They Called Us Enemy

 

Takei, G. (2019). They called us enemy. GA: Top Shelf Productions.

What a powerful graphic memoir. The story of the internment camps is one that I have gradually been learning more about as I have had to teach them as a part of the WWII era in Texas History. I was first introduced to this part of America’s past through a movie then later a television show. Putting George Takei’s first-hand account of the experience into graphic format helped to convey so much of the story that could have otherwise been too cumbersome to read. I appreciate that Takei conveys the story as a child when it happened, clueless to many of the details, as a teenager having after dinner talks with his father incredulous that the internees didn’t fight back more, and as an adult bringing it all together with the advantage of maturity and having the platform to speak publicly about America’s treatment of Japanese during WWII.

You May Also Like: the March trilogy by John Lewis, Dear Martin by Nic Stone

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