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Those Who Helped Us

Assisting Japanese Americans During the War

Ken Mochizuki author Kiku Hughes illustrator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Chin Music Press

Published:5th Jan '23

Should be back in stock very soon

Those Who Helped Us cover

The second installment in the series of graphic novels that began with Washington State Book Award Finalist We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration

Basketball-loving Sumiko Tanaka, then 11, narrates this graphic novel about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Through her eyes, we watch as her family is forced from their home and subjected to indiscriminate racism as they are shipped off to the concentration camp called Minidoka in Idaho.

But Sumiko and her 17-year-old sister Yuri also see acts of charity and solidarity from their non-Japanese neighbors and friends in the Seattle area that make them hopeful for the future. As the young girls struggle with the horrors of being imprisoned in the dusty desert, they also find solace in the fact that some people chose to help. This story highlights the actual actions and experiences of those neighbors and friends.

Praise for We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration

It leaves you simultaneously furious, questioning ideas of loyalty and citizenship … and deeply moved. May all of us learn, and share, these stories.
–Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times

Highly recommended for high school and college classrooms.
–Terry Hong, Booklist

ISBN: 9781634050210

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

160 pages