What Can I Do?

Abstract

Floyd Cheung introduces John Okada's "What Can I Do?" and, through it, John Okada himself. Cheung examines how Okada's life—being held in WWII incarceration camps and then choosing to serve in the US Military Intelligence Service—are reflected in both "What Can I Do?" as well as in No-No Boy, Okada's only novel, which depicted the return of a draft resister to his community from prison. In the story, Jiro, a homeless man with an old leg injury, jumps off a boxcar train in a new town, looking for something to eat. He works out an uneasy deal with a cook at a small cafe to work in exchange for food.