John Okada Biography

John Okada

John Okada was born in Seattle and attended the University of Washington and Columbia University. Much like other Japanese Americans, he fought for the United States during World War II, and was discharged as a sergeant in 1946. His war experiences formed the basis for his only book, No-No Boy (1957), the first novel published by a U.S.-born Japanese American. No-No Boy deals with the Japanese internment camps and the conflict many Japanese American soldiers felt serving the United States while fighting the forces of their Japanese heritage.