THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER OF THE JACL Feb. 22-March 7, 2019 C e rs le ea b r ating 90 Y » PAGE 4 » PAGE 6 The 2019 JALD Delegation Set to Tour Japan in March. MYSTERY NO-NO MORE » PAGE 5 Minami and The backstory behind Korematsu Set to 1957’s ‘No-No Boy’ Speak at Manzanar. WWW.PACIFICCITIZEN.ORG #3337 / VOL. 168, No. 3 ISSN: 0030-8579 6 Feb. 22-March 7, 2019 IN-DEPTH Pictured (from left) are Frank Abe, Brian Niiya and Greg Robinson. PHOTOS: GEORGE T. JOHNSTON T. GEORGE PHOTOS: MYSTERY NO-NO MORE: NEW BOOK EXPLORES JOHN OKADA’S LIFE, LOST WORKS By P.C. Staff n “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance and incarceration still too raw to be explored It also led to the new book, published in Kid,” the titular on-the-run-from-the- in literature. July 2018 by the University of Washington law characters ask over and over again Within about a decade and a half, however, Press, that would take more than 10 years to Book’s editors about their dogged pursuers the question, “No-No Boy” was rediscovered by a younger complete, from the time Abe and Robinson I“Who are those guys?” generation of Asian Americans writers in met in early 2007 at dinner party in Seattle, For a generation of Asian American search of role models from the previous genera- hosted by mutual friend Chizu Omori, sparked discuss the writers, scholars, historians and fans of litera- tion who didn’t write sanitized, bowdlerized by a mutual interest in Okada. ture wowed by “No-No Boy” and its elusive and committee-approved model-minority One of the outcomes of that continuing backstory behind Nisei author John Okada, it was those pursuers stories. fascination with Okada was Robinson’s dis- who asked, “Who was this guy?” Those Asian American writers who came covery in different Nikkei community English- 1957’s ‘No-No Boy.’ Answers about who Okada was, his “lost” of age in the late 1960s and early 1970s — language newspapers more writings by none writings and the continuing impact and import among them Jeffery Chan, Frank Chin, Lawson other than Okada. of his one and only novel were presented on a Inada and Shawn Wong — who had redis- According to Robinson, his discovery in recent, rainy Saturday in Little Tokyo at covered Okada’s “No-No Boy” wanted more. microfilmed editions of theNorthwest Times a Japanese American National Museum- But there was “no-no” more. Okada’s one of a one-act play and several short stories by sponsored event on Feb. 2 featuring Frank novel, it seemed, was it. Okada left Abe in a state of amazement. He Abe and Greg Robinson, who along with Had Okada been silenced by a conserva- recalled Abe saying, “Okada scholars are going Floyd Cheung, edited the recently pub- tive Japanese American establishment that to go nuts when they hear this!” lished “John Okada: The Life & Rediscov- didn’t like his writing style or his sympathetic Robinson also found in a Toronto Japanese ered Work of the Author of ‘No-No Boy.’” take on those who chose not to serve their Canadian newspaper called the Continental Also present were many University of country? Was he an embittered expat in exile Times the full 1957 “No-No Boy” review, the California, Los Angeles, students and who wanted nothing more to do with Amer- long-missing source for an excerpt that was Okada’s two offspring, Dorothea and ica? Was he buried in a pauper’s grave after used in the CARP (Combined Asian American Matthew, and discussion moderator Brian having committed suicide, thwarted by his Resources Project) reprint. Citing the “wonders Niiya, content director at Denshō. lack of success? of for-pay databases,” Robinson also found ❖❖❖ Who was this guy, indeed. other unknown works, such as Okada’s piece Those then-young writers who had rediscov- on wasteful spending by a defense contractor For years, little was known about the ered Okada started digging, only to learn that that appeared in Armed Forces Management author of 1957’s “No-No Boy,” published their hero had died already in 1971 at 47 — and in 1961. originally by the Charles E. Tuttle Co. — then were shocked to learn that his widow, It was, it seemed, time to compile the new and that only fueled the mystique surround- Dorothy Okada, who they tracked down and writings found by Robinson, the biographical ing him. While not a flop, the Seattle-set interviewed, had incinerated, along with photos material compiled by Abe and combine that novel about a Japanese American draft and letters, the manuscript for the second novel into a new book along with literary analysis resister named Ichiro in the resettlement her late husband had been writing! by Cheung, an English-language professor at years following World War II failed to, But thanks to their rediscovery of John Smith College who was also a fan of Okada. according to Robinson, a history professor Okada, they were able to reprint and reintro- It took years, but “John Okada: The Life & at the Université du Québec à Montréal, duce “No-No Boy” to subsequent generations Rediscovered Work of the Author of ‘No-No connect in a big way with its intended — and the reverberations from that continue Boy’” finally became a reality in 2018. audience: Japanese Americans. to this day, with the novel, in all its different The new book would print everything “new” While some cooked up conspiracy theo- iterations, having sold more than 200,000 written by Okada, but also serve to disabuse The Okada book cover ries to explain the novel’s initial muted copies since 1957, such that “No-No Boy” urban legends that a certain Japanese American response, others came to later believe, more has “spawned a cottage industry in graduate- civil rights organization had tried to supress plausibly, that it was a matter of timing, with student theses and dissertations,” said Abe, “No-No Boy” or even boycott the book. the painful memories of forced evacuation visiting Los Angeles from Seattle. “The evidence shows that Bill Hosokawa, IN-DEPTH Feb. 22-March 7, 2019 7 who was the voice of JACL in the Pacific Broadway High School, Hajime ‘Jim’ Akutsu, to Japan’s emperor. OKAGE » Citizen . wrote a review of ‘No-No Boy,’” is released from federal prison,” said Abe. “Jim “Those who answered ‘no’ to both of those Abe said, and in it praised Okada as a writer Akutsu had resisted the draft at Minidoka. questions, whether because they believed it continued from page 3 of promise who might someday write the great He was convicted of draft evasion and like or were protesting, were segregated from the Nisei novel. “I maintain he did,” said Abe. Ichiro (the protagonist in ‘No-No Boy’) had others and sent to the Tule Lake segregation Saying that I love you no matter who you love So — who was John Okada? It turns out he spent two years in federal penitentiary on center,” Abe said, explaining further that the or how you identify is important. And saying was neither a so-called No-No Boy or a resister McNeil Island.” draft resisters were those who a year later in that you are loved for all of who you are has of conscience, but, in fact, an Army veteran They reconnected, and though their war- 1944 protested by refusing the military draft brought validation to the hearts of those who who served as a linguist during WWII for time experiences were different, they became so as to get a court case to contest the legality feel marginalized and judged. the Military Intelligence Service and went to friends and drinking buddies, along with some of eviction and incarceration. I applaud Brandon’s parents, who have said Guam and post-war Japan’s occupation period. other Nisei draft resisters. “Jim Akutsu was a draft resister, and Ichiro the words in more than one way. I applaud my ❖❖❖ Okada learned that Akutsu’s father had also Yamada in the novel . was a draft resister,” husband, who was willing to go on camera and been arrested the same night as his father had Abe added. The title character in “No-No Boy,” share his most personal thoughts in the most According to Robinson, Okada was an empa- been and separated from his family. Unlike in other words, was not a no-no boy. Then, vulnerable of ways. thetic writer in many disciplines: poetry, short Okada’s father, who was released relatively Robinson put forward a theory that Okada had It is unrehearsed, unscripted and whole- stories, satirical essays, parodies, plays and quickly, Akutsu’s father was held at a Justice nothing to do with naming the book. hearted moments like these that are the technical writing. What was most surprising Department camp much longer. “Very often, the publisher decides on the precious gifts of our journeys. to Abe, however, was learning that later in life “He’s finally released back to Minidoka title, and since John Okada did not propose a Brandon shared with me that on the day he Okada had worked in advertising. after two years, and both father and son had title for the novel in his pitch letter to Tuttle, gets married and has that special dance with Said Abe: “John Okada was a chain-smoking, changed so much that neither recognized the it’s very probable — not certain — that it was his mom, he already knows the song they 1960s Nisei ‘Mad Man,’ who may have written other,” Abe said.