This graphic title, We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, by Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura, was also part of a panel of graphic novelists from the October 2021 Brooklyn Book Festival (see February 2023 post). The author, Frank Abe, explained he was born after World War II and his family did not speak of the internment camps. As American Japanese, patriotism, passive denial, and loyalty are their traits. He wrote this graphic novel to make the story more epic and make the reader feel more empathy for the characters. If a group of people don’t feel comfortable telling their story for whatever reason, it doesn’t mean their story isn’t worth telling. Therefore, this graphic history is so important.
It’s always hard for me to read about the history of injustice and ill-treatment of a group of people simply because of their race, ethnic background, religion or whatever. But I find it a necessary thing to do, especially if the account is being told by a member of that group. Learning about these events and keeping them in the sphere of our minds, may prevent anything like it from happening again.
We Hereby Refuse concentrates on the story of three young first generation Japanese Americans – they were born in the United States, describing their lives before being removed, their experiences in the camps and their release, 1942 – 1946. Hajime Jim Akutsu, 22, lived in a home his family owns in Seattle. The family owned a shoe repair business, and he was an engineering student in college. He was imprisoned for refusing to sign yes on a loyalty questionnaire. Hiroshi Kashiwagi, 19, lived with family on a farm outside Sacramento, with an ill father in a sanitorium. He was waiting to enroll in college. He resists government pressure to sign a loyalty oath, yields to family pressure to renounce his citizenship and must fight in courts to regain his status. Mitsuye Endo, 21, had a California state job, with a brother enlisted in the military and lived with her family in Sacramento. She filed a lawsuit contesting her imprisonment; it reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
An excellent narration is given of the events that lead to the roundup and their imprisonment. By law, immigrants from Japan were not allowed to apply for citizenship and they and their children became easy targets of hatred and bigotry during the war. The problem, these feelings didn’t just come from the general population, American politicians and leadership in the military also held bigoted views and acted upon them. Military zones were created excluding Japanese Americans and laws were created making internment or wartime incarceration legal.
The Japanese American Citizens League – JACL – made up of US born members of Japanese ancestry – capitulated to authorities, hoping to prove they were nothing like the enemy, even reporting people they thought were suspect and encouraged people to fill out and sign loyalty pledges. The leaders of this organization worked with authorities to have Japanese Americans relocated, encouraging them to accept relocation without a fight as a show of patriotism.
People of Japanese ancestry were sent to 16 sites on the western coast in temporary assembly centers until the Army’s Western Defense Command and Fourth Army Wartime Civil Control Administration (who comes up with these names?) could complete War Relocation Centers. They were told to bring only what they could carry. They lost everything – businesses, property, savings, jobs – and were not compensated. Leaders of the JACL became administrators of these centers.
Once moved to the Relocation Centers, one described as, located at a desolate location near the Oregon border with 64 blocks of wooden barracks, surrounded by barbed wire and watch towers, they were asked again to fill out questionnaires agreeing to serve in the military, if called, and pledging loyalty to the US government and renouncing loyalty to Japan. Many refused to sign this questionnaire, feeling that denouncing loyalty to Japan would be an admission of being loyal to Japan at some point. Some also took issue with pledging to serve in the military while they and their families were being segregated and held in these camps. If they were stripped of their rights as citizens, how could they be expected to serve in the military? Young Akutsu in particular, refused to sign both questions and was sent to prison for his resistance.
This graphic title, We Hereby Refuse, by Frank Abe and Tamika Nimura, gives an excellent account of the segregation and internment of Japanese Americans in these horrible camps. The detail of the conditions, treatment they endured and the resistance among them, is detailed and well researched. The illustrations and layout are also just excellent. As I said at the beginning of this post, we should all read about these events. Becoming aware and learning about our past helps us understand how our time may be similar or different. It gives us a point of reference, so that an internal alarm may go off, hopefully preventing anything like this from happening again. We Hereby Refuse, I hope you all give it a read.