I met George Takei in 1986. I was 8 and I had spent almost all day waiting to meet him and Walter Koening at a video store signing in Cary, NC. While Walter was busy being hugged and kissed by a bevy of fans, George was very nice to spend extra time talking with my dad and me. He talked about upcoming TV shows he was guest-starring in. He listened as I told him that 'The Naked Time' was one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, to which George proclaimed was one of his too. I told him how sorry I was to see the Enterprise explode (in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) and Takei hinted that he might be behind a new console very soon.
Then it was time to meet Walter Koening and he could not have been more distant to me. I immediately became a George Takei fan. In those nearly 40 years since, I may not have agreed with his politics, methods or style 100%. But I never lost my respect for him because he took time to respect me that day in Cary.
In 2019, George Takei recounted the tragic affair of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in the Top Shelf published graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy. Assisting Takei in his personal recollection of his family's 3 year plus imprisonment under the suspicion of being Imperial Japanese spies were Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott. The Takei story is essentially told from 3 perspectives: George as a young child who saw the episode as a frightful camping experience, George as a young man struggling to understand his father's ability to allow his family to be imprisoned while wanting justice for all, and George as a much older man who lived to see the American government apologize for the passing of Executive Order 9066 and later allow the actor/activist chances to talk to others about the atrocities.
The American government has made great steps to apologize for internment. Yet it seems for every step forward, our nation takes a couple steps backward. For example, towards the end of this memoir, Takei discusses Fred Korematsu's 1944 Supreme Court lawsuit on his internment. Korematsu sued for the right to remain free of the camps and lost 6-3. Then in 2018, the Supreme Court reversed Korematsu V. United States all the while simultaneously providing 5-4 favor in the ruling of Trump Vs. Hawaii, which allowed the government to restrict Muslim immigration into the US.
At one point in the book, Takei recounts how years later he was invited to the ancestral home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. At Springwood, Takei was invited to speak about the wrongful action of imprisonment of Japanese Americans on the 75th Anniversary of EX 9066. George Takei points out that 'only in America' can someone who was wronged by a world leader actually get to discuss the issue in the very house FDR (George's jailer!) was born and raised in! While Takei admits that America provides great freedoms unlike many countries on earth, it still has a long way to go to get things right.
The artwork was by Harmony Becker. Using black and white art with gray shading, They Called Us Enemy was drawn in the Manga style.
They Called Us Enemy was nominated for several awards, winning in both the American Book Award and Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work in 2020.
Completing this review completes Task #41 (A Memoir) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.
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