Summary: In a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction, this graphic novel illustrated by Kiku Hughes focuses on the non-Japanese in the Seattle area who helped Japanese Americans during World War II. Based on the actual people, the “helpers,” and their actions to assist Japanese Americans, basketball-loving Sumiko Tanaka, a fictious young teenager and her family, live a typically American life until being forced out of Seattle by government order. Throughout their eviction, time in incarceration camps and their return to Seattle, they are aided by those including Sumiko’s school principal, minister, basketball coach, and members of human rights groups and Indigenous tribes – during a time when they risked being labeled a “Jap lover.”
“These details provide a tangible sense of place, reflecting Mochizuki’s intimate knowledge of local communities and his celebrated career as a chronicler of Japanese American experiences.” – International Examiner
This book was the third in a series of graphic novels about the Japanese American World War II story produced by the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle. Kiku and I were hired to create a book on the “helpers” in early 2018. With my dilemma being how to tell this story, and with not enough to go on to write individual biographies, I settled on this “Forrest Gump” approach: Inserting a fictional character to witness actual events and people. Lest any reader think I was concocting a fantasy, I made sure that all the actions of the “helpers” back then could be proven, with sources cited in the endnotes.
Ken Mochizuki 