Published: November 25, 2008
A Poignant California Pearl Harbor Day
New Childrenšs Book Tells the Poignant, Life-Affirming Story of the Japanese-American Internment Camp Experience
For 120,000 Japanese-Americans, the attack on Pearl Harbor held very personal significance. It led to Executive Order 9066, which forced all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast into dusty, desolate internment camps. A new childrenšs novel by historical fiction author Teresa R. Funke tells the story of one family living behind the barbed wire and guard towers of camp.
Based on actual events and real people Funke interviewed, The No-No Boys (Bailiwick Press, $7.95) follows 14-year-old Tai Shimodašs life in Tule Lake Relocation Center in northern California. As tensions in camp rise, Taišs brother, Ben, joins a group that has refused to swear allegiance to the United States. They call themselves the No-Nos. Taišs father calls them Disloyals. Tai must decide if he will join his beloved brother and the No-Nos or, like his father, remain true to America.
Located in the town of Newell in rural Siskiyou County, Tule Lake Relocation Center was the largest and most controversial of the ten American War Relocation Authority camps operated during World War II. Nearly 20,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned at Tule Lake.
Tai Shimoda is based in part on the true story of Masaru Yamasaki, a California native whose family was evacuated from their Sacramento home after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yamasaki spent over three years of his childhood interned with his family at Tule Lake. Today he is a retired purchasing manager for the Santa Clara County Office of Education and lives in Fremont. (For more on Masš story, visit www.teresafunke.com/mas.htm.)
The No-No Boys is the second book in the Home-Front Heroes series, which focuses on the experiences of American children of various ethnicities during WWII. Doing My Part, the first Home-Front Heroes book, was published in 2007 and was a Colorado Book Award finalist. Both books have been bundled into school kits that are delivered free to teachers along with lesson plans and student activities through a sponsorship program aimed at getting World War II back in the classroom.
Funke is also the author of Dancing in Combat Boots, a short story collection about women in WWII, and Remember Wake, an award-winning novel based on the true story of the survivors of the Battle of Wake Island. More information about Funke and her books can be found at www.teresafunke.com and www.bailiwickpress.com.
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