They Called Us Enemy by George Takei Book Analysis
They called us enemy is an important recollection of the internment of Japanese Americans and how they were persecuted and suffered at the hands of the United States government during World War two. In they called us enemy George Takei details the time he spent in Japanese internment camps while contributing this experience to his life’s journey and how it shaped his motivations in life. Takei’s argument is that Japanese Americans were racially targeted and persecuted as enemies by the US government during World War two creating injustices that denied them of their humanity and rights as Americans.
At the beginning of “They called us enemy” George Takei and his family are removed from his childhood home in Los Angeles by the US military and relocated to an internment camp. After the attack on Pearl Harbor the discriminatory actions of the US government knew no limits. Japanese of all generations were persecuted, and families were destroyed across the United States. This was a result of executive order 9066. This order authorized the military to declare areas in the United States in which any or all persons may be excluded and to provide food, shelter, and other accommodations to those people who have been excluded from those areas. The order never used the word “Japanese” directly, but Japanese people were the only group persecuted under the order. Throughout the spring of 1942 over a hundred civilian exclusion orders were issued each one mapping out a district in which all Japanese Americans were to be removed and relocated. Nearly all Japanese Americans had their financial assets, property, and businesses seized. This evidence strongly supports Takei’s argument throughout the novel that the US government not only dehumanized but denied Japanese Americans of fundamental rights.
The Takei family was relocated to the Santa Anita racetrack where they were subjected to living in a horse stable. George recalls that at the time he didn’t understand the injustice of the situation and that his parents carried the weight of that devastating blow on the family. Imagine being taken from your home in beautiful Los Angeles to be relocated to a racetrack where you’ll be sleeping in a horse stable. This is just another example that Takei uses from his experience to express how dehumanizing the US government treated Japanese Americans and violated their rights.
Things only got worse for the Takei family. After being relocated, it was at camp Rohwher where Takei’s parents were asked to pledge their allegiance to the United States by disavowing their allegiance to the Japanese empire and committing to serve in the armed forces. The problem is Takei’s mother along with many other Nisei Japanese Americans had never been to Japan and had no allegiance whatsoever to the Japanese Empire. However, Takei’s father was born in Japan and didn’t qualify for US citizenship due to US immigration law and giving up his Japanese citizenship at the time would leave him stateless. Both of his parents answered no to these questions in fear that their family would be separated. In response to having answered no to both questions the US government relocated the Takei family to Tule Lake. A camp for delinquents or internees being labelled as “no-no’s”. An American woman with American children was treated like an enemy of the United States because of her ancestry being accused of having allegiance to a country she had never been before. This is a heartbreaking example Takei uses from his family’s experience to prove how the US government believed Japanese Americans were enemies of the United States and that they had to renounce any allegiance to the Japanese empire when many Japanese Americans had lived in the United States their entire life.
On July 1st, 1944, the United States passed a bill that gave the “right” to Japanese Americans to declare themselves as “Enemy Aliens” by renouncing their US citizenship. On December 18th, 1944 the US government announced that loyal Nisei could not be held in internment camps any longer and that the Japanese exclusion act was being revoked. Tule Lake was set to be closed leaving many Japanese American families with nowhere to go. However, the US military would continue to allow Japanese Americans to remain in the camp under the condition they renounced their American citizenship. Again, in fear that their family would be separated Takei’s mother renounced her American citizenship. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the war was over, and the Tule Lake camp was set to be closed again leaving Japanese Americans who had renounced their citizenship wondering what would happen to them. This example of how the US government manipulated George Takei’s mother into renouncing her citizenship is just one example of how they did it to many other Japanese Americans who eventually faced deportation and were denied of their rights. George Takei’s mother would eventually regain her citizenship but only after having to sue the US government narrowly beating her date of deportation by two days.
Takei gives a compelling argument against the US government and their persecution of Japanese Americans during World War two. From sleeping in a horse stable to watching his mother sue the United States government to retain her US citizenship Takei effectively supports his argument with heartbreaking life experiences as evidence against the US government. Takei uses this part of his life’s story and the way his family was dehumanized by the US government to effectively prove his argument that the US government treated Japanese Americans as enemies of the United States creating injustices that dehumanized and denied the rights of Japanese Americans.
Bibliography
Takei, George, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker. They Called US Enemy. San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019.
