Book Description
In February 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order authorizing the secretary of war to remove 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast and corral them into inland concentration camps. To be considered for release, they were required to answer the so-called loyalty questionnaire. Question 27 asked the inmates―who had been imprisoned without cause by the US military―whether they were willing to serve in combat for the US military. Question 28 asked them―many of whom American citizens who had never visited Japan―to renounce allegiance to the Japanese emperor. Answering these questions caused volatile divisions within the camps, tore families and friends apart, and had lasting repercussions in the decades postwar.

Questions 27 & 28 reaches backward and forward from the time of the questionnaire, chronicling the individuals who arrived in the US from Japan at the turn of the century, their children who came of age during war and incarceration, and their descendants who lived in its aftermath. Yamashita mixes fact with fiction and layers genres from James Bond movies to haiku to oral history, transfiguring an enormity of archival research into a chorus of stories. With her signature wit and aplomb, she gives voice to laborers, artists, scholars, informants, and activists who, over three generations, defined an immigrant community.
 
About the Author
Karen Tei Yamashita is the author of nine books, including I Hotel, finalist for the National Book Award. A recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, she is Professor Emerita of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
 
Reviews
“Karen Tei Yamashita deserves to be a literary household name.”―Adam Morgan, Esquire’s “Most Anticipated Books of 2026”

“A provocative symphony.”―Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times

“In this innovative polyphonic novel, Yamashita blends archival documents with fictional flourishes. . . . The result is a powerful and lively novel that documents the turmoil endured by internees while raising enduring questions about identity, loyalty, and citizenship.” ―Publishers Weekly

“An ambitious novel that spans many forms, ably crossing oceans and centuries.”―Kirkus Reviews

“[Questions 27 & 28] reveals a concealed corner of American history with depth and nuance.”―Alta Journal

“Now, at this very moment, our government is rounding people up, imprisoning and deporting them―immigrants, refugees, students, workers with legal visas. They are denied due process as the Constitution is being flouted. It is crucial that we read Questions 27 & 28 by Karen Tei Yamashita. Learning what happened not that long ago to American citizens may help us know what actions to take now, legally, politically, heroically.”―Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior and I Love a Broad Margin to My Life

“With Questions 27 & 28, Karen Tei Yamashita expands the boundaries of the novel, achieving a polyvocal and multimodal environment within the act of engaged reading the work elicits. Questions 27 & 28 challenges the unconscionable incarceration of Japanese Americans with an intricate and intimate testament to the courage, dignity, and creativity of those who dared the alchemy of identity and the integrity of belonging.”―Earl Jackson, Professor Emeritus, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan