Graphic novel shows Sacramento's Japanese American WWII activists like you've never seen
Sacramento Bee
5/5/2021
Ashley Wong, The Sacramento Bee
May 4—Many may know the story of Mitsuye Endo, the Sacramento-raised Japanese American who fought and won her freedom from incarceration during World War II, but few know who she was outside of that legacy.
That's just one of the history gaps the artists and authors behind "We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Acts of Resistance During World War II," a graphic novel out May 18 from the Wing Luke Museum in Washington, are hoping to fill.
Narratives about Japanese American incarceration camps sometimes paint the prisoners as accepting of their fates, or that many saw it as a sacrifice made in the name of American acceptance. The novel's authors, Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura, fiercely refuse to believe all Japanese Americans felt this way.