"Deftly upends the compliant narrative with impeccably documented
stories of resistance and rebellion ... Made urgent yet again, the
trio's courageous refusals to accept the U.S.--their!--government's
heinous miscarriage of justice should irrefutably embolden new
generations ... Their collective history will resonate with older teens.
Also highly recommended for high-school and college classrooms." --
Terry Hong, Booklist
"It leaves you simultaneously furious, questioning ideas of loyalty and
citizenship ... and deeply moved. May all of us learn, and share, these
stories." -- Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times
Three voices. Three acts of defiance. One mass injustice.
The story of camp as you've never seen it before. Japanese Americans
complied when evicted from their homes in World War II -- but many
refused to submit to imprisonment in American concentration camps
without a fight.
In this groundbreaking graphic novel, meet JIM AKUTSU, the inspiration
for John Okada's No-No Boy, who refuses to be drafted from the camp at
Minidoka when classified as a non-citizen, an enemy alien; HIROSHI
KASHIWAGI, who resists government pressure to sign a loyalty oath at
Tule Lake, but yields to family pressure to renounce his U.S.
citizenship; and MITSUYE ENDO, a reluctant recruit to a lawsuit
contesting her imprisonment, who refuses a chance to leave the camp at
Topaz so that her case could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
Based upon painstaking research, We Hereby Refuse presents an original
vision of America's past with disturbing links to the American present.
