3.92k reviews for:

They Called Us Enemy - Expanded Edition

Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei

4.54 AVERAGE

ikeeper24's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

whittie03's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

ambero_reads's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

83croissant's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

fabisbookshelf's review against another edition

4.25

emotional informative sad

ommiolgi's review against another edition

4.0

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Great, fairly gentle graphic novel about the Japanese internment in the US. ‘That could never happen’ well, wake up. Complete, but again, gentle look at this horrific history.

Would recommend to adults and kids.

klarkli09's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

itscaahhrrie's review against another edition

5.0

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This is a must-read for those who need a primer on the American imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. George Takei weaves memory with history in an approachable story that everyone needs to hear.

yetanothernastya's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

martereadsalot's review against another edition

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“That remains part of the problem—that we don't know the unpleasant aspects of American history...and therefore we don't learn the lesson those chapters have to teach us. So we repeat them over and over again.”

A truly harrowing look at the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, viewed through the innocent lens of childhood.
It’s a reminder of not only the injustices done in the past, but what is continuously perpetrated today; shown in just a few heart-breaking panels of two children behind barred wires at different points in time.

With They Called Us Enemy, Takei also pointedly exposes how history is polished before being presented to the masses. The atrocities he, his family and hundreds of thousands other Japanese-Americans experienced are not part of this "clean history". It further shows how whoever controls the past, controls the future.
And we still, in 2020, need to change who holds that control.

Everyone should read this, because it’s a lost piece of history that needs to be acknowledged. Because the lessons learned from They Called Us Enemy has to be implemented into everyday life. Because the history of oppression is not something left in the past; it’s still being written today.