They Called Us Enemy

The book begins on the morning that soldiers come to take the Takeis to the train that will leave them at the horse stables, prior to their departure for Camp Rohwer. Executive Order 9066 requires that they vacate their home immediately. George does not understand what is happening yet. A panel shows his mother crying, but George does not know why she is upset.

The narrative then jumps forward to 2014 in Kyoto, where an adult George Takei is giving a TEDx talk about the experience. He introduces himself as a crewmember of the Starship Enterprise—from the television show Star Trek—and as an American citizen whose grandparents emigrated from Japan generations earlier.

George relates how his parents met. A series of illustrations show his father, Takekuma, and his mother, Fumiko, meeting in Los Angeles and getting married, which is followed by the births of George’s brother Henry, George, and his sister Nancy.

On December 7, 1941, the family hears the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor while they are decorating the Christmas tree. On Sunday morning Eleanor Roosevelt gives a speech to the nation. The president signs a “proclamation that every Japanese citizen inside the U.