7/15/2019 'They Called Us Enemy,' by George Takei book review - The Washington Post

The Washington Post

Books Review

George Takei has talked about his family’s internment before. But
never quite like this.

By Michael Cavna
“I know what concentration camps are,” George Takei, the actor-activist turned social media rock star, tweeted
last month to his nearly 3 million followers. “I was inside two of them, in America. And yes, we are operating
such camps again.”

Takei was speaking, of course, of the immigrant detention facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Takei has no
patience for muddied political semantics. While a small boy, during World War II, the Los Angeles-born Takei
and his family were kept behind barbed wire for four years, in what became known as “Japanese internment
camps” — another term that he cannot abide. According to the publisher of Takei’s new book, he believes such
verbiage incorrectly suggests that Japan ran the camps, or that the U.S. government held exclusively Japanese
people and not Japanese Americans like himself.

ADVERTISING

Takei, still best known for playing Sulu in the Star Trek franchise, has turned his experience into a riveting
graphic novel-memoir. “They Called Us Enemy”— co-written with Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and artist
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 7/15/2019 'They Called Us Enemy,' by George Takei book review - The Washington Post
Harmony Becker — arrives Tuesday as a necessary testament to what stoked fear and federal racism looked like
eight decades ago within America’s own borders.

“They Called Us Enemy” poignantly paints how Takei’s father, a longtime U.S. resident, and Takei’s mother, a
Sacramento-born American citizen, suddenly were declared an “alien enemy” by a presidential proclamation
that doomed thousands shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

“Enemy” might draw some comparisons to the graphic novel “Maus,” Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer-winning epic
about his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. Yet in many ways, “Enemy” more strongly echoes another
American icon’s memoir: “March,” Rep. John Lewis’s illustrated trilogy set during the civil rights movement.

“March,” also published by Top Shelf, proved popular with educators and became the first graphic novel to win
the National Book Award for young people’s literature. The publisher appears to be positioning “Enemy” as a
similar hit: It is written in a way that is accessible to older grade-schoolers, and Takei is not only appearing at
pop-culture conventions (he’s scheduled to appear at San Diego Comic-Con this month) but also at American
Library Association conferences (he was a star speaker last month in Washington).

This is a sage strategy, because “Enemy” deserves to be a popular recommendation at school libraries across
the land — humanizing a brutal chapter in U.S. history that even many adults seem to understand only vaguely.

Takei wants us to feel, even smell, the inhumane treatment as he relives spring 1942, when his family of five
was among those herded like livestock to the Santa Anita racetrack — living in small stalls that reeked of horse
manure — before being “tagged” for eventual relocation by train. The pictures are heart-rending and the prose
is stark as the author begins his schooling in the shadow of guard towers.

On one hand, children are remarkably adaptable, and Takei notes how his youthful lens can make him an
unreliable narrator when it comes to his own small adventures: “Childhood memories are especially slippery
. . . they can often be a misrendering of the truth.” (Becker’s monochromatic art depicts that aptly; there is light
in her lines, reflecting young George’s playful buoyancy.)

Yet Takei also pulls back to reflect the sweeping scale of the tragedy, as unrecoverable assets are frozen and
seized; strict curfews are enforced; and FDR’s infamous Executive Order No. 9066 sends more than 110,000
people of Japanese descent to relocation centers. He details how Japanese immigrants, despite long U.S.
residency, had no path to citizenship; some Japanese Americans who entered the military before Pearl Harbor
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 7/15/2019 'They Called Us Enemy,' by George Takei book review - The Washington Post
were even forced to surrender their weapons. And he spotlights the sentiment of Sen. Tom Stewart, who says
publicly: “There is not a single Japanese in this country who would not stab you in the back.”

Takei’s family is sent to Camp Rohwer in Arkansas, where more than 8,000 people are held, and later to a
center in Tule Lake, Calif., after his parents fail to agree to philosophically twisted “loyalty” questions on
prisoner questionnaires.

And yet Takei, despite such a bitter experience, holds on to his father’s words. He “taught me the power of
American democracy — the people’s democracy,” Takei writes, even if human fallibility can at times mar
American ideals. (Takei also makes a point of spotlighting two “outside heroes” during his internment: Quaker
missionary Herbert Nicholson and San Francisco lawyer Wayne Collins.)

At 82, Takei has evolved into an increasingly powerful voice for oppressed communities, and “Enemy” finds
him at peak moral clarity — an unflinching force in these divisive times.

Young readers would do well to learn his story of a childhood set against a historically racist backdrop, told in
clear and unmuddled prose. As our politicians trade semantics, “They Called Us Enemy” calls upon readers to
see past the walls, cages and words that divide us.

M ichael Cavna, creator of the —Comic Riffs“ column, covers comics and illustration for The Post.

THEY CALLED US ENEMY

By George Takei with Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker

Top Shelf. 208 pp. $19.99

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide
a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Michael Cavna
Writer/artist/visual storyteller Michael Cavna is creator of the Comic Riffs column and graphic-novel reviewer for The
Washington Post's Book World.  Follow 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/george-takei-has-talked-about-his-familys-internment-before-but-never-quite-like-this/2019/07/11/f3320c6e-a3… 3/4
7/15/2019 'They Called Us Enemy,' by George Takei book review - The Washington Post

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/george-takei-has-talked-about-his-familys-internment-before-but-never-quite-like-this/2019/07/11/f3320c6e-a3… 4/4