Best Seller
Balancing Acts
By Dana Frank
By Dana Frank
Paperback
$24.00
Available on Apr 20, 2027 | 176 Pages
An early 20th-century immigrant’s story of perseverance—and his kidnapping by the US government
Jack Inoway was 14 and alone when he left Japan for the United States. After decades of struggle, he eventually became a prominent restaurateur in Ohio. But in 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government seized him, interrogated him as an “alien enemy,” and destroyed his livelihood and public identity. Weaving never-before-seen personal correspondence with vital historical context, Balancing Acts reveals Inoway’s true story of reinvention, resilience, and untimely death.
Jack Inoway encountered anti-Asian racism at every turn but found strength in the thriving support networks of his fellow immigrants and his family, both in Japan and in the US. He learned how to navigate interracial marriage bans, alien land laws, and white supremacist groups like the KKK. He took what opportunities he could as a sugar plantation worker, an acrobat, and a cabin boy for the US Navy. Finally, in the 1920s, he achieved his obsessive dream of “success” by opening a chain of lucrative restaurants and becoming a pillar of the community.
As immigrants in the US continue to face rampant hate and violence today, Jack Inoway’s story underscores the continuity and vicious power of anti-Asian racism. Balancing Acts is an intimate and compelling portrait of a Japanese man who strategized how to surmount barrier after barrier—until the federal government wrecked his life.
Jack Inoway was 14 and alone when he left Japan for the United States. After decades of struggle, he eventually became a prominent restaurateur in Ohio. But in 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government seized him, interrogated him as an “alien enemy,” and destroyed his livelihood and public identity. Weaving never-before-seen personal correspondence with vital historical context, Balancing Acts reveals Inoway’s true story of reinvention, resilience, and untimely death.
Jack Inoway encountered anti-Asian racism at every turn but found strength in the thriving support networks of his fellow immigrants and his family, both in Japan and in the US. He learned how to navigate interracial marriage bans, alien land laws, and white supremacist groups like the KKK. He took what opportunities he could as a sugar plantation worker, an acrobat, and a cabin boy for the US Navy. Finally, in the 1920s, he achieved his obsessive dream of “success” by opening a chain of lucrative restaurants and becoming a pillar of the community.
As immigrants in the US continue to face rampant hate and violence today, Jack Inoway’s story underscores the continuity and vicious power of anti-Asian racism. Balancing Acts is an intimate and compelling portrait of a Japanese man who strategized how to surmount barrier after barrier—until the federal government wrecked his life.
Author
Dana Frank
Dana Frank is professor emerita of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A well-regarded senior historian, she is the author of many books on labor, women, and social justice in the US and Honduras. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Foreign Affairs, and many other publications, and she has testified before both the US Congress and Canadian Parliament.
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