Book Review: We Hereby Refuse: Japanese-American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration

We Hereby Refuse: Japanese-American Resistance to WartimeIncarceration
written by Frank Abe and Timika Nimura, with art by Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (YA PB (Graphic Novel) Abe)

This serious and thought-provoking graphic novel explores the experiences of three young Japanese-Americans during the World War II years, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war against the Empire of Japan. Hajime Jim Akutsu is a 22-year-old young man in a family that runs a shoe repair shop in Seattle, and is studying engineering in college. Hiroshi Kashiwagi is a 19-year-old young man living with his family on a farm just outside Sacramento, waiting to enroll in college. And Mitsuye Endo is a 21-year-old typist for a California state agency. She lives in Sacramento as well. Hastily made government decisions lead to these three (and their families) being sent to various Internment camps in the interior of the U.S. There, over time, they and hundreds of thousands of other Japanese-Americans face loyalty tests, restrictions of their freedoms, and the hatred and distrust of many Caucasian-Americans.

 

We Hereby Refuse does a tremendous job of showing the inhumane and un-American treatment afforded to both natural-born U.S. citizens and Japanese immigrants who had assimilated into American life and considered the United States to be their new country. The parallels to treatment of other ethnic groups in more recent years is painfully obvious. We Hereby Refuse is a cautionary tale that anyone unaware of our checkered past should read, to open their eyes to a dark chapter in American history.

 

There are two artists’ work represented in this volume — alternating different parts of the story. Their styles are considerably different, and I’ll have to admit that I found the edgy look of one of them a bit off-putting. Other readers may not have an issue with that. The inclusion of dozens of historical figures from the WWII era really brought the story to life.

 

Highly recommended, especially in an era when graphic novels like Maus, which explore uncomfortable historical truths, can face banning from school curriculums!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Allegiance — the soundtrack to a Broadway show based on the experiences of actor George Takei and his family, who also were placed in internment camps during WWII, They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Steven Scott, Harmony Becky and Justin Eisinger, or Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds Histor by Art Spiegelman.)

 

( Frank Abe’s official resisters.com web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!