BOOK REVIEW: A Potent Introduction to Stories of Resistance
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By MARTHA NAKAGAWA, Rafu Contributor
The graphic novel “We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration” focuses on the real-life experiences of Jim Akutsu, a Minidoka War Relocation Authority camp draft resister; Mitsuye Endo, a Central Utah (Topaz) WRA inmate who challenged the incarceration through a habeas corpus petition; and Hiroshi Kashiwagi, a Tule Lake WRA/Segregation Center no-no and renunciant.
The stories of Akutsu and Endo are straightforward. Akutsu refused to serve in the U.S. military as long as he and his family were imprisoned in a U.S. concentration camp.