Citizen 13660 offers a glimpse into the history of Japanese Interment in America during WWII. Pressured by white farming lobbyists in the 1940s who encouraged a hysterical media, the United States government rounded up everyone of Japanese descent into “protective custody.” Written and drawn by Miné Okubo, this novel offers a stirring portrayal of the harshness of camp life and serves as an important historical document. Okubo’s personal experiences with the camps showed her the resourcefulness of human existence, the uncertainty and fear of wartime and the realisation that events like these can always happen again. The language and drawings are very matter of fact and mostly stick to objective reality. Nonetheless, it remains emotionally engaging and especially poignant in the current political climate both here and abroad.
The artwork is straightforward and plain, evoking the limited resources with which these original sketches were made. Some might question why this work exists on a Graphic Novel Recommendation list as the structure is not what we typically associate with comics and it reads more like an illustrated novel. It brings to mind questions asked by Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, What are comics? Are they sequential art? Which combination of text and illustration do we need to say that something is a Graphic Novel?
Originally published in 1946 by Columbia University Press, our library has a copy of the 1983 Washing University Press reprint. It has received consistent academic attention in the field of Comic Studies and is often used in classrooms discussing Politics, Education, Communication, Media and other fields. Miné Okubo is a celebrated painter and illustrator, who continued to work for decades after being released from the camp in Topaz.
