
They Called US Enemy
IDW Publishing · Paperback · July 16, 2019
New York Times Bestseller!
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- A serious, visually driven read with room for discussion and reflection.
- Themes
- racial injustice, family resilience, identity
- Pacing
- Reflective
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
1984: the Graphic NovelGeorge Orwell, Fido Nesti50% match
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Last RoninKevin Eastman, Peter Laird41% match
Watchmen: the Deluxe EditionAlan Moore, Dave Gibbons42% match
On Tyranny Graphic EditionTimothy Snyder, Nora Krug50% match
Issak Omnibus 1Shinji Makari40% match
Strange PlanetNathan W. Pyle44% match
Redbone: the True Story of a Native American Rock BandChristian Staebler, Sonia Paoloni42% matchShares Graphic Biography & Memoir
The Liminal ZoneJunji Ito41% match
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
New York Times Bestseller! Discover this award-winning masterpiece before the release of George Takei's deeply personal follow-up, It Rhymes With Takei (June 2025). A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love.
Continue reading
George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. 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. In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. 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. 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. What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? When the world is against you, what can one person do? To answer these questions, George Takei joins co-writers Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.
Why It Clicks
A serious, visually driven read with room for discussion and reflection.
Come here for
- graphic-history form
- cultural-memory angle
Expect
- layered historical framing
- steady, sustained pacing
Where it sits
| Graphic Biography & Memoir | 91% |
|---|---|
| Asian & Asian American Lives | 61% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Personal Memoirs
- Graphic Biography & Memoir
- LGBTQ+ Comics
- Authors
- George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott
- Publisher
- IDW Publishing
- Published
- July 16, 2019
- Format
- Paperback
- Theme
- racial injustice · family resilience · identity
- Reading lane
- Personal Memoirs