Those Who Helped Us
The second installment in the series of graphic novels that began with Washington State Book Award Finalist We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration
Basketball-loving Sumiko Tanaka, then 11, narrates this graphic novel about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Through her eyes, we watch as her family is forced from their home and subjected to indiscriminate racism as they are shipped off to the concentration camp called Minidoka in Idaho.
But Sumiko and her 17-year-old sister Yuri also see acts of charity and solidarity from their non-Japanese neighbors and friends in the Seattle area that make them hopeful for the future. As the young girls struggle with the horrors of being imprisoned in the dusty desert, they also find solace in the fact that some people chose to help. This story highlights the actual actions and experiences of those neighbors and friends.
Ken Mochizuki is the author of the award-winning and bestselling children's picture books "Baseball Saved Us," "Heroes" and "Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story." He also wrote the young adult novel, "Beacon Hill Boys," the Living Voices performance piece "Within the Silence," and a musical version of "Baseball Saved Us" staged by Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. As a journalist and historian, he is the author of, and contributor to, several adult nonfiction histories.
Kiku Hughes is a cartoonist and illustrator based in the Seattle area. Her work has been featured in Beyond Anthology volumes 1 and 2, Short Box #6 and Team Avatar Tales. Her first graphic novel, "Displacement," was published by First Second in 2020.