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Showing posts from June, 2019

From No-No to Win-Win: Injustice, Copyright, and Japanese-Americans

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In May of 2019, Penguin Classics re-published “No-No Boy” by John Okada. The novel is the story of a Japanese American man’s struggle to find his way in the aftermath of being interned with other Japanese in America  and later imprisoned over dubious “loyalty” questions during World War II. The story was largely ignored and even shunned by the Japanese American community when first published in 1957. In 1976, Shawn Wong republished the book and asserted a copyright in the name of Dorothy Okada, John's widow. The book enjoyed relative success with more than 160,000 copies sold. While being rejected decades ago, the story is now revered as an important work in the Japanese American community. Complaints and Outrage As the New York Times writes , this "should be a moment of celebration for Okada's literary legacy." However, Penguin Classics’ re-publishing of “No-No Boy” has been met with much objection . Penguin asserts that “No-No Boy” is in the public domain. Others c