They Called Us Enemy

Description: Long before George Takei braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future.

In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard.

They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.

Review: George Takei is famously known as the solo Asian American actor who played Sulu on the original Star Trek. In his beautifully and heart wrenching graphic memoir he revisits his childhood and his experience growing up in Japanese internment camps during World War II. Takei had not yet started school when he, his parents, and his younger siblings were forced to leave their home and report to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removal” due to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The graphic memoir weave the daily slice of life of the Takei family while allowing readers to simultaneously experience the daily humiliations that they suffered in the camps and providing readers with a broader understanding of the federal legislation, lawsuits, and actions which led to and maintained this injustice. While the focus is largely on the Takei family as the parents struggle shelter their children from the danger and hatred they face and the childhood innocence of George and his brother offers some levity to the story, there is a also a good and fine balance displaying the heroes who fought against this civil rights injustice such as Fred Korematsu, the 442nd Regiment, Herbert Nicholson, and the ACLU’s Wayne Collins and the politicians who reveled in fear mongering and racism to ensure their power in the government.
  My only minor complaint about this graphic memoir is that its narrative structure is not consistent. It begins as a TED talk, but quickly loses that structure as Takei takes the reader into his childhood and then a big time jump into adulthood. Despite this minor quibble, this graphic memoir is an important part of U.S. History that is often overlooked and forgotten and should be read widely; however, its reality echoes loudly and clearly in our current political climate.

Curriculum Connection: U.S. History and English

Rating: 4 stars

Words of Caution: There is some minor language including racial slurs and some violent images. Recommended for Grades 8 and up.

If you like this book try: Fred Korematsu Speaks Up by Laura Atkins, for more graphic memoirs that talk about racism try the March series by John Lewis