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iambookotter · 3 years

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We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

5/5

Xenophobia. Prejudice. Intolerance. Bias. Bigotry. Intolerance. Call it what you will, the meaning stays the same – racism.

Traci Chee’s hard-hitting novel documents a period in history that is not discussed enough; the displacement and incarceration of more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry between 1942 and 1946.

The book is written from 14 different POVs. Yes, 14. While it may seem overwhelming, I happened to thoroughly enjoy this. Traci Chee’s genius is evident in the distinctness of each POV with every chapter perfectly capturing the narrator’s emotions in their own unique voices. This was, in my opinion, masterful and evocative storytelling.

2 POVs in particular stood out to me – Hiromi ‘Bette’ Nakano and David ‘Twitchy’ Hashimoto. Bette’s optimism may have seemed a little out of place given the less than humane conditions they were subjected to and the weight of the racism that had landed them there in the first place. But I felt like she represented a much-needed dose of hope in the face of insurmountable challenges.

“Being an optimist does not make me stupid.” – Bette

Twitchy’s POV was especially difficult to read due to a variety of reasons. Reading his thoughts as he is forced to grow up way beyond his years is simply heart-breaking. He briefly rides the wave of his newfound maturity before the reality of people’s mortality hits home. Twitchy was just a young boy happy drunk on life who is sobered up by the cards he had been dealt.

Coming to the plot itself, the book does not pull back any punches. It is unapologetic in its depiction of the injustice that occurred in these camps. People were treated poorly, sometimes even as criminals, and made to feel like enemies on soil they had thought of as home. Being privy to the thoughts and feelings of 14 teenagers who were unfairly forced out of their homes and put through treatment that was driven by racial prejudice, I read this book to the sound of my shattering heart in the background.

In all honesty, I am not doing any justice to this book with my poorly written review. I have barely scratched the surface of everything that is covered in this powerful tale. All I can say in conclusion is that We Are Not Free is an important book and it needs to be out there. This one is a MUST READ!

#book blog #books #bookworm #book review #bookaddict #bookish #bookblr #amazing reads #booklr #we are not free #traci chee

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asexual-juliet · 1 year

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we are not free + names

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asexual-juliet · 3 months

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we are not free. but we are not alone. one song for each We Are Not Free Character

playlist notes under the cut

I. Minnow Ito - Everything Stays - Adventure Time Everything stays, right where you've left it / Everything stays, but it still changes / Ever so slightly, daily and nightly / In little ways, when everything stays The fact that both of Minnow’s chapters take place in San Francisco and bookend the novel make this the perfect choice for him as he reflects on how Japantown has both changed yet stayed the same as the city of his childhood

II. Shig Ito - Little League - Conan Gray And when we were younger / We wore our hearts right on our sleeves / Why did we ever have to leave? / Little league Shig’s chapter is basically him reflecting on his childhood in Japantown as he prepares to leave it and I think this song is perfect for that! There’s also the line “Do you remember days on our old block?/ Messin' with our neighbors who called the cops” which is SO Shig&Twitchy-core… them and their shenanigans!!

III. Yum-yum Oishi - You Are Loved - Defiance, Ohio And as the story unfolds over time / Things we once knew, they do dissolve into the sky / She swears she sees a brand new constellation / Every time somebody we know dies I love the bit in Yum-yum’s chapter where Tommy and Minnow are making up constellations and I have always associated Yum-yum with astral imagery because of it! I think this song really speaks to her unsurety about the future and I love the line “the radio plays a familiar song,” because Yumyum’s chapter is also where we get the first reference to Mas’ Silvertone radio!

IV. Bette Nakano - Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying - Sabrina Carpenter 'Cause I'm young and I'm dumb / I do stupid things when it comes to love / And even if I always end up crying / No, you can't blame a girl for trying I feel like I don’t even have to explain this one like this encapsulates Bette’s vibe EXACTLY!!! She would be such a teen pop girlie <3

V. Frankie Fujita - Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1 - The Mountain Goats Play with matches if you think you need to play with matches / Seek out the hidden places where the fire burns hot and bright / Find where the heat's unbearable and stay there if you have to / Don't hurt anybody on your way up to the light Thinking about this song as a Frankie song makes me FERAL!! something about the fire in this verse as a metaphor for his anger, him knowing he needs to do whatever he can to make sure he doesn’t hurt anybody with that anger… the first line of this song is “Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive”...yeah. i luv you frankie fujita <3

VI. Stan Katsumoto - Once More with Feeling - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Don't let the people make you think / That just because you're young you're useless / You know it's not naive to think that you can change the things around / And that no man is an island This is mostly in reference to Stan wanting to go to college to be a lawyer for the ACLU which is a piece of his character that I absolutely LOVE!!

VII. Aiko Harano - Warrior Girl - Nicole Visco Warrior Girl only goes to where she wants to / Warrior Girl maybe has a heavy sword / Warrior Girl has no idea where she jumps to / But she jumps to where she wants to / And she's never ever bored This is absolutely Aiko’s song!!! She is a scrappy little warrior girl and I adore her for it!! There is also a refrain in this song about “maybe someday / there'll be some way I could get to roam free” which. yeah. I love you Aiko <3

VIII. Yuki Nakano - Crazy Dreams - Carrie Underwood Here's to you free souls, you firefly chasers / Tree climbers, porch swingers, air guitar players / Here's to you fearless dancers, shaking walls in your bedrooms / There's a lot of wonder left inside of me and you / Thank God even crazy dreams come true This just reminds me a lot of Yuki’s dream of playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League!! especially because there’s a part of the song that says “Never let a bad day be enough / To go and talk you into giving up” which reminds me so much of Yuki’s chapter!!

IX. Mary Katsumoto - Something About Lemons - Chumped And every day, I grow a little more resentful / Of the choices that I did or didn't make / Wanted this to feel a little more eventful / Every day that I'm awake just feels the same This is SO Mary!! especially the line about being resentful of the choices that she didn’t (get to) make… like that’s literally the plot of her chapter.

X. Kiyoshi Tani - Lion’s Teeth - The Mountain Goats And my arms get sore / And my palms start to sweat / And the tears roll down my face / Till my cheeks are hot and red and soaking wet John Darnielle called this song a “revenge fantasy” about standing up to his abusive stepfather and I think that Kiyoshi deserves that kind of catharsis.

XI. Mas Ito - human - Christina Perri But I'm only human / And I bleed when I fall down / I'm only human / And I crash and I break down Song about pretending to be strong and fake a smile and force a laugh until you literally can’t anymore and it fucking destroys you… hello Mas Ito!!

XII. Keiko Kimura - Who Knew - P!nk That last kiss, I'll cherish until we meet again / And time makes it harder, I wish I could remember / But I keep your memory, you visit me in my sleep / My darling, who knew? Fucked up behavior of me to choose this for Keiko but yeah it’s about Twitchy. Feels self-explanatory.

XIII. Twitchy Hashimoto - Brother - Kodaline We've taken different paths / And traveled different roads / I know we'll always end up on the same one when we're old / And when you're in the trenches / And you're under fire, I will cover you Very much chosen with the Twitchy&Shig dynamic in mind but also because Twitchy literally refers to the other characters as his “siblings back in Topaz”... and something about the line about “we were… the kings and queens” combined with the motif of royalty surrounding Twitchy & his relationship with Keiko (“company of kings,” Aiko’s thought about Twitchy treating Keiko like a “queen,” Keiko’s comparing Twitchy to a prince, the Cinderella motifs in Keiko’s chapter…. yeah) and ofc the reference to trench warfare… this is his fucking song.

XIV. Tommy Harano - Landslide - Fleetwood Mac Well, I've been afraid of changin' / 'Cause I've built my life around you / But time makes you bolder / Even children get older / And I'm getting older too something about Tommy finally making the decision to leave his parents behind… he’s built his life around a family that doesn’t treat him right but time has made him bolder as he’s grown up. and like. the references to snow in both the book and the song are beautiful and aplenty but i don’t have the time to unpack that.

XV. All Of Us - Disposable Youth - No-No Boy Disposable you / Disposable me / Disposable hearts / Indestructible teens Off an album named for the year the Japanese American incarceration of World War II began, this is songwriter Julian Saporiti’s “imagining of what it would have been like to be ever experience a Memorial Day bbq with people who looked like me” and has a very similar vibe to the scene at Tanforan where they celebrate of the infield after the Americans defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. somethin’ bout teenagers getting to be wild and loving and free <3

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asexual-juliet · 9 months

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"like a spirit you see only as you're turning a corner, and when you look again, he's gone." // "prettiest girl I ever saw, with snow like stars in her hair." twitchy and keiko -- we are not free, traci chee

#did I ever post this #keiko and twitchy my beloveds #wanf #we are not free #we are not free fanart #wanf fanart #keiko kimura #twitchy hashimoto #traci chee #mine #my art #fanart #they are a sun/moon couple your honor <3333

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asexual-juliet · 1 year

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new we are not free playlist just dropped

#we are not free #wanf #minnow ito #shig ito #yum yum oishi #bette nakano #frankie fujita #stan katsumoto #aiko harano #yuki nakano #mary katsumoto #kiyoshi tani #mas ito #keiko kimura #twitchy hashimoto #tommy harano

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asexual-juliet · 2 years

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You can say a lot of things about me, but you can’t say I don’t admit it when I’m wrong. moodboard: david "twitchy" hashimoto we are not free characters: 13/14

#we are not free #wanf #wanfmb #moodboard #my moodboards #mine #david hashimoto #twitchy hashimoto #beloved beloved boy you are icarus flying too close to the sun

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asexual-juliet · 2 years

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characters from we are not free as lyrics from 1942 by no-no boy

minnow ito i feel washed out punched in the mouth, private school playgrounds white knuckled, blue-eyed barbarians –dragon park

shig ito your language is my language, wet lips in laundry rooms hush hun and hold on, daydreams must do –heart mountain

yum-yum oishi oh, oh, love of mine take me out dancing beneath the stars oh, japanese parts american wheels will take you further than far –pacific fog

bette nakano i tell ya, man, it’s like some movie and she’s just tailor made for the part lamps licking the roof beams, she’s got good looking down to an art hear the old folks sing them old songs, the background just fades away our coffee can fire’s almost gone, she says, “i gotta get out of this place” –two candles in the dark

frankie fujita this girl, a pinpoint, that moment ya feel a spark brown boots, a dirt floor, we’re dancing like two candles in the dark dancing like two candles in the dark dancing like two candles in the dark –two candles in the dark

stan katsumoto get off it, or pick up a goddamn rifle there’s no revolution at brown university –lam thi dep

aiko harano the time she was a little girl and climbed above the rest of the world scaled the tower at the santa anita racetrack where not even the boys dared go and she felt good for a moment or so –instructions to all persons

yuki nakano disposable you disposable me fearless child rolling up her sleeves –disposable youth

mary katsumoto a glance across the water last imperial daughter a trickster madame, not a thief i keep my dress both pressed and clean –han shan

kiyoshi tani he found a group of kids to find trouble with some little slice of living –instructions to all persons

mas ito through a clerical error, his friends and him got a bunkhouse to themselves, they called the “loafers inn” playing cards and telling jokes they felt good for a moment or so –instructions to all persons

keiko kimura undeniable parts sharp wit, dark eyes and runner's legs a mouth like new year’s day –disposable youth

twitchy hashimoto they fell in love through a war, fished flames from their breasts the girl was a poet, the boy did his best to float in between islands on black ink and sentiment –ogie/naoko

tommy harano born feeling wrong i sing my secrets in a song too unfamiliar to belong –lam thi dep

all of us disposable you disposable me disposable hearts indestructible teens –disposable youth

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