Reviews tagging 'Confinement'
They Called Us Enemy by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei
58 reviews
livlamentloathe's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Hate crime, and Confinement
Moderate: War, Colonisation, and Deportation
michelle_my_belle's review against another edition
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, War, and Xenophobia
markwillnevercry's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Pregnancy, Confinement, Bullying, Police brutality, War, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, and Deportation
colie1018's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Confinement, and Racial slurs
jmschnepp's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This edition of They Call Us Enemy is a graphic novel. I have classified it as historic fiction, even though it could be considered a memoir. It tells Takei's story of Japanese's internment following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The information about interment was provided by his father as he was pre-school aged at the time. The rest of the book is the story of George's life in relation to the interment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Gun violence, and Racism
lidia710's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Confinement
Moderate: Racial slurs, Death, and Grief
Minor: War and Child death
mythian's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Confinement, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Racial slurs
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: War, Racism, Racial slurs, Hate crime, and Deportation
jemmania's review against another edition
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
nat_montego's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Racial slurs, and Racism