They Called Us Enemy is a 2019 graphic memoir written by author, actor, and activist George Takei and illustrated by Harmony Becker. The story chronicles Takei’s childhood experience in the Japanese concentration camps created by the United States during World War II. Takei frames the narrative with a modern-day talk delivered at the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presided over the country during the war and issued Executive Order 9066, which empowered the US government to create the camps and forcibly detain Japanese American citizens. During the talk, Takei tells his family’s story while examining themes of Injustice Against Japanese Americans, An Imperfect Democracy, and Loyalty and American Patriotism.

Summary

George is a child when his family is relocated to Camp Rohwer, a detention facility in Arkansas. The galvanizing event that turns the United States against the Japanese is the attack on Pearl Harbor. Much of the story focuses on how George’s parents deal with their new circumstances, with each throwing themselves into work. George’s mother does what she can to create a new home in the small barracks cabin, while George’s father serves as the Block Manager and works to form a community among the internees.

George’s memories of the camp are not entirely unpleasant. His parents do a good job of protecting him and his siblings—Henry and Nancy—from many of the realities of their incarceration.

In June 1943, the camp prisoners are forced to answer a so-called Loyalty Questionnaire. Two of the questions—numbers 27 and 28—ask if they will serve in the US military and if they will forsake any allegiance to the Japanese emperor. George’s parents know that the framing of the questions is unethical and hypocritical; their consciences require them to answer “no” to each question. This gives them the reputation of being “No-Nos.” As a result, they are transferred to Camp Tule Lake, a harsher internment facility with more guards, barbed wire, and weapons.

Near the end of World War II, the US government gives the prisoners the option to renounce their US citizenship and repatriate to Japan. George’s mother agrees to give up her citizenship, believing it will be best for the family. When the camps close at war’s end, the internees will return to homes and jobs that no longer exist in a country that doesn’t want them. Activist attorney Wayne Collins manages to bog down the repatriation process with hundreds of appeals cases accompanied by writs of habeas corpus. George’s mother no longer has to leave, although it takes years to regain her citizenship.

The family moves to Los Angeles after leaving Camp Tule Lake. The book then shows George’s rise in the theater world and recounts how he landed the role of Sulu on Star Trek. He uses his growing platform to spread his positive message of tolerance, inclusivity, and the ideals of US democracy. At the end of the book, he visits the Camp Rohwer Memorial Cemetery with his husband.