They Called Us Enemy by George Takei (Author), Justin Eisinger (Author), Steven Scott (Author), and Harmony Becker (Illustrator)
George Takei is perhaps best known as Star Trek's iconic Hikaru Sulu. However, while They Called Us Enemy touches on Takei's Star Trek journey, the focus is on Takei's youth spent in an internment camp. Mere months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt ordered every person of Japanese descent on the West Coast to be corralled into camps. Takei and his family were given a mere ten minutes to pack what they could carry and were forced onto a train taking them...somewhere.
While Takei does share some bright memories of his childhood, he explains that these were made somewhat possible by the ignorance of his youth. Takei unflinchingly explores what life was like in internment camps from when he and his family were made to live in a barely hosed down horse stall to his parents becoming "no-nos" for answering no to "loyalty" questions.
Takei also shares his life after the camps and how long it took for even an acknowledgment of wrongdoing to come from the government that imprisoned him, his family, and those who shared his heritage. Bold, moving, and informative, They Called Us Enemy is vital reading.
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