Boy the Novel No-No Boy

¶ … Boy

The novel No-no Boy by John Okada tells about the life of Japanese-Americans in America after the World War II. The novel's main protagonist was Ichiro, a Japanese-American who was of a Japanese blood but was born in the United States. Amongst other Japanese-Americans in the novel, Ichiro went through the unfortunate racial discrimination being experienced by most minorities of a country, as well as the struggle of finding self-identity.

The title No-no boy refers to Ichiro, as well as to the other Japanese-Americans, who chose not to join the American army and who chose not to be manipulated by the Americans who betrayed the Japanese race. The novel tells of the struggle of a different race living in another nation, and who tries to separate and reconcile between their identity and their need to maintain loyalty to the nation where they are presently living. Ichiro finds it a struggle and a complicated situation to understand the concepts of racial identity and belongingness to a nation that doesn't seem to welcome a different race like his.

Okada had effectively written the novel as it is a moving story of immigrants who cry for equality and rejects the injustice of racial discrimination. Any reader who will read the novel, whether he is of an American race, Asian, or any race, will likely to feel sympathy to the foreign races living in the U.S.

Okada vividly showed a representation of racial discrimination even from the very beginning of the novel wherein the town was divided into groupings of different races.

He also showed how even non-American races show racial discrimination to other minorities. This was depicted when the black Americans taunt the Japanese-Americans. Here, Okada only illustrates how having a different race can present undermining challenges in a nation like America. The readers, particularly those who are familiar with the American culture concerning racial discrimination, can consider that Okada's novel is a story of reality that immigrants may experience in the land they have dreamt to become a part of and be accepted as citizens who are not different from the majority of the population.

The race of Ichiro, being a Japanese, and his citizenship as an American place him in a suffering where he is unable to choose which among the two will he make as a dominating identity of himself. Added to this predicament in his search for identity is the strong nationalism of his mother who fervently embodies the Japanese culture, tradition, and nationality. Because of this, a clash emerged between Ichiro and his mother.

From Ichiro's situation, Okada showed how hard it is for a stranger in a foreign land to choose between his own culture and the new culture that he ought to embrace just because he is already a part of that new land. To Ichiro, his loyalty to his own culture and his loyalty to the new land where he already belongs was put to test. Perhaps, Okada tries to depict from Ichiro's situation that race is an important element that is directly linked to a nation, in that race can either make one feel a sense of belongingness to a nation, or, it can make one feel a stranger to a foreign land. As indicated by Hopestobe, from his article concerning race and nation in Okada's No-No Boy, pointing on the clash concerning Ichiro's issues on race and nation,

The idea that nation is linked directly to the issue of race is illustrated through the ongoing clash between the two in Ichiro as he tries to find a place for himself in a nation that no longer welcomes his sense of nationalism. He suffers disagreement within himself and his mother, who is yet another strong Asian female figure who embodies the notion of tradition, culture, and the homeland. Because he can no longer live to fulfill his mother's ideas and loyalty to Japan, a conflict emerges as a manifestation of his ordeal with being unable to choose between an allegiance to his mother and the country that he loves"

The experiences went through by the Japanese-Americans in the novel present several questions on the issue of nationalism and human rights. The novel portrayed how the Americans had provided shelter to the Japanese families, and how they had accepted the Japanese families to become part of their nation. However, because by race the Japanese families are still "Japanese," having the blood of America's enemies, the Americans did not trust them and continued to consider them as strangers, thus locking them in a camp because of suspicion and doubt on their loyalty. A clear violation of human rights? Despite of the suspicions and distrusts, however, the United States still expected that the Japanese families will be willing to fight for America. Many Japanese in the novel did not choose not to sign in the draft of the army because they cannot accept to fight for a nation that considered them as enemies (Hopestobe, 2006).

Despite the fact that Ichiro, though has a Japanese blood, was born in America, never been to Japan, and could hardly read nor speak Japanese, he was still treated as a foreigner and a potential enemy in the novel. Okada perhaps only reveals the reality that foreigners will remain forever foreigners in a land where they are not genuine citizens by race and by blood. In view of this, Hopestobe again suggests the following reality.