They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

"Long before George Takei 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 joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future." (Goodreads.com)

They Called Us Enemy was a moving personal account of the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II. In this graphic novel Takei does a great job describing his everyday life and the events that surrounded him growing up. It's a great jumping off point to learn more about this period in American History.

Meghan McCabe

Children & Youth Services Librarian

Available at the Langley-Adams Library