Overview

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.

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9781958363751

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Reviews

Gordon Nagai and Nina Wolpe offer us their deeply felt story of something infinitely worth remembering: the lifesaving power of friendship and kindness. From their lived experience of how war can wreak havoc on lives even far away from the actual fighting to the havoc present in our world today, may we all take that to heart. -Lynne Rae Perkins, children's author and winner of the 2016 John Newbery Medal After the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the friendship of two children is threatened by a fence built of fear-every nail hammered home by a world of distrust in which they are caught. Their refusal to acquiesce to the status quo of hate and suspicion serves as a testament to the power of the human spirit. A highly recommended read. -Bob Welch, author of Saving My Enemy: How Two WWII Soldiers Fought Against Each Other and Later Forged a Friendship That Saved Their Lives Authors Nina Wolpe and Gordon Nagai have recreated the times when America responded to the surprise bombing of the Pearl Harbor naval base. Gordon Nagai lived with his family in a grim camp surrounded by barbed wire fences. His friend Nina's letters were a hopeful and assuring touchstone. The pages about life in the camp almost shatter as you turn them, yet it is a hopeful memoir. The co-authors' deftly recorded accounts prove there is always hope for another doorway to open. Precious! -Bill Sarnoff, World War II Navy radioman, U.S.S. Elizabeth C. Stanton The authors of Two Faces show us how to work together in healing and in joy. As an educator, I can't think of a better culturally responsive way to teach students about our forced imprisonment of American citizens and its impact on our society during World War II. -Sarah Campbell, sixthgrade teacher, Meadow View Middle School, Eugene, Oregon Two Faces is the story of an ugly chapter in American history, told with the charm and clarity of two youngsters who lived through it. Their story will inspire rich conversations among all who have the good fortune of reading their account. -Sally Krueger, fifth-grade teacher, Edgewood Community Elementary School, Eugene, Oregon The book is powerfully written, yet never preachy, and remains wholly authentic throughout to both its young adolescent viewpoint and the misgivings, mischief and misadventures of growing up. -Olivia TaylorYoung, Osher Lifelong Institute, University of Oregon, creative writing facilitator Two Faces is a highly engaging and uplifting work about a cross-racial friendship at a time of global conflict when such friendships were frowned upon and even prohibited. Gordon Nagai's narrative provides especially unique details about internment life, much of which has never been told. This engaging story filles a deep gap about this dark chapter in American history. -David De Lorenzo, Director of Special Collections, University of Oregon

Author Information

Nina Wolpe taught for 20 years in the American Department of Defense base schools in Germany and Japan. Over the next seventeen years, she taught adult education classes in Montgomery County, Maryland, and at the elementary school level in Massachusetts, Illinois and Virginia. For two years, she taught in multinational classrooms in Nigeria. In the l980s, she wrote a newspaper column for several Michigan papers, and has a self- published children's book titled A Forest Of Trees Does Not Grow There In Rows. Nina was married to the late U.S. Congressman Howard E. Wolpe and has one son, Michael Stevenson Wolpe. Gordon Hideaki Nagai and his family were forcibly evacuated to a concentration camp in Colorado and returned to their family-owned farm in February of 1945 before the end of the war. He graduated from the University of California with a master's degree in social welfare and served 32 years as a social worker, including two years of alternative service as a conscientious objector with the California Department of Mental Hygiene. Gordon last worked with the Golden Gate Regional Center, which serves clients with developmental disabilities, retiring in 2000. He and his wife now live in Eugene Oregon, close to their children and grandchildren.

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