From the Bookshelf of The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club…

They Called Us Enemy

George Takei,

Justin Eisinger

Start date: June 1, 2021

Finish date: August 31, 2021

Why we're reading this: This is a graphic novel by the actor who played Sulu on Star Trex. Let’s explore a different reading medi…more
[close] This is a graphic novel by the actor who played Sulu on Star Trex. Let’s explore a different reading medium.

Discussion Day will be August 25, 2021!

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What Members Thought

Feb 10, 2025 Jessi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is powerful

This touches on the history of children not being typically taught in schools. I was not taught this in school, but I still learned thanks to a teacher who gave me a copy of his book on Hiroshima and how those of Japanese descent were treated here in America. This is a wonderful and awful story as we have shown what transpired through the eyes of someone who had gone through it as a child. Not everything was remembered, but what stuck with them affected them long into adulthood. ...more

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Jun 13, 2021 Ronel Janse van Vuuren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, historical-setting, human-rights, tbr-2021-challenge, a-z-t

Riveting.

I first learned about the Japanese Internment Camps in “Teen Wolf” – before that, all I knew about American history was what movies were made of (“Pearl Harbour”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Annie”, “Hairspray”, etc.). Clearly, I’m not a history buff. The way George told his story – his father’s story, his mother’s story, the story of all Japanese Americans of the time – was done with sensitivity, nuance and forgiveness.

When you hear about racial prejudice in America, it is always black vs Riveting.

I first learned about the Japanese Internment Camps in “Teen Wolf” – before that, all I knew about American history was what movies were made of (“Pearl Harbour”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Annie”, “Hairspray”, etc.). Clearly, I’m not a history buff. The way George told his story – his father’s story, his mother’s story, the story of all Japanese Americans of the time – was done with sensitivity, nuance and forgiveness.

When you hear about racial prejudice in America, it is always black vs white, though you know that there are many more races in that country of immigrants – we have a diversity of race, culture, religion and gender identities in South Africa which had been colonised centuries ago just as America had, so it stands to reason that they should have diversity, too. Reading George’s story, highlighted not only the atrocities against people based on their race during the Second World War, but also the internment camps and human rights abuses done in the last decade – all of it in the country that shouts the loudest about its democracy and “liberty and justice for all”.

It’s sad to see history repeating itself.

But there’s also the good: the things George (and many others he mentions in the book) has done to improve relationships and understanding between people from different sides, helping others move past the hate and shame of the past, and being proud of who he is and reminding others to do the same.

My favourite quote from the book (found on page 140 in the print edition):
“Most Japanese Americans from my parents’ generation didn’t like to talk about the internment with their children. As with many traumatic experiences, they were anguished by their memories and haunted by shame… for something that wasn’t their fault. Shame is a cruel thing. It should rest on the perpetrators… but they don’t carry it the way victims do.”

Though non-fiction, I found it entertaining as well as informative. A must-read for all humans.

*This was the Insecure Writer’s Support Group Book Club selection for June/July/August 2021.
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Sep 03, 2021 Mary Aalgaard rated it it was amazing

With a clear voice and a gentle spirit, George Takei tells us about the devastating experience of being imprisoned in the Japanese-American Internment camps during WWII. Leaders of the USA at the time targeted people of Japanese decent and labeled them as untrustworthy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, even though many who were imprisoned had been born in the USA and most were citizens of the USA. George's parents lost everything they had worked hard to build, their home, their business, their ...more

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Aug 27, 2021 Kathryn McKendry rated it it was amazing

An important and moving memoir.

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Aug 15, 2021 Toi Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed, rated, comic-graphic-novels, nonfiction, diverse-characters, memoir

I'm still processing this story and will submit a more thorough review at some point, but I don't want to put off adding it to my "read" list.

For now, I highly recommend it.

Educate yourself. Experience someone else's reality. Let's all be better. ...more

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