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"Asian American readers will appreciate the sensitivity and integrity with which the late John Okada wrote about his own group. He heralded the beginning of an authentic Japanese American literature."-Gordon Hirabayashi, Pacific Affairs "Nisei will recognize the authenticity of the idioms Okada's characters use, as well as his descriptions of the familiar Issei and Nisei mannerisms that make them come alive. "-Bill Hosokawa, Pacific Citizen
Product Description
John Okada was born in Seattle, Washington in 1923. He attended the University of Washington and Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, wrote one novel and died of a heart attack at the age of 47. John Okada died in obscurity believing that Asian America had rejected his work.
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First Sentence
TWO WEEKS AFTER his twenty-fifth birthday, Ichiro got off a bus at Second and Main in Seattle. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
TWO WEEKS AFTER his twenty-fifth birthday, Ichiro got off a bus at Second and Main in Seattle. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this novel,the nisei drama is sincerely depicted by J.Okada. By penetrating the characters' inner life, we readers not only witness about the conflicts and difficulties they share, but also their struggle to find a way out of this vicious circle. Within this vicious circle there are significant characters like Ichiro (the protogoinst) and Kenji. Kenji served America during WWII. He lost one of his leg in the war, but also he lost his masculinity. However, what bothers him most is the feeling of being deceived by his country. Of course, what is behind of this is the idea of racism, and Okada carefully marks this point. However, things are not same for Ichiro. He refused to fight not only for US. ,but also on behalf of Japan. So he not only rejects both of the countries, but also their cultures. Not knowing where to belong he suffers throughout the book. He suffers complete alienation and psychological confusion because he is the victim of history. Thats where the essence of the situation begins for Ichiro. I bet you are going to love this character and you are going to be Ichiro, you will feel the agony, the logical and emotional torture he's been going through. I loved Ichiro and I felt sorry for Kenji. Kenji knew his end and he is a good friend, because he is the only character which directs Ichiro to the right path. To conclude, in this book you'll also find other concepts like language, religion, culture and customs which play a great role in the book. I strongly recommend this book to everybody.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think the historical signifigance of this novel is enormous. It's a 'first-'hand' account of being Japanese-American during WWII. As an Asian-American and avid student of American history and politics, I found Okada's description of the time to be invaluable. Deconstructing his novel from a modern perspective, however, I do have one big gripe. The tone of the novel is restrained. I can sense the anger and somtimes read allusions into the rage, resentment, and sadness the protaganist Ichiro feels about the situation he is in. He also seems to give a lot of excuses and almost apologize for his unhappiness at times. Considering the time and racial climate in which Okada wrote, it's understandable that he tailored his work to be acceptable to a wide audience. And I'm also not surprised that Okada was reluctant to fully vent his anger at a country that still held so much power over, and animosity towards, him. However, those are not the only reasons. I think this is a real problem in Asian-American literature even today. Instead of self-censoring, mitigating, prettifying, or even apologizing for very natural and necessary feelings and sentiments (like Okada does in 'No-No Boy'), minority authors should fully unleash their voices. Otherwise the integrity of the work suffers and the work is does not completely realize its potential. There is a critical element missing. Having said that, I would still strongly recommend 'No-No Boy' to anyone who is interested in America: it's history, it's government, and it's people.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sadly, this excellent portrait of one man's experience with the effects of racism and post-war hysteria is largely unknown by the reading populace. Unfortunately, books like "Snow Falling on Cedars" and movies like "Come See the Paradise", which use the lives of Japanese Americans during wartime only as scenery, have much more prominence in the mainstream.
And in this book, written over 40 years ago when, as Lawson Fusao Inada writes in his introduction, a "Jap was a just a Jap", one might discover the reason why this shameful mark in the less-than-pristine history of the United States has not been faced for what it was. Okada's soliloquy, mouthed through his main character Ichiro, along with friends Emi, Kenji, Freddie, and his mother and father, testifies to the complexity of race relations and racism in this country, and to the suffering it imparts to its victims. The suffering, alienation, and utter loneliness that Ichiro goes through is almost unbearable to read. But even harder to swallow is that Ichiro is a victim of history and place, and that smallness that is inflicted upon him will be very difficult for many readers to face.
But Okada's work is more than just a social treatise on the state of racism in America, it is a testament to human suffering and the cruelty and ugliness of life and those who live it. It is also a very optimistic book, for in the end, we are left with the main character - who has suffered complete alienation from the two nations that made his life possible, America and Japan - grasping for hope.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A novel that should be taught in schools more often!
In my AP English Literature class, I had a choice of reading any novel of "literary merit" I wanted, and to complete a 25 page analysis of the novel. Read more
Published on 27 May 1999
Touched my heart deeply
I have never been so affected by a book before. It amazes me that all the issues brought up in the book still pertains to today's Asian Americans. Read more
Published on 15 April 1999
This Book Is the BOMB! WHY? WEll,You Got To Read it to know
The No No Boy could have been one of the most asianized novel I have ever read. The fact that it's similar to the article in the reader, " READER ACROSS AMERICA... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 1999
A great book for a lot of reasons!
This book was suggested in a textbook for teaching war fiction from a multicultural lens. I hadn't read it, in fact I could only get it on loan from a college library 400 miles... Read more
Published on 14 Jan 1999
Excellent, repetitive, and simple.
This novel is an excellent portrayal of Japanese-American life after the war which sent them to relocation camps. Read more
Published on 27 April 1998
Loyalty and Identity for Japanese Americans during WWII
It is sad that John Okada wrote only one novel in his life, but it gives me great joy just to mention this book to anyone. Read more
Published on 19 July 1997
The best novel about the Japanese-American in WW2
There has been virtually nothing written about the experience of Japanese-Americans in WW2 and certainly nothing written about the experiences of the "No-No Boys," the... Read more
Published on 16 Jun 1997
A serious novel relating to "No-No Boys" after WWII
This novel was a well detailed novel about the experience of a No-No boy after World War II. The main character( I forgot his name) comes back home after four years imprisionment,... Read more
Published on 13 May 1997
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