nwasianweekly.com
Mar. 17, 2007

Photo by Carol N. Vu

Producers Frank Abe and Shannon Gee stand near the King Street Station clock tower, one of several Seattle sites in John Okada’s 1957 novel. Abe is holding the original hardcover edition of No-No Boy.

The long journey of “No-No Boy”

By Michael Carter
For the Northwest Asian Weekly

Some scenes were awkward, some frames were missing and the musical score was temporary, but the crowd applauded vigorously following a screening of the work-in-progress documentary “In Search of No-No Boy” on Feb. 20 at the University of Washington. The event marked the Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The new film, produced by locals Shannon Gee and Frank Abe, explores the life and work of the late Japanese American author John Okada and his only surviving book, No-No Boy.

The documentary marks a peak in the journey of Okada, whose work fell into obscurity during his lifetime.

“The entire documentary is about a person who just wrote one book,” said UW English Professor Shawn Wong. When the book was published in 1957, Wong said, no one had ever written a novel about Japanese America.
Abe and Gee plan to finish the 30-m
inute version of their film by June 30. Abe, a third-generation Japanese American, said, “This project allows me to pursue (the) mystery of who John Okada was, how he came to write this great book, and to get that story out ... to students in classrooms, and to teachers who teach the book in those classrooms.”

Born in 1923, Okada was a nisei (second-generation Japanese American) raised in Seattle. A sergeant in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, he died in 1971 in relative obscurity, having received no accolades for his book, which is centered largely around the consequences of being a Japanese American who answered two key questions on a loyalty questionnaire administered in 1943 during the internment.

Question 27: “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?”

Question 28: “Will you swear unqualified allegiances to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or other foreign government, power or organization?”

The title of Okada’s novel refers to those who answered no to both questions. Many of these “no-no boys” were segregated in a camp in Tule Lake, Calif., and deemed potential enemies.

“I wasn’t a no-no boy but was a resister myself,” acknowledged Gene Akutsu, a Beacon Hill resident who answered no to question 27 but yes to the next one. Akutsu, whose brother Jim was the loose inspiration for Okada’s protagonist, Ichiro, said he was unwilling to join the armed forces unless Japanese Americans’ rights were restored.

However, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) at the time believed that, instead of resistance, a strong show of loyalty by the community was needed in order for the government to restore their rights.

The JACL’s position cracked a widening rift within the community.

“The no-nos said, ‘We never lost our rights and our citizenship, and until our rights are restored and returned, we are going to refuse (military) induction,’” recounted Abe. “The JACL violently disagreed with that, and many were persecuted and ostracized for being disloyal.”

“JACL labeled resisters as no-no boys,” said Akutsu. “When vets heard that, you were automatically called a resister. Their attitude was pretty bitter.”

When the Japanese American service members returned home, they found their lives and communities in disarray. Abe believes the veterans began directing their frustration and anger towards no-no boys and other resisters.

“(The tension) exists still to this day,” he said. Abe pointed to an incident in 2000 when the JACL started a movement to apologize to the resisters for not recognizing their constitutional stand. He said some veterans walked out in protest, and a few threatened to cancel their JACL memberships.

Ironically, Okada, a former member of the Air Force, wrote his novel from the perspective of a no-no boy.

In the book, the protagonist Ichiro would not forswear allegiance to a government that treated him as an enemy. His two no answers on the loyalty questionnaire were deemed treasonous, and after release from detention, he suffered hostility from his peers and was left searching for an identity.

At that time, there was one path to loyalty: service. To those who served, resisters were cowards, Wong said.

While an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Wong came across No-No Boy during a quest for Asian American literature.

“I couldn’t name a single Asian American writer,” he said, “so I set out searching for it.” Although only 1,500 copies of the book were published in 1957, when Wong came across it in 1971, it still hadn’t sold out. “That’s (selling) less than 100 copies a year.”

Okada died later that year, so Wong interviewed Okada’s wife, Dorothy. He was flabbergasted to learn that she had burned all of her husband’s papers after Berkeley declined to accept them as a donation. The lost work included a manuscript for a novel about first-generation Japanese immigrants.

After No-No Boy went out of print in the ’70s, Wong and his colleagues sought to have it republished. When they approached the UW Press publishing the book, they were made a strange offer: We’ll publish it, as long as you pay us $5,000.

They decided to publish it themselves. The 3,000 initial copies were all sold by mail order and word of mouth.

The UW finally agreed to publish it. Altogether, more than 100,000 copies of No-No Boy have been sold.

“It’s used in a lot of high schools and colleges,” Wong said. “I read this book and it meant something to me, and I wanted others to read it.”

“I may be more responsible than anyone else in the world for book orders for No-No Boy,” said UW American ethnic-studies Professor Stephen Sumida, who uses the book in two of his classes. To Sumida, the book means a lot to second-generation Japanese Americans and accurately reflects the tensions that still remain today.

“The film can do some good in that regard,” Sumida said of “In Search of No-No Boy,” but maintains that Abe and Gee’s film needs to explain who the no-no boys were. Akutsu agrees.

“I suggest to him (Abe) to do no- no boys and resisters separately,” Akutsu said.

Even some who answered yes to one or both questions were described as no-no boys. Some, upon receiving draft notification, refused induction. Others, like Akutsu’s brother, received their draft notifications after they were supposed to report for service and were segregated in the camps for failing to report. Generally, all were referred to as no-no boys.

Akutsu and Sumida both would like to see the film extended to 60 minutes in length.

“It will be helpful for me to see how the cut plays with a real audience so we can make a fine cut, rewrite the narration, commission a music score and do all the post-production …,” said Abe, who is still looking to interview old friends of Okada.

“We want to hear from any readers who knew John Okada, or have photos or stories about him.” Abe encourages Okada’s friends to contact him at frankabe@resisters.com.

“It’s important in the history of the United States,” said Akutsu about the film, “to open the eyes of the public.”

Michael Carter can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

Send correspondence to:
Northwest Asian Weekly • P.O. Box 3468 • Seattle • WA  98114
Tel: 206.223.5559 •  Fax: 206.223.0626 • Email: info@nwasianweekly.com
Please bookmark this site: www.nwasianweekly.com.