An early 20th-century immigrant’s story of perseverance in the face of racism–and his kidnapping by the US government
Jack Inoway was 16 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.
“Using the life of Jack ‘The Restaurant King’ Inoway, Dana Frank provides a fascinating account of Nikkei life in the midwestern US between 1904 and 1941, when federal agents stormed his restaurant and forced its sale. Frank provides a compelling yet sensitive account of Inoway’s extraordinarily rich and strange life while also masterfully illuminating the perils of mid-century racialization outside the West Coast.”
—Karen M. Inouye, author of Mary Kitagawa: A Nikkei Canadian Life
“From newspapers and family archives, Dana Frank reconstructs the adventures of Jack Inoway as he journeyed from Japan to Main Street, USA. It’s a fascinating story of one immigrant who was a bit of an iconoclast. In his way, he tested the racial boundaries of the American melting pot while negotiating the pull of home country culture and obligations. Frank’s narrative prowess gives us an enthralling story and a provocative and engrossing read.”
—Gwendolyn Mink, coauthor of Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress