They Called Us Enemy
Description
New York Times Bestseller! A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he 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. What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins co-writers Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.
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Community Reviews
Y’all, this book. The imprisonment of Japanese Americans is one of the best kept secrets in US history. This graphic autobiography takes readers inside the camp, but from the perspective of a young child. Not too detailed, or horrific (as the author himself says, his parents sheltered him from the many atrocities they faced as best they could), but none the less a worth while read! I’m not a big Star Trek person, but I love George Takei’s activis...read more
Even though I knew about the Japanese internment camps, I still found this graphic novel emotionally devastating.
every school should have this in their classroom as a PROPER account of history
Loved this
Buying for my kids
Loved this
Buying for my kids
Without question, this should be required reading in school. You get the narrative on George Takei's experience intermixed with the history and politics regarding U.S. involvement in WWII.
This piece of our history is glossed over because it does not exude the "ideals" we tend to espouse as they relate to the Second World War. The realities of Japanese Internment should not be brushed over, nor should the parallels to our present day be ignore...read more
This piece of our history is glossed over because it does not exude the "ideals" we tend to espouse as they relate to the Second World War. The realities of Japanese Internment should not be brushed over, nor should the parallels to our present day be ignore...read more
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