Book

They Called Us Enemy

This graphic memoir from actor, author, and activist George Takei recounts his childhood incarcerated in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon — and America itself — in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love.  
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At a Glance

Book

Language

English — US

Subject

  • Advisory
  • Civics & Citizenship
  • English & Language Arts
  • History
  • Social Studies
  • Antisemitism
  • Culture & Identity
  • Democracy & Civic Engagement
  • Equity & Inclusion
  • Genocide
  • Global Migration & Immigration
  • The Holocaust
  • Human & Civil Rights
  • Propaganda
  • Racism
  • Resistance

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

George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his magnetic performances, sharp wit, and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father’s — and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future.

In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten “relocation centers,” hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard.

They Called Us Enemy is Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.

What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins cowriters Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.

 They Called Us Enemy- Book Cover
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They Called Us Enemy: Expanded Edition

ISBN: 9781603094702
Date of Publication: July 2019

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