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Gaijin by Matt Faulkner6/26/2023 ![]() Compassion becomes the key to Koji's salvation, and Faulkner's narrative elicits real pathos. ![]() Aimless and filled with self-doubt, Koji begins to act out by committing petty theft and disrespecting authority, including his mother. Even with a loving mother and avuncular neighbor, Koji dreams of his father, who is abroad in Japan and whose absence places Koji under suspicion by the FBI. Like many people of mixed race, Koji doesn't seem to fit in anywhere%E2%80%94harassed and called "slanty eyes" and a "Jap spy" by Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and a "gaijin" (a pejorative for foreigner) by the Japanese at the camp. ![]() Faulkner (A Taste of Colored Water) draws on his own ancestry as inspiration for the story of 13-year-old Koji Miyamoto, a half-Japanese boy who is sent to an internment camp during WWII. ![]()
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