WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration with Bruce Rutledge

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and the move to Seattle, where Chin Music now has a bookstore in Pike Place Market. They talk about Chin Music’s highly successful graphic novel trilogy on the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. The wide-ranging conversation is an honest celebration of the challenges and pleasures of independent publishing.

Chin Music Press books mentioned in the episode include:

• Their very first book, an anthology called Kuhaku, published in 2005.
• Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman by Sumie Kawakami (2007/2010)
• Japan’s Urushi Craftsmen: Can Old World Artistry Survive in the 21st Century by Bruce Rutledge (2020)
• When the Waves Came by Michael Larson (2020)
• WE HEREBY REFUSE : Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by authors Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura and illustrators Ross Ishikawa and Matt Sasaki (2021).
• Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda (Author) and Matt Sasaki (Artist)
• Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War by Ken Mochizuki (Author) and Kiku Hughes (Illustrator)
• Seattle Samurai: A Cartoonist’s Perspective of the Japanese American Experience by Kelly Goto (Author) and Sam Goto (Drawings)

The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press.

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