Here is the most detailed story yet from my recent talks on the links between wartime incarceration and the scourge of ICE abductions. 
You should read the story by Kai Curry online at the Northwest Asian Weekly, but it conveys so much that’s important, and so much has changed since I first spoke on this in April, that I’ve shared it in full below. Thanks to the King County Library System and the Bellevue Library branch for centering We Hereby Refuse as their “One Bellevue, One Book.” Continue reading “One Bellevue, One Book:” the links between wartime incarceration and ICE abductions
Category Archives: Mitsuye Endo
What Japanese American Wartime Incarceration Tells Us About Mass Deportation Today
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
Excavating Stories and Unearthing History in Fall 2024
The weather is turning, and it appears to be time to hit the road again starting this weekend, mostly to promote the new Penguin anthology but also to meet continuing interest in the graphic novel and camp resistance in general. Here’s the list as it stands today of in-person and virtual speaking events for this fall, including serving as headliner for the Densho annual fundraiser. Check the Events page for further updates.
Continue reading Excavating Stories and Unearthing History in Fall 2024
INTERVIEW: Turning history into a graphic novel
Jonathan Sandler of London has written a graphic memoir about his Yorkshire grandfather’s WW2 service in the U.S. Army, The English GI. He also blogs at graphicmemoir.co.uk and from across the ocean discovered our work with We Hereby Refuse.
Jonathan sent over some thoughtful questions about the process of turning history from one’s personal heritage into a graphic novel. It took me several months to reply, but here finally are my answers.
Continue reading INTERVIEW: Turning history into a graphic novel
The North American Post interview
In Seattle, the North American Post is the successor to the prewar Hokubei Jiji newspaper that Fuyo Tanagi helped edit, before she wrote the letter protesting the drafting of Nisei boys from camp for the Mothers Society of Minidoka. So it is an honor to be interviewed by Elaine Ikoma Ko in this wide-ranging exchange on No-No Boy, John Okada and We Hereby Refuse for the cover of the current issue of the Post.
Read the interview in the North American Post here.
Continue reading The North American Post interview
The descendants of “WE HEREBY REFUSE”
Our graphic novel We Hereby Refuse weaves together the stories of three Nisei who refused to submit to imprisonment in American concentration camps without a fight. On Sept. 18 we got to meet three of their children and hear what they think about the book.
“Western Washington Gets Real” about “WE HEREBY REFUSE”
It’s not often a book gets four minutes of TV coverage, so check out this feature that aired tonight on KIRO7 News in Seattle by clicking on the image.
Continue reading “Western Washington Gets Real” about “WE HEREBY REFUSE”
Mitsuye Endo is focus of first newspaper feature on “WE HEREBY REFUSE”
Two of the three main characters of We Hereby Refuse were born in Sacramento, so it’s fitting that the first news coverage of the book’s publication should come in their hometown paper. Continue reading Mitsuye Endo is focus of first newspaper feature on “WE HEREBY REFUSE”
YouTube preview of forthcoming graphic novel, “We Hereby Refuse”
“Three voices … Three acts of defiance … One mass injustice.” That’s one of the taglines for our forthcoming graphic novel which presents an original vision of America’s past with disturbing links to the American present. We had a fast-moving conversation about it on Black Friday, with a special look inside the 3-D modeling by one of our two artists, Ross Ishikawa, to recreate key scenes based on historical reality.
Here’s the one-hour JAMP YouTube channel event moderated by Erin Aoyama, to get you ready for publication on February 9, 2021.
Continue reading YouTube preview of forthcoming graphic novel, “We Hereby Refuse”