George’s family, of course, is Japanese-American - his mother born here, his father unable to apply for citizenship despite living in the country for a quarter-century. “I thought everyone took vacations on a train with armed sentries at both ends of each car,” George remembers later. 8, America enters World War II.īy the following autumn, as a result of Executive Order 9066 the family will be on a real train, tagged “like cattle” and bound for Fort Rohwer, Ark., the easternmost of the 10 internment camps established by order of President Roosevelt. Roosevelt immediately declares that all Japanese in the United States must register as “alien enemies.” The next day, Dec.

Before “Silent Night” ends, though, the program comes to a jarring halt, with news of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Mother nurses a baby, while another tot plays with a train set. What is American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do?'- Provided by publisher.It’s a peaceful domestic scene on a Sunday in Los Angeles, 1941: 4-year-old George helps his father trim the tree, as carols curl out of the radio. 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. 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. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D.

But long before he 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. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon - and America itself - in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. Abstract:'A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II.

They called us enemy takei