No-No Boy

1957.

This is a novel about a boy named Ichiro who, with his family, had been forced to move from their home during the internment of Japanese Americans. The book has very little about that part, though, and revolves around Ichiro's life after he left prison. He had refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army and was sentenced to two years in prison (as were various other male internees).

His father is an alcoholic and his mother is actually insane. He returns to his parents but finds out neither is exactly in good shape. The story is also about his re-thinking about his refusal to serve, and what consequences his decision has had on his life.

It's also about just what makes up an American and if Ichiro is more Japanese than American, more American than Japanese, or something else entirely.

It's an interesting book although it seems a little one-sided to me on Ichiro's decision not to serve in the military. The book doesn't, in my opinion, spend enough time on the issue of why should any of the internees had served when they had been gathered up and incarcerated without any formal charges, with no legal representation, with no trials and forced to sell their homes and businesses and lost their personal possessions. They were placed into internment camps that were surrounded by barbed wire and soldiers with guns.

When you do that to someone it seems to me to be a little bit crazy to assume they would happily then immediately say yes to risking their lives for that same country.

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page