No No Boy
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Ichiro Yamada was the first generation American-born Japanese American. In advised of his mother, who believed the Japanese emperor would call them all home someday; he chose not to join the American army. As a result, Ichiro is imprisoned for two years. After he was discharged in the age of 25 he came back to his family home in Seattle. His parents greet him well, but he showed to them, especially to his mother, his regrets of his being a "no-no boy". His mother told him that he was a Japanese and being a "no-no boy" could show his loyalty to Japan. Ichiro's mother believed that she and her family would come back to Japan someday because Japan had won the war. She was proud to be Japanese and had a great of loyalty to her origin country.
The two years in prison he spent for rejecting the draft was not nearly as painful as the difficulty of defining himself as an American. Ichiro was tormented by the decision he made not to fight for America in the war...