New Novel Explores Loyalty Questions Asked During World War II Internment

U.S. government camps during World War II. U.S. Army and swear unqualified allegiance to the United States. U.S. citizens, were held in the camps for up to four years after the government began detentions in 1942.

The questionnaire was given while internees remained in custody. Some answered no to both questions to protest the detention. Others answered yes in an effort to express loyalty despite the circumstances. The novel incorporates archival documents and fictional accounts to show how different individuals responded to the questions.

It includes stories of internees, their descendants, and people connected to the camps through legal or family ties.

Yamashita's parents were both held in the camps. Before writing fiction, she spent nearly a decade researching Japanese communities in Brazil. The book mixes historical records with invented scenes and switches between literary styles. It presents the questionnaire responses as contested among internees without endorsing any single position.

Yamashita includes characters who are artists and scholars to show how people interpreted their experiences through creative work and research. The structure divides the narrative into sections that resemble archival folders.