They Called Us Enemy: A Graphic Memoir of a Japanese American Family's Internment

Joan A. Lansberry: Two adult readers here who really loved how well the story was told. It is history more people should know about.

United States on Oct 27, 2023

KLKL: George Takei's personal story brings to life a shameful period in American history. I was a little hesitant about the graphic novel format, but I think it works beautifully in retelling his childhood and bringing the experience to life from a child's eye. As the book continues, he weaves in and out of the "present day" and his recollections in a way that brings the reader along, connecting the dots between something that feels so long ago to the events of recent years.

I highly recommend this for anyone who is a history buff, interested in American history and how separate events weave us all together, and for parents looking to gently introduce their children to Asian American history.

United States on Sep 26, 2023

Brad Jackman Clooney: This book really opened my eyes to what happened to the Japanese-American people during that fraught period. More than a few times, I was so moved and felt like tears were gonna well up in my eyes. They tried to live in dignity despite the discrimination, and they went through great odds to fight for their rights. They took it day by day, and in the end they prevailed. Must have been an agonizing wait to gain that redemption in the end, even if it was too late for some of them.

United States on Sep 13, 2023

Juleeroze: I knew that ”Uncle George" had been interned with his family during WWW II, and I even remembered it was in Arkansas somewhere in the background of my memories. But this book lays out the details in such a simple, honest and elegant way that it will stay with the reader for a long, long time. In addition, George's story is told in a way that is suitable and understandable for children from the second or third grade level. I hope that despite the book-banning times we live in, this graphic novel is available in school libraries everywhere. You go, George!

United States on Aug 27, 2023

Kelly Rowe: Disappointed because I thought it was a novel. It’s a graphic novel which is not my thing

Australia on Jul 22, 2023

Kelly: I was expecting a proper read. Still interesting but so many pictures. Probably better for kids to be fair

United Kingdom on May 04, 2023

Speidamen: I know it may be harsh to compare anything to Art Spiegelman's "Maus", yet I feel that to describe my issue with George Takei's "They called us enemy", I have to do exactly that. The main difference is not in the dissimilar art style. Neither is it that the books are about separate historic events with fundamentally different outcomes. The difference is that where Spiegelman focusses on the memories of his late father, Takei's book is based on his own; memories he formed as a very young child with no concept of what was happening. Therefore, he has to fill the blanks, and it is this filling of the blanks with contemporary American sensitivities that irks me, and opens the book up to criticism. I do agree, of course, that the treatment of Japanese Americans was unacceptable and utterly appalling, but I don't understand how long winded appeals to democracy are supposed to cure the underlying problem. After all, the political system of the USA, under which the Takei family and countless others were so mistreated, was only marginally different from the system we have today. Even more, the ruling party at the time was the comparatively progressive Democrats around Roosevelt. There are...

Germany on Nov 05, 2022

JoyLuck: Important history of racial injustice is important to share to young people and this form of literature makes it accessible and palatable. Based on the actor‘s own personal experience, it is an important eye witness account.

Germany on Mar 24, 2022

ardeear: George Takei is many things: as an actor he is most readily associated with being Mr Sulu on ‘Star Trek’ but his pan-Asian helmsman from the USS Enterprise is only a fraction of the story. A social rights campaigner for much of his adult life, Mr Sulu was an early sign of success for a young Takei, being a positive Asian character on American TV at a time when Japanese-Americans (and, pretty much anyone of non-Caucasian heritage) were not usually treated at all kindly by the ‘white majority’.
The role gave Takei recognition and the springboard to further LGBT+ rights as well as the opportunity to address injustices around the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.
While, as a UK reader of ‘They Called Us Enemy’, certain nuisances of the US constitution left me a little cold, the human story behind the treatment of a whole swathe of people - purely due to their racial heritage - is powerfully told and, as the book itself points out, the resonances in recent American history - given the actions of Trump - remain deeply concerning.
Takei’s an inspiring individual who draws greatly on the inspiration of his own parents and, in particular, his father. This...

United Kingdom on Dec 28, 2020

Garrison Haines-Temons: In 1942, over 120,000 Japanese-Americans were taken away from their homes and placed into dingy prison camps all over the US. They did nothing wrong, but had none of the legal means to prove it to the racist authorities. They were paying for the sins of their home country after the Pearl Harbor bombing. Classic ignorant thinking at its worst: because a small minority of the group committed the crime, the entire group is guilty. George Takei spent most of his tender childhood living under this kind of oppression as he and his family were among the Japanese-American families locked up in internment camps. Reading about this shameful experience through his eyes makes everything that much more heartbreaking. His young mind couldn’t comprehend the ignorance of those in charge. He tried to make sense of the barbed wire enclosures, deplorable conditions, and abusive army guards. Fast forward into adulthood and George Takei does everything in his power as an equal rights activist and Hollywood actor to make sure this terrifying history doesn’t happen again.

This graphic novel is nothing short of a brutally honest look into the politics of fear. Powerful politicians will use...

United States on Feb 19, 2020