Two Faces (Wolpe & Nagai)

By Nina Wolpe and Gordon Hideaki Nagai.

This is the inspiring story of two friends who live through the  dark days of World War II. Nina and Gordon were born in the San Joaquin  Valley town of Merced. Their story begins in this quiet setting of rural  California as the clouds of war with Japan threaten the nation.

Nina’s  mother is a teacher in a local elementary school. Her father is a  county social worker. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her father  enlists in the U.S. Army Air Corps and is sent to training camps across  the country before being stationed in England.

Nina’s story is  typical of the disrupted life visited upon millions of families because  of the war. The measures her mother and grandparents take keep the  family together and safe. Nina and her mom travel by train to be near  her father during his training. When he departs for England, they return  home to live out the war with her grandparents.

Gordon’s parents  are established farmers in the area. His father, a Japanese immigrant,  is married to an American-born daughter of Japanese parents. Following  Pearl Harbor, his family is forcibly evacuated and imprisoned in an  internment camp in Colorado. His story encompasses the upheaval caused  by the evacuation, the humiliation of being identified as enemy aliens,  and the weight of life ringed by barbed-wire fences and guard towers.

Nina’s  and Gordon’s story is ultimately about friendship, with each standing  up for the other during hard times. Nina and Gordon remain close through  letter writing and reunite near the end of the war. But just as Gordon  begins to thrive in school, Nina suffers a life-changing upheaval of her  own.

While their lives are dramatically different during World  War II because of racial prejudice, their friendship holds together, in  part, through the presence and power of their mothers. 

Paper: 330 pp.

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