FRANK ABE is co-author of the new graphic novel on Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration, WE HEREBY REFUSE (Chin Music Press: A Wing Luke Museum Book). He won an American Book Award for JOHN OKADA: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press), and made the award-winning PBS documentary, CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION, on the largest organized camp resistance. He is currently co-editing an anthology for Penguin Classics on The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration.
Prepared remarks for a public talk presented April 22 at Wellesley College in the Pendleton Atrium. See below for video of an updated version presented in Oakland on June 22, 2025.
One year ago, when Elena Creef and I first discussed my speaking here, I never thought my talk would take such a dark turn. Then came the election. Elena asked me for a title for the program. By then, we knew the general direction things would take, but not the precise details. So this umbrella title seemed likely to stick by the time April 22nd rolled around. Continue reading What Japanese American Wartime Incarceration Tells Us About Mass Deportation Today→
Let me frame this post and the embedded podcast below by saying the issue here is not to shame the Pike Place Market Foundation for backing out of hosting the observance of this year’s Day of Remembrance in Seattle at the market stalls, which before the war were three-fourths occupied by Issei truck farmers from the Eastside and Green River Valley. The Market should be held to account, and they have since apologized. Continue reading PODCAST: Complying in advance by canceling the Day of Remembrance→
To me she at first was just Jeanne Houston, my housing officer in 1970 at Cowell College in the early days of UC Santa Cruz, a younger Nisei with a sunny smile who seemed more like a peer than administrator. We’d share breakfast in the Cowell Commons and not once did she ever mention camp or the war.
So I was surprised a few years after graduating to learn she’d published her memoir as Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, even more surprised when a TV-movie was announced based on her book. By then I was an acting student in San Francisco and it was amazing to reunite with her and husband James Houston at the audition with John Korty. Continue reading In Memoriam: Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston→
On this date we’re in a strange transitional phase, preparing to defend democracy and civil liberties, books and libraries, history and knowledge and education, as they all come under concerted and coordinated attack in the four years to come. The example and literature of Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration is more relevant than ever, and the script will continue to be written and rewritten to confront events as they unfold. Without question, we will look back at this time of relative peace and grace with nostalgia and a degree of anger at how we got here. However, we press forward, and here’s what’s on tap for the first half of 2025. Continue reading Asserting our history and defending civil liberties in 2025→
Prepared remarks for a public talk presented April 22 at Wellesley College in the Pendleton Atrium. See below for video of an updated version presented in Oakland on June 22, 2025. 
