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3.92k reviews for:
They Called Us Enemy - Expanded Edition
Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei
4.54 AVERAGE
3.92k reviews for:
They Called Us Enemy - Expanded Edition
Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei
4.54 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
"They Called Us Enemy" is an amazing work that talks about the injustices of America towards Japanese American citizens from the perspective of George Takei. Executive Order 9066 is explained in detail, its effects on those pushed towards internment, and the time it took to get the justice they deserved. This book is not only a great use of the graphic novel medium, but a shining example of what the comic medium is. It's not just superheroes. It's a way of conveying a message that will live on for generations and generations. A message of past wrongs and what we need to do right.
informative
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A powerful memoir about difficult times and how people live through them.
fast-paced
It's been several years since I took a college class dedicated to the Japanese Internment camps during WWII, so it was good to refresh my memory of what I learned that semester through this graphic novel. It was pretty easy to get through and explained the many complicated feelings and actions of Japanese Americans during the time period (something that can be hard to do in a graphic novel format with less space for words). I've also read Mine Okubo's Citizen 13660, another semi-graphic novel memoir about living in the internment camps but from an adult's perspective, while this has a lot of a child's memories of a time where he wouldn't fully grasp the seriousness of every situation. As Takei himself discusses, he had many talks with his father about their imprisonment as a teenager, and that fills in a lot of the story too. His later naïveté about the situation, feeling that his father should have protested more instead of "allowing" their family to be imprisoned was rough to read. But it makes sense for a young teen to feel that something else could have been done, when he doesn't have three kids under 5 to worry about.
Where the novel seemed to lack for me was Takei's insistence that American democracy is something beautiful, or something that will "eventually right wrongs" while he shows many examples of that democracy failing him and his family. By the end of the novel he discusses the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, a repatriation effort by the U.S. government (if I remember from class, it was fought for by Japanese American citizens). However this process starts in 1981, Takei says he doesn't receive any money or written apology himself until 1991, and his father had died in 1979, never knowing the government was going to apologize. Takei and the other writers involved in this story draw parallels to the Muslim ban from the Trump administration, and appear to draw parallels to the ongoing crisis with South American immigrants and ICE's immigrant camps/deportation centers. Is a democracy so wonderful if these people being harmed right now may only receive an apology over 40 years later? Should we view a democracy as working if we can't prevent the repetition of history, but we can issue a formal apology years later for ruining lives? I'm just not sure I can agree with this theme running throughout the novel.
Whatever my feelings on this particular part of the novel, Takei spoke his own truth about a very terrifying childhood, and stressful period of time for his parents. I think this is still a very important addition to the history of the Japanese Internment camps, and would encourage anyone to read it.
Where the novel seemed to lack for me was Takei's insistence that American democracy is something beautiful, or something that will "eventually right wrongs" while he shows many examples of that democracy failing him and his family. By the end of the novel he discusses the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, a repatriation effort by the U.S. government (if I remember from class, it was fought for by Japanese American citizens). However this process starts in 1981, Takei says he doesn't receive any money or written apology himself until 1991, and his father had died in 1979, never knowing the government was going to apologize. Takei and the other writers involved in this story draw parallels to the Muslim ban from the Trump administration, and appear to draw parallels to the ongoing crisis with South American immigrants and ICE's immigrant camps/deportation centers. Is a democracy so wonderful if these people being harmed right now may only receive an apology over 40 years later? Should we view a democracy as working if we can't prevent the repetition of history, but we can issue a formal apology years later for ruining lives? I'm just not sure I can agree with this theme running throughout the novel.
Whatever my feelings on this particular part of the novel, Takei spoke his own truth about a very terrifying childhood, and stressful period of time for his parents. I think this is still a very important addition to the history of the Japanese Internment camps, and would encourage anyone to read it.
emotional
informative
sad
tense
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced