“What an amazing story Evelyn Iritani tells in this groundbreaking book. It pulses with life, unknown historical details, and characters who leap from the page in dimensions of heroism and tragedy. This true-life tale of desperate and likable people caught in the whirl of world war was impossible to put down.”
—Timothy Egan, author of A Fever in the Heartland

“In Safe Passage, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Evelyn Iritani pulls back the curtain on one of the little-known humanitarian stories of World War II. In a world that overflows with innocents who find themselves the victims of today’s senseless wars, the lessons in this gripping story resonate with stunning clarity. This is history as it should be written—richly detailed, authoritative, meaningful, and yet as compellingly readable as the best fiction.”
—Ken Cuthbertson, author of Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn

“Evelyn Iritani’s Safe Passage resurrects a lost chapter of World War II: a prisoner swap that saved American lives but also entangled Japanese families from Latin America. It is a gripping portrait of idealism colliding with desperation and compromise. Told with deep humanity and meticulously researched, this stunning narrative reveals the hidden cost of wartime mercy—and the kinds of impossible choices that haunt us still.”
—Vanessa Hua, author of Forbidden City

“Evelyn Iritani’s immersive and powerfully written investigation reveals an unusual moment of cooperation in a bitter war. She shows how people of Japanese ancestry in the United States and Latin America were shockingly uprooted and expelled from countries where they had made their homes. She has unearthed a stunning story of diplomatic intrigue, wartime racism, and moral compromise.”
—Gary J. Bass, author of Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia

“Finally, someone has written the human story of the passengers aboard the Gripsholm and other prisoner-exchange ships and the desperate backchannel negotiations on both sides of the Pacific to rescue citizens stranded by Japan’s war of imperialism. Evelyn Iritani writes with the dramatic flair and narrative arc of a novelist to fill in a missing piece of the Japanese American experience. Safe Passage is a meticulously researched page-turner, and one that is urgently needed at a time when we’re seeing American citizens abducted from the streets, held in illegal detention, and sent to countries where they’ve never lived before.”
—Frank Abe, lead author of We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration