3.93k reviews for:

They Called Us Enemy - Expanded Edition

Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei

4.54 AVERAGE

halloitsalex's review against another edition

4.5

emotional informative sad fast-paced

ashlightgrayson's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad

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I am a huge Star Trek fan and was super excited to finally read George Takei's memoir. It explores his experiences as a child while his family was living in internment camps during World War II. His mother was born in the United States and grew up in Japan while his father was born in Japan and grew up in the United States. George was quite young when this happened, and his parents did a decent job protecting from the worst parts of what was happening. It made me happy to know many Japanese descendants worked together as a community to aid each other and make a home for themselves in those camps despite the circumstances. At the same time, it's something that should have never happened in the first place.

This is a story told through the eyes of a child. It makes the historical truth of what happened much more digestible and approachable. I would recommend it for all ages, honestly. I also have George Takei's autobiography and I'm planning on reading his upcoming memoir about coming out and his LGBT+ activism. It's such a gift to be able to have a first-hand account of such vital historical events. We won't have people from that generation around much longer, so I'll savor what I can learn from them.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, War

poek5592's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

emilyolsem's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

cheeruppirate's review against another edition

5.0

challenging reflective sad fast-paced

alexisrwebb13's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense

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They Called Us Enemy was a great nonfiction, graphic novel adaptation. 

 

A stunningly graphic memoir recounting George’s Childhood imprisonment in an American concentration camp during World War II.  

 

This story was so shocking and had me on the edge of my seat. “In 1942 at the order of President Franklin D Roosevelt, every person of Japanese out in the West Coast has rounded up and shipped to one of 10 relocation centers”  synopsis. 

 

This story depicts the real heroes. I could not believe the happenings during this time and the tragedy that went on. 

 

I love non-fiction memos in the fact that this is a graphic novel with the audience of young adult, makes it very accessible for young minds to read and learn of our history. The cruelty that exists is not an easy thing to swallow. 

novella_m's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

littlebookthief's review against another edition

4.0

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i don't know how to feel considering in the midst of all this Japanese people was also colonising Indonesian people and made us slaves too ... but, in the end, that wasn't the point of this book, so i digress :)

i still think this book had a very strong message and should be a "must read" graphic novels for everyone as it can teach us something, even if it was told only through simple illustrations, about the hurt and sadness people felt back then and how it correlates with how the present day is (not that different, it's very sad and yikes *sigh*)

i don't know what else to say in order to not got too far into the politics as much haha

biblioslut's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative inspiring sad fast-paced