John Okada
| John Okada | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Okada September 23, 1923 Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | February 20, 1971 (aged 47) |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Japanese |
| Alma mater |
University of Washington Columbia University |
| Notable works | No-No Boy |
John Okada (September 23, 1923 – February 20, 1971) was a Japanese American writer, who is considered to be the first Japanese American novelist. Born in Seattle, he was a student at the University of Washington during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Okada had to interrupt his studies, and he and his family were among thousands of American citizens interned at Minidoka War Relocation Center in 1942.
Okada was taken out of the concentration camp and recruited to the United States Army Air Forces after he completed a loyalty questionnaire which asked him to "forswear allegiance" to the Emperor of Japan. He served as a Japanese translator, overflying Japanese forces in the Pacific and translating intercepted Japanese communications.
After the war, Okada returned to his educational pursuits, earning a bachelor's degree in English and a second bachelor's degree in library science from the University of Washington, as well as a master's degree in English from Columbia University. In 1956, Okada completed the manuscript for his novel No-No Boy, and it was published that year; it was the first novel ever published by a U.S.-born Japanese American. He worked as a teacher and then as a technical writer for an engineering firm.
Okada died of a heart attack on February 20, 1971, at the age of 47. He was survived by his wife Dorothy, as well as a son and a daughter. He is interred at Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park in Seattle.
Okada's younger brother Frank Okada was a noted abstract expressionist painter.
Okada's only completed and published novel, No-No Boy (1956), deals with the aftermath of the Japanese American internment during World War II, Japanese-American identity, and how this event divided the Japanese American population after the war. He explored feelings among Japanese nationals, some of whom still held dreams of a return to Japan, and among their native-born American children, who felt conflicted about their identity but identified with the United States. Some of both generations were intensely bitter about their treatment in being interned during the war, in addition to the substantial economic and social losses they had suffered.
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