They Called US Enemy by George Takei

They Called US Enemy

George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott

IDW Publishing · Paperback · July 16, 2019

New York Times Bestseller!

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Who it’s for
A serious, visually driven read with room for discussion and reflection.
Themes
racial injustice, family resilience, identity
Pacing
Reflective

About 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.

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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 & Memoir91%
Asian & Asian American Lives61%

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