NO-NO BOY (2014 reprint) is an interesting book both in itself and for its unique place as perhaps the first novel by a Japanese-American. First published in 1957, it was mostly ignored and quickly disappeared. "Rediscovered" and passed around nearly twenty years later and republished by an Asian-American consortium of writers, it has since taken its rightful place as an important classic. It was John Okada's only book (a librarian and tech writer, he died of a heart attack at just 47), and reads like an autobiographical novel. Quite the opposite. Okada served honorably in the US Army Air Corps. His protagonist, Ichiro Yamada, on the other hand, was the titular "no-no boy," who refused to serve in the armed forces or swear allegiance to a country which had confiscated his family's Seattle home and business and placed them all in a desert internment camp for two years. Because of his refusals he spent two more years in prison. The story itself covers a short period of days following his release from prison well after the war has ended. He returns to Seattle where his parents have reestablished themselves in a small grocery store with living quarters in the back. His younger brother is ashamed of him and can't wait to join the army after high school. His father welcomes him back, and so does his controlling mother, who is delusional in thinking Japan won the war and slowly slips into insanity. Ichiro tries to reconnect with former friends and look for work, but his prison time and his race hamper both endeavors. Interior monologues abound, many of them bitter and frustrated, all of them powerful testaments to rampant postwar prejudice directed at Japanese-Americans. Postwar America of the 1940s is vividly painted here, with its slang, swing bands, roadhouses and private clubs. Ichiro watches helplessly as one veteran friend, badly maimed, is hospitalized, and another no-no boy loses himself to drink and destructive behavior.

NO-NO BOY is a powerful novel of being the wrong race, the wrong color, and on the wrong side after the war. John Okada was a very talented writer and this, his only book, is finally getting the respect it deserves. It shouldn't have taken so long. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in the desert following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For no reason. When they were released, the males of draft age were told to sign up to fight in WWII. if you didn't feel especially patriotic after being locked up in a desert prison for 2 years, and declined, you were again locked up. 2 more years. Is it any wonder that the young men characterized in this book were full of hate and despair? John Okada died at 47, his book largely unread, and unacclaimed by other Japanese-Americans. ( )

heartbreaking

This book was written in1956 and is considered to be the first Japanese American novel. This book is so powerful not just because it is considered an Asian American classic, but it allows the reader to understand the decision many Japanese American men had to make when it came time to serve in the American Armed Forces.

Really really good. His breathless internal monologue stuff really worked for me

Lots of heartbreaking stuff but some of the saddest to me revolved around the vision of a particular and very dated optimism about the American Project. I think the q of whether there's anything redeemable about the idea of American liberty is an important political one (cf Aziz Rana's stuff) and it was really affecting to see that playing out in the life of this brutally minoritized American subject