as an American at school, cannot truly define him-
self. No-No Boy opens with the return of 25-year-
old Ichiro to his parents’ home. He has been gone
for four years: two spent in an internment camp,
and the other two in prison for saying “no” to
the questions of the loyalty oath. Condemned by
friends and strangers alike for being a no-no boy,
Ichiro encounters people who judge and excoriate
him. The narrator asks if there will ever be an an-
swer to “the bigotry and meanness and smallness
and ugliness” of people (134).
Okada’s novel centers on an important ques-
tion: What does it mean to be American? Raised
by a mother who “breathed the air of America and
yet had never lifted a foot from the land that was
Japan” (11), Ichiro tries to tell his mother that the
war is over, the Japanese have surrendered, and the
Japan she remembers no longer exists. But he has
neither the courage nor the strength to go against
her, and his resentment of her builds to an explo-
sive climax. His father, equally ineffectual in resis-
tance to the mother’s beliefs, cannot help Ichiro in
this struggle.
Hoping that being with an old friend will help
him ease his pain, Ichiro goes to find Freddie Aki-
moto, another no-no boy. Freddie, however, is
coping with his own demons, and Ichiro leaves
quickly. He goes next to speak with his former
teacher, Professor Brown, with the idea of discuss-
ing the possibility of returning to college. This
meeting leaves him unsatisfied also, because Ich-
iro realizes that the professor belongs to a life that
Ichiro has already given up. He then meets Kenji,
with whom Ichiro feels a flash of hope. Kenji was a
soldier, a decorated war hero who lost his leg. The
wound will not heal, and periodically more and
more flesh has to be amputated from the stump.
Kenji operates as a foil for Ichiro. Ichiro is hated
and mistrusted; Kenji is admired. Ichiro’s family
is torn apart by the war; Kenji’s family is brought
closer together. Ichiro experiences despair for his
actions, whereas Kenji receives only a death-deal-
ing wound and horrendous physical pain. At the
deaths of his mother and Freddie, Ichiro begins to
see that healing can only begin with forgiveness,
and that there are people in his community who
are willing to cross racial barriers once the social
facade is removed. Beautifully lyrical and intense,
No-No Boy is a haunting novel of pain and heal-
ing, of suffering and redemption, of despair and
hope.Bibliography
Okada, John. No-No Boy. 1957. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1976.
Mary FaklerNunes, Susan Miho (1937– )
Born to Japanese and Portuguese parents in Hilo,
a small town in Hawaii, Nunes moved to Hono-
lulu with her family when she was 22 years old and
began to work as a writer and editor at the Uni-
versity of Hawaii. She published a series of books
for children as well as some short stories. In 1982
Nunes published a collection of short stories en-
titled Small Obligation and Other Stories of Hilo.
She moved to Berkeley, California, in 1991 and
began to write full time. She continues to reside
in California.
Nunes has won several awards, most notably
for her children’s stories. In 1994 her children’s
story To Find the Way was awarded the Ka Palapala
Po’okela by the Hawaiian Book Academy. In 1995
her excellent children’s book The Last Dragon was
listed as one of the “Notable Books for Children”
by the Smithsonian magazine. Nunes also writes
nonfiction, much of which appeared in the San
Francisco Chronicle.
Nunes is an important figure, particularly as a
Hawaiian writer, because of her commitment to
the multiethnic nature of Americans and America.
Through her work, Nunes attempts to show the
importance of the various strands that make up
the cultural past of so many Americans. She re-
sists privileging one part of her cultural past over
another, choosing instead to maintain all of the
cultures that make up her background. As she
notes in an opinion piece that appeared in the Ho-
nolulu Advertiser (2000), “I have no quarrel with
those who choose one part of their heritage over
another, if that’s how they see themselves. For me,
though, being mixed is to be different from any220 Nunes, Susan Miho