They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

For the next book in my True Books Challenge, I decided to pick up another novel that's popular with my students right now. They Called Us Enemy is a graphic novel, meaning that it's infinitely more attractive to my eighth graders than a traditional book. As we're currently working through a literary nonfiction unit, several of them have picked this one up and told me they enjoyed it. As a big George Takei fan, I had been wanting to read this one for a while, so I decided to pick it up this week and see if I enjoyed it as much as my students.

They Called Us Enemy recounts Takei's childhood experiences in a Japanese internment camp during WWII. The story is set up as a flashback, with Takei first shown in modern day, giving a speech about his early life. The action quickly travels back to when he was four, and his parents and younger siblings were forced from their Los Angeles home and onto a train bound for Arkansas. His family had to endure multiple indignities, like having all their money and property seized, the naked racism of the camp guards, and being forced to live in tiny, ramshackle housing. His parents did their best to keep everyone's spirits up and make the best of their situation. His father rose to become one of the community managers for his section of the camp, and his mother made sure he and his siblings had as normal of a childhood as possible. As Takei was very young at the time, he viewed a lot of what his family went through as an adventure, and he discusses how he had to reconcile his distorted memories of the camps with his more mature understanding of the situation that came as he grew older.

In addition to providing the details of his own experiences, Takei also explains a lot of the history behind the creation, and eventual dissolution of, the camps. I actually ended up learning quite a bit throughout my reading. My schooling did not spend much time on this part of WWII, so They Called Us Enemy filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Despite the difficult subject matter, the tone throughout these sections manages to remain positive. While Takei is sure to emphasize how wrong and openly racist the whole situation was, he also advances the opinion that America is still a land of opportunity with a lot of potential. This is a remarkably positive stance for someone who lived through an internment camp to have. After the story of his family's imprisonment concludes, Takei briefly describes the rest of his life up until present day, including how he came to work on Star Trek. The vast majority of the work focuses on the camps, however, and the impact they had on Takei's life and on the lives of the Japanese-American community.

The images throughout the graphic novel were clean, attractive, and very effective at conveying the story. The only issue I had with the visual presentation was the lettering, which felt very tiny compared to some other graphic novels I have read. I found myself having to squint at a lot of the pages. I think the most likely reason for this is that I am just getting old. However, my point stands that the text size might present a slight issue to readers with less-than-perfect eyesight. Other that that, I really enjoyed reading this story.

The Japanese interment camps are a shameful chapter of American history that is often glossed over in our public education system. It is important to preserve knowledge about what happened and to teach our children about these events. They Called Us Enemy is a wonderfully accessible way to do that. Takei's story is informational, emotional, and very inspiring. My world feels wider after reading it. I can see why so many of my students enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about this difficult part of our history.


Challenge Tally
True Books 2020: 3/12

Total Books Read in 2020: 11