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pinenoodle 's review for:
They Called Us Enemy
by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei
This is an incredible and impactful book about an often hidden black mark on American history, the interment of over a hundred thousand Japanese Americans. Takei (and co-writers) manage to move the reader about an awful past, without forcing the reader to stop and struggle. This is in large part because we are seeing this history through the lens of young George Takei who was about 5 when he and his family were first forced into an internment camp. At the time he didn't have a clue what was going on (his parents worked hard to keep it that way), and he thought he was going on some strange vacation. For a while he believed that the tall fences were not to keep the internees in, but rather to keep dinosaurs out, after an older boy convinced him that Arkansas, the site of one of the camps he stayed in, was the last place where dinosaurs stilled lived. The reader can nonetheless see the truth behind what young George believed.
This book does have jarring moments. There are a number of near-present day events where Takei has talked about his history to various audiences that serve as a quasi framing device. Except that there are a few too many to be a framing device, especially since the first starts 9 pages in. Portions of a talk Takei gave at Tedx Kyoto feels like it adds nothing since everything said could have been put in this book without reference to the talk. That particular talk also never returns. There is a better quasi frame, a talk/conversation that Takei had at the FDR presidential museum because it allows us to see the conflicting emotions that Takei, his father (and undoubtedly many other Japanese Americans) have/had toward the president responsible for their interment.
Ultimately I highly recommend this, I just wish it had ironed out a few last kinks.
This book does have jarring moments. There are a number of near-present day events where Takei has talked about his history to various audiences that serve as a quasi framing device. Except that there are a few too many to be a framing device, especially since the first starts 9 pages in. Portions of a talk Takei gave at Tedx Kyoto feels like it adds nothing since everything said could have been put in this book without reference to the talk. That particular talk also never returns. There is a better quasi frame, a talk/conversation that Takei had at the FDR presidential museum because it allows us to see the conflicting emotions that Takei, his father (and undoubtedly many other Japanese Americans) have/had toward the president responsible for their interment.
Ultimately I highly recommend this, I just wish it had ironed out a few last kinks.