Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - They Called Us Enemy

Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

They Called Us Enemy by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei

25 reviews

laurenmiller100's review against another edition

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5.0

This is an essential book. Japanese internment is relatively unknown to so many modern Americans, but George Takei’s powerful story reminds us that this horror took place not too long ago. The adorable art style stands it stark contradiction to the tragedy within the pages, serving to further cement this child’s view of the experience. I am not usually one to cry at books, but this really affected me. Incredibly powerful and moving.

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pacifickat's review against another edition

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5.0

"Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other, [...] that my liberty depends on you being free, too;[...] that history can't be a sword to justify injustice or shield against progress, [...] but must he a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past."
- Pres. Barack Obama, They Called Us Enemy p. 203

This book should be a national treasure. One of the best historical memoirs I have ever read. The messages it contains are even more vital and pressing today than ever before.

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hmetwade's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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livlamentloathe's review against another edition

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informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Fascinating, heartbreaking, and hard to read. It was well told, but it was hard for the very reasons Takei lists at the end of the book: history is repeating itself. I knew very little of the Japanese internment until maybe college? Most of what I’ve learned has come from reading—unassigned/not for school.

I implore everyone to read this book. Or anything similar to understand the actions of our government. Not to “understand” as in “agree with,” but to acknowledge how bloody and disreputable our history is. The Germans weren’t the only villains of the second world war.

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markwillnevercry's review against another edition

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informative sad fast-paced

4.5

I wanted to read this graphic novel for a while, but never had time or could not get it and as with many things that you wait for a while to read - you start to suspect that it will be not as good as you want it to be. However, this was good. I did, however, take a pretty long time that this was the story by George Takei, but that is just because I do not read author names. This was really well written and was very informative. The US sucks.

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paguroidea's review

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5.0

It is not often that a book of any genre moves me to tears but this one has made that shortlist. I had to set it down at one point as well because of how angry it made me. There are truly heinous things the US has done that aren’t even taught in our schools.

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steveatwaywords's review against another edition

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4.25

That Takei has produced this necessary graphic memoir/history is vitally important, as it clearly opens the door for many in the United States to learning about a much-omitted chapter of our race relations; and for younger readers, it is a gentler (while educational) initial step into understanding ourselves, how our history is created for us, how we be a more powerful democracy for knowing it.

Takei is clear where his youthful memory ends and his historical research begins, stepping back from his moments in these internment camps--some painful, some sentimental--to offer us political background, court cases, speeches of key congressional figures. He also offers us a stark look at the transition back, not just for his family, but for tens of thousands of others. He also offers several pages of historical records and photographs which solidify the illustrated text.

The story is well told, personal and focused. And its sincerity is genuine, of course. If it finds difficulty in navigating the narrative it is in finding the right balance between offering the complexity of the political situation around him and streamlining its presentation for the format of the work. There are no easy answers to it: hopefully, what he reveals is enough to provoke readers to search more. In this way, Takei and his team may have done well to offer directions for readers new to this dark history to explore further.

Even so, for youthful readers, perhaps those as early as ages 8 or 10, this is powerful stuff. For adults who find this book, it's a worthwhile underscoring of our past to better understand its many consequences today.

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bellebookstitch666's review against another edition

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5.0

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alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

i really "enjoyed" reading this (its hard to say you enjoyed reading a book that revolves around war, racism, etc.). similar to others, the only issue i had was discerning when it went back in time or changed to a different setting. i really enjoyed the art style though

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boba_n_books's review

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5.0

Takei’s story is told here in such a beautiful way where readers can literally see the emotions on the page.

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