WE HEREBY REFUSE
Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration
Publishing in tandem with Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience with a grant from the National Park Service. - While certain stories of Japanese American resistance during WWII imprisonment are well-known (Gordon Hirabayashi, for example), these three stories show that people of many different walks of life felt the urge to resist the unjust actions of the US government. - The museum will make a strong push to get this book incorporated into high school and college syllabi. Graphic novel format should make these stories accessible to students. - The book is expected to get some pushback from certain sectors of the Japanese American community. For example, the Japanese American Citizens League does not come off too well. - The three stories are set along the West Coast (two in California, one on Seattle), which should help expand readership. - Discussion guide added to back of book to highlight misconceptions about internment during World War II.
FRANK ABE is writer/director of the film on the largest organized resistance to incarceration, Conscience and the Constitution (PBS), and co-editor of JOHN OKADA: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press). He has gathered the stories of camp resistance ever since playing a JACL leader in the 1976 NBC-TV movie, Farewell to Manzanar. He blogs at resisters.com.
TAMIKO NIMURA is a Sansei/Pinay freelance writer, editor, and public historian, contributing regularly to Discover Nikkei and the International Examiner. She is working on a children’s book and a family memoir responding to her father’s unpublished memoir of his wartime imprisonment at Tule Lake. She is also the niece of Hiroshi Kashiwagi, and can be found at kikugirl.net.
ROSS ISHIKAWA is a cartoonist and animator living in Seattle. In addition to his work on We Hereby Refuse, he is working on a graphic novel about his parents and their coming of age during World War II. His work is online at rossishikawa.com.
MATT SASAKI is the artist on the previous volume in this series, Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers. He lives with his wife and an old dog north of Seattle. Samples of his other work are online at mattsasaki.com.
