The Golden Gate: A Novel

Amy Chua sets The Golden Gate in 1944 Berkeley, California, a city transformed by World War II into a crucible of racial and class conflict. The war effort drew a massive influx of workers to the San Francisco Bay Area’s shipyards and factories, creating a tense, segregated society. Job opportunities were unequally distributed and racially segregated, reinforcing rigid social hierarchies. White newcomers from the Midwest were labeled as “Okies” irrespective of their actual state of origin and faced class prejudice. African and Asian Americans were entirely excluded from many employment and housing opportunities.

Chua, a legal scholar whose nonfiction works like Political Tribes analyze group conflict, uses this historical backdrop to explore themes of tribalism and social hierarchy. The novel depicts a world shaped by policies like Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. President Roosevelt signed the order in 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor, in response to the belief that Japanese Americans might act as spies for Japan. This context is central to the novel’s plot, as Cassie Bainbridge risks prosecution to hide her friend Yuko Sasaki and other Japanese Americans from the authorities.