We Are Not Free

“We are not Free” by Traci Chee follows fourteen teenagers through life just before, during and after the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Through the eyes of these young men and women you see how drastically their lives change, not only their lives but their perspectives on life. You see the real life consequences on children of what their parents decide. You see the effects of racism and mass hysteria on a nation and an entire community of people. 

The novel is fiction however in the letter from the author at the end of the book Chee explains which stories were taken from family members who lived through the camps, what parts were adapted etc. Taking this novel from fiction to a place somewhat between, not only a historical fiction but a historical fiction with accurate stories inside. 

This book broke my heart. It was a tough one to read, but also one I couldn’t put down. Chee draws you in, though each character has only a small amount of time to tell the story from their perspective they are all interconnected and you feel drawn to them, a bond being created. You empathize and mourn with them. 

How one girl wears a blonde wig, even in the camps because she wants to be more “American”. How several boys sign up for the military, not because they want to be part of the military but because they want to prove to the country they were born into that they belong, that they are “American”. How they try and make life “normal” inside of the camps, through each move they go through. 

I have learned very vaguely about the internment camps in school. What I learned was very vague. The only one I heard about was Manzanar. I didn’t realize there were camps all over the country. That they separated families when they believed a parent was an “extra threat”. That they gave the people a questionnaire asking them if they would completely renounce their former country (in the case of the older adults who were first generation immigrants) and if they would serve. That so many got fed up with the poor treatment of their people that they said no. They said send me back to Japan. That they were then put in even worse camps. 

I feel like we learn a lot from books such as these, that the stories and the lessons are retained better than when we read a textbook. This is a book that I would say every high school needs to have as required reading. No offense Shakespeare, but items like this, that show the true ugly colors of our past. Novels that express what we should never let happen ever again. Those are what our children need to be consuming in school. 

I highly recommend this book. You will laugh with the characters, you will cry with them, you will feel the outrage and confusion they feel. Chee’s writing leaps off the page and envelopes you in a part of history that we as non Asian Americans often have the luxury of shying away from.