Those Who Must Fall
- a novel by Dylan Day
When Officer Arthur Lawrence of the San Francisco Police Department extracts abducted mayoral candidate John F. Thorbes from an abandoned meat-processing plant, he discovers that former Tule Lake incarceree, Akira Yamamoto, is behind the ploy. Akira then elicits the help of Arthur Lawrence to prove John F. Thorbes' connection to his wife's death. To do so, Arthur and his companions, Officer Alonso Garcia, and journalist, Booker Seo, must overcome a corrupt system that throws obstacles at every turn. Arthur quickly learns that John F. Thorbes' dirtied hands sink deep into the rabbit hole.
Those Who Must Fall is a novel by Dylan Day and the first instalment of The Falling Sun trilogy, which explores the fates of a Japanese couple coming to America, and then life inside a Japanese American incarceration camp during World War Two. You can learn more about The Falling Sun here.
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Japanese American incarceration is an important research topic for the author, Dylan Day. He has previously written two essays on the subject: To Investigate How US Citizenship was Performed by Japanese Americans Interned at Tule Lake Incarceration Camp During World War Two as a Consequence of the Loyalty Questionnaire & An examination as to whether incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War Two was an act of defence or a declaration of particular prejudice
Those Who Must Fall is set in San Francisco, 1969, the passionate heart of the Civil Rights movement, burgeoning from the Summer of Love in '67, where over 100,000 people descended on the city to spread peace and love.
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San Francisco was also struggling with crime (with serial killers like the Zodiac Killer still on the loose) and corruption, with gangs like the Aryan Brotherhood running the prisons and drug-trafficking in the city. Meanwhile, the police force was under-staffed and under-pressure. Controversial manoeuvres, such as the Los Siete de la Raza incident inflamed the public's disapproval, especially from those of ethnic minorities. San Francisco is a multi-cultural city, and the rights of minorities was at the forefront of political debates and tensions.
Those Who Must Fall uses the backdrop of the real-life Occupation of Alcatraz Island, where a group of students and Native Americans occupied the deserted prison, claiming it to be rightfully Indian land, to explore protest and political corruption in a fractured San Francisco.
