Publisher Description
First published in 1956, No-No Boy was virtually ignored by a public eager to put World War II and the Japanese internment behind them. It was not until the mid-1970s that a new generation of Japanese American writers and scholars recognized the novel's importance and popularized it as one of literature's most powerful testaments to the Asian American experience.
No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life "no-no boys." Yamada answered "no" twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States. Unwilling to pledge himself to the country that interned him and his family, Ichiro earns two years in prison and the hostility of his family and community when he returns home to Seattle. As Ozeki writes, Ichiro's "obsessive, tormented" voice subverts Japanese postwar "model-minority" stereotypes, showing a fractured community and one man's "threnody of guilt, rage, and blame as he tries to negotiate his reentry into a shattered world."
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About David Shih
David Shih is an actor who has done voice-over work and has worked in television, film, and theater. He has appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Unforgettable, and Law & Order, among others. His voice can be heard in video games in the Grand Theft Auto series, on History.com and the History Channel, and as the narrator for several books, including 47 Ronin and The Third Son. He is the winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award.