This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II

Prior to the attack on the American Military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, Japanese immigrants (known as issei) and their American-born children (nisei) lived in tight-knit communities throughout the country, particularly on the West Coast.

The attack on Pearl Harbor marked the United States’ entry into World War II. Branded as foreign adversaries, Japanese Americans—many of whom were patriotic Americans—began to face increasingly discriminatory and hostile conditions in their home communities. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal and relocation of more than 120,000 people of Japanese heritage to concentration camps. This xenophobic measure was based on racial prejudice and fear of espionage; it questioned Japanese Americans’ loyalty to the United States and assumed that they would be more loyal to the Japanese homeland, a place that many had never even seen. Prior to evacuation, many Japanese immigrants worked blue-collar jobs, a fact represented in the novel by the Maki family’s occupations as strawberry farmers. Even before the onset of this highly controversial time period in American history, Japanese immigrants had already overcome many social hardships and discriminatory laws in order to buy homes and property in America, Sadly, most were destined to lose their hard-earned property due to government seizure or being forced to sell at the last minute.

Many were quick to point out that although America was at war with Germany and Italy, the response was disproportionately levied against Japanese Americans. The exception to this was Crystal City Alien Enemy Detention Facility, a family concentration camp, which also held a mix of German, Italian, and Latin Americans. In all, 10 Japanese concentration camps were constructed and operated between 1942 and 1945. Of these, Manzanar War Relocation Center held over 10,000 “evacuees” during its years of operation. Over 150 people died at Manzanar, mostly due to natural causes and illness, although a few homicides occurred, including the death of Harry Ueno, Frank Maki’s associate in This Light Between Us. Two others named James Ito and James Kanegawa were killed during the Manzanar Riots, but the guards and military police claimed self-defense and were cleared of any charges. The only way out of this untenable position for male prisoners in the concentration camps was to enlist in the army, and those who refused based on the infamous loyalty questionnaire included in Executive Order 9066 were sent to prison. In Fukuda’s novel, it is under these circumstances that Alex Maki joins the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which ultimately becomes one of the most highly decorated regiments in the army.