Questions 27 & 28

In this innovative polyphonic novel, Yamashita (Sansei and Sensibility) blends archival documents with fictional flourishes to chronicle the detention, forced removal, and conscription of Japanese Americans during WWII. The title is a reference to two sections of the U.S. government’s Loyalty Questionnaire for internees, which asked whether they would fight for the U.S. and denounce the Japanese emperor. If they answered in the negative, they were segregated from other internees and cast into a no-man’s-land of statelessness, while those deemed loyal were conscripted to fight in the European theater, where many of them died. Many second-generation Japanese Americans found themselves caught in a fraught middle ground, which Yamashita dramatizes by detailing the murky role of the Japanese American Citizens League, which deepened divisions and confusion by placating the U.S. government rather than defending its community. Yamashita employs a bold blend of perspectives, from scans of questionnaires to oral histories and even a trombone, who travels with its owner, an 18-year-old who passes as Chinese, to join a “wannabe Glen Miller band.” The result is a powerful and lively novel that documents the turmoil endured by internees while raising enduring questions about identity, loyalty, and citizenship. Agent: Chris Fischbach, Fischbach Creative. (Apr.)