expensive for households, especially Japanese returning from internment camps where everything had been taken from them. There was also no televised Seattle (Rainiers) baseball in the years immediately after the Japanese return to the coast (about 1947). The Seattle Rainiers didn’t televise their games until 1956. It took me a few days of research to check this out including watching a 90-minute documentary on the history of the Seattle Rainiers.I rate this book 5 stars because it evokes the emotional strain Japanese Americans must have felt after the war and because it was a landmark publication for its time.

I was moved by this 1957 novel as I have not been moved in a long time by any book. I thought I had read most classic American literature in my long lifetime but somehow missed NO NO BOY until now. I would tend to believe that many other readers also have. This powerful, compelling book immerses the reader totally in the Asian-American experience and the tragic drama of the 'no no boys' from the 1st paragraph until the last with no letup. It is likewise a treatise on racism to rank with the best from any ethnic point of view. This is a novel on par with American literature classics from an time & setting. Why it is not may be a testament to its theme & its potential impact on society at large. Also, do not miss the FORWARD & AFTERWARD...great writing & commentary

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book. I actually really enjoyed reading it.

Alles gut gelaufen, Produkt wie beschrieben

My relatives live in US. They are the third and fourth generation of Japanese American. Their grandparents and greatgrandparents were sent to the relocation camp. I visited them in 1988, but they did not tell me the detail of the life in the camp then.Reading of No-No Boy tells me how they lived and struggled through hard times.

考えさせられる。