Before a packed house on February 2 at mam’s bookstore in Seattle Chinatown, I was honored to help launch Criminals, the debut novel by Ben Masaoka of Seattle of a postwar Japanese American family that was published after his recent death.

Ben modeled his voice on that of another notable JA novelist, John Okada, and we could hear it in the readings I shared with Carla Crujido, Lucy Tan, and Bruce Rutledge. All the unexpressed anger and suppressed rage of Okada is there in Masaoka’s novel.
Dan DeWeese of Propeller Books in Portland read from the emails that he exchanged with Ben in preparing the volume for publication. In one, Masaoka shared how he saw his novel and the connection he felt with John Okada:

“‘For outsiders, Okada’s book blew the doors open to an unknown world; for those already in the house it was instantly recognizable,” wrote Masaoka. “Criminals does not blow any doors open. It opens doors in a gentle way to reveal, depending on who the reader is, the same unknown and instantly recognizable. But, as No-No Boy did, my novel places the ‘Model Minority’ into the category of American myths. I see the two books as linked. Well, everyone wants their book to be a cult success, so add my name to the list.”
Masaoka died of cancer in early September 2024. Criminals was published by Propeller Books on October 8. So in an eerie way the presence of an absent author pervades this novel just as it was for the republication of No-No Boy. It was an honor today to meet Ben’s widow, Adah, and twin daughters Grace and Zahra.
From the Propeller Booksd description: “Criminals follows the lives of a sister and brother, Ruth and Hank Tanazaki, as they struggle to free themselves from the weight of their parents’ generation in a small Japanese American community in Los Angeles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This poignant story of the double-edged nature of community—a force that supports the group, at cost to the individual—explores the possibilities and limits of seeking personal freedom through creativity. Masaoka’s dazzling, deeply-moving debut is also an eloquent addition to the canon of Asian American literature.”
The novel owes nothing to Ben’s uncle, who was indeed Mike Masaoka, the wartime leader of the Japanese American Citizens League and arguably the leading proponent of the model minority myth that Ben takes down. Now there is a study of family dynamics for some aspiring grad student to take on. Ben is the son of Akira Ike Masaoka, one of Mike’s three younger brothers.
Order the book here from Propeller Books.