Okada, John

Okada, John( 1923–71),
born in Seattle of Japanese-American parents, was an Air Force sergeant in World War II, then earned degrees from the University of Washington and Columbia University. He wrote a bitter play, No-No Boy (1957), about a Nisei who resisted the war draft, depicting the disastrous treatment of the time for Nisei. The play was critically dismissed. UCLA declined Okada's widow's offer of his manuscripts, and she burned them. Okada is now highly regarded and his play read in college courses in Asian-American literature.