We Are Not Free

By: Traci Chee

Narrated by: Scott Keiji Takeda, Dan Woren, Ryan Potter, Ali Fumiko, Sophie Oda, Andrew Kishino, Christopher Naoki Lee, Grace Rolek, Erika Aishii, Brittany Ishibashi, Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa, Terry Kitagawa

"All around me, my friends are talking, joking, laughing. Outside is the camp, the barbed wire, the guard towers, the city, the country that hates us.

We are not free.

But we are not alone.”

From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco.

Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted.

Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.

In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.

©2020 Traci Chee (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

a must read

So I had to sit with this book I even reread chapters. This book is about the Japanese incarceration camps from world War 2. The characters are from Japan town of San Francisco from the month before their forced removal until the camps were shutdown. Each chapter is the experience from another teenagers eyes. This book tell a historical fiction adapted from the authors families experiences. It also has announcements and news reports that actually occurred. This puts you into the violence and dehumanizing treatment that these American citizens faced in these camps. How everything was taken from them and how they had to prove that they belonged here. It speaks to the racism they faced and how our government stole from them and criminalized them. It's a book that sits in your soul different. It reminds me of the racism Muslims in this country have faced since 9/11 and the anti Asian violence most recently done during covid. It's such a well written book and it's probably one of the best books I've read this year I will probably be buying a copy for my shelf someday. I highly recommend this book especially if you know very little about the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans in WW2. This book is a 5 out of 5 stars and a 10 out of 10 all around read. If this at all interests you definitely pick up this book.

Also definitely read the authors notes on this one it was really powerful

There are few words

I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though it ripped my heart out. Traci Chee does an excellent job bringing the characters off the page and transporting the reader/listener back to the past to experience the sudden upheaval of so many lives. I think this novel really speaks to the strength of the teenager as well as the human spirit. I finished feeling raw and energized at the same time.

We Are Not Free

Beautiful imagery, powerful narration—I love the interwoven storyline of these teenagers whose lives were forever changed. A necessary read for every white American to understand the and unlearn the prejudice of the “American Dream” we’ve been taught.

Great

I really liked this book even though I don’t like reading the fact that I could listen to it and relax made it much better, and the only reason that I chose a book like this is the fact that I needed a book to choose and I’m glad I chosen this one definitely recommend.