They Called Us Enemy Major and Minor Quotes

“In California . . . the single most popular political position was ‘Lock up the Japs.’” (page 20)

—George Takei

Analysis: After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941), racism against Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans that may have been bubbling below the surface comes boiling to the top. The property of those with Japanese heritage is destroyed, and racial slurs are used. As if this isn’t devastating enough, politicians like Earl Warren take advantage of this sentiment to advance their political careers and gain power. In doing so, Warren and others deepen racist attitudes toward Japanese Americans and eventually directly cause their unjust internment.

These politicians stoke flames of racism to convince not only citizens but powerful government officials that those of Japanese descent are untrustworthy, sneaky, and unable to assimilate into American culture. This is just the first way in which democracy fails Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. These sentiments lead to the seizure of property, businesses, and freedom. It also eventually leads to unfair policies that cause Japanese Americans like Mama to feel forced into renouncing their citizenship. The idea that American leaders not only use racist ideas to get ahead but also further those ideas is the ultimate betrayal against Japanese American citizens.

“The order . . . authorized the military to declare areas ‘from which any or all persons may be excluded.’” (page 22)

—George Takei

Analysis: After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war against Japan, beginning a period of severe public mistrust of those of Japanese descent. Politicians like Earl Warren and Fletcher Bowron stoke this suspicion with racist rhetoric that deepens the public’s mistrust. This turns into public pressure for President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066, which allows the military to declare areas from which to exclude certain people—thus creating a legal pathway for the incarceration of Japanese Americans in camps.

Though most Japanese Americans and Japanese people living in America, like Mama and Daddy, were accused of no crime other than being Japanese, they and thousands of others are interned. Later, the United States government would admit that this was not only wrong but also against the Constitution. This event serves as a primary example of the tension between the ideals of democracy and how it is applied in reality, particularly for those of Asian descent. While democracy promotes freedom, a right to due process, and protection against seizure of property without cause, the experience of Japanese Americans was the very opposite. Later, George Takei and Daddy discuss the balance between what makes American democracy both great and flawed—that it is based on the action of people in both cases.

“For my parents . . . [who] had worked so hard . . . it was a degrading, humiliating, painful experience.” (page 32)

—George Takei

Analysis: When the Takei family is taken into custody, they end up at Santa Anita Racetrack for several months. They are housed in unsanitary horse stalls, which is an exciting adventure for young George.

However, it is humiliating for his parents, particularly Daddy, who had been living the American Dream as an immigrant and had worked hard to build a business and own a home. This is an example of the dehumanizing racism that the Takei family and thousands of families like them experience as they are removed from their homes and put into internment camps. Incarcerated Japanese Americans are treated like animals, living in squalor and disease, though the executive order requires the military to provide care and housing. This part of the narrative illustrates how the American Dream can be a lie and how the ideals of democracy are often inapplicable for immigrants and those of immigrant descent. Widespread racism at the time allowed a large group of people to be dehumanized to the point that they were not considered worthy of basic rights or care.

“People can do great things . . . but people are also fallible . . . and we know they made a terrible mistake.” (page 45)

—Daddy

Analysis: One day, when George is a teenager, Daddy talks to him about why he believes so strongly in American democracy. It boils down to the idea that American democracy is special because it relies on people. People can do great things, as President Roosevelt did in pulling the United States out of the Great Depression. They can work together through democratic actions like volunteering, organizing, and working as a community—all of which Daddy models for George during his youth. But people are humans who also make mistakes, as President Roosevelt and other politicians did when they put into motion the order that led to Japanese internment.

This idea of the dual nature of American democracy is woven throughout the memoir. George and Daddy both extol the possibilities that democracy offers, but both also show how, without citizens to hold the government accountable, the ideals of democracy are not enough to protect vulnerable citizens. Only through collective action and accountability can those ideals truly be upheld.

“Memory is a wily keeper of the past . . . usually dependable, but at times slippery.” (page 50)

—George Takei

Analysis: As the memoir progresses, it becomes clear that George Takei and his parents have very different perceptions of their time in the camp. George views nearly every new encounter as an opportunity for adventure—his childlike innocence, combined with his parents’ work to provide a sense of normalcy, means that his recollection of his family’s experience in the camps is largely happy.

As he grows up, George learns that his happy childhood memories don’t capture an accurate picture of what the camp was truly like, particularly for the adults interned. While his life felt safe and happy (again, in large part due to his parents’ efforts), he lived in horrendous conditions. George’s memories are real, but they are “slippery” because they don’t represent the whole picture. As he realizes this later in life, he goes through moments where he feels disoriented and as if his memory has betrayed him.

Takei’s use of flashbacks and the illustrations of the graphic memoir emphasize this tension between happy memories and the reality of his past, painting them vividly for the reader.

“We were so diverse, all so different. And yet, we were all the same.” (page 76)

—George Takei

Analysis: The Takeis’ block in Camp Rohwer houses people from all different backgrounds, professions, and ages. But George notes that they all have two things in common: they are all of Japanese descent, and they all live in Block 6 at the camp. These two commonalities were enough for the United States government to lock them up, and they are enough to build a community within the camp. This first demonstrates the racist policies of the US government in its indiscriminate incarceration of anyone of Japanese descent. The government lumps anyone with Japanese ancestry together and calls them enemies of the nation.

This quote also touches on the sense of community that was built in the camp. Because many or most of those imprisoned share the same experience of being loyal to America but accused of being enemies, they walk the same path. Daddy realizes that they must build community in order to survive. In fact, it’s this realization that seems to pull him from his sadness on the train and gives him a purpose in the camp. Daddy will go on to become block manager, a job that allows him to participate in facets of democracy even behind the fence.

“The guilt which surrounded our internment made me feel like I deserved to be called that nasty epithet.” (page 172)

—George Takei

Analysis: After the Takeis return to Los Angeles, George begins to wrestle with his understanding of the camp’s true nature and what it meant to be interned. His first experience in school is particularly difficult, with a teacher, Mrs. Rugen, who treats him poorly and calls him a racial slur. George is now old enough to understand that the camp was like a prison, but he doesn’t understand what he’d done to be put into prison. Still, he feels guilty, as if he did something wrong. Racially charged name-calling by his teacher only deepens those feelings of shame.

In his writing, Takei alternates his thoughts as a boy with the lines of the Pledge of Allegiance as the children recite it in school. This is a powerful moment in the memoir, in which the ideals of democracy, represented by the words of the pledge, are juxtaposed once again with the actual experience lived by Japanese Americans. It’s another example of how, though he is American, his experience with the American government has made him feel like he’s less than a citizen with full rights.

“We don’t know the unpleasant aspects of American history . . . we don’t learn the lesson those chapters have to teach us.” (page 174)

—George Takei

Analysis: As a young man, George Takei is surprised that there isn’t any information about Japanese internment in his history textbooks. He asks Daddy to help him understand. George believes this is a serious issue with American policy and practice—the country is unable to learn from its mistakes because it doesn’t teach its people about the unflattering parts of history.

George makes it his own mission to educate his fellow Americans about the travesties in the past, in the hope that these mistakes will not be repeated. He is eventually able to do so on a large scale as he gains fame as an actor. His role on Star Trek is especially key to opening up his spheres of influence, giving him a platform to address social causes. Throughout the text, the reader can see George giving various speeches, interacting with presidents, and telling his family’s story. The graphic memoir itself is yet another way he brings this episode of history to the public.

“As my father would say, ‘the wheels of democracy turn slowly.’” (page 193)

—George Takei

Analysis: Eventually, the US government, under President Reagan, did apologize for the unlawful internment of thousands of Japanese Americans. Each former internee was given a $20,000 check from the US government as a restitution payment. However, Daddy didn’t live long enough to receive the check or, more importantly, the apology. This shows the long-lasting damage that the government’s racist policies caused those of Japanese descent and that some whose lives were upended saw no acknowledgment of this in their lifetimes. Of course, the reader learns that Daddy’s postinternment life was free and productive. But Daddy is symbolic of all of those who didn’t live long enough to see the government’s admission that Japanese internment was wrong. The lack of resolution is a continuation of the dehumanization that they experienced in the camps.

This restoration, which George finds unlikely, is what makes him believe that perhaps American democracy can learn from its past mistakes. A movement toward righting past wrongs cannot take away those wrongs. But Daddy would say that democracy does move slowly, and this is proof. Slow movement is still movement.

“In a cruel irony, the court struck down Korematsu in . . . the . . . same ruling that upheld [Trump’s] ban on immigration from Muslim countries.” (page 200)

—George Takei

Analysis: It wasn’t until 2018 that the US Supreme Court overturned Korematsu v. United States, in which Fred Korematsu tried to have Executive Order 9066 declared illegal. However, the reversal of Korematsu v. United States, in which a justice admitted the order was unconstitutional, was a mere side note in another case, not officially related but thematically similar. This separate case occurred when the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s ban on travel from predominately Muslim countries.

George Takei points out that the racist nature of the Muslim travel ban is similar in nature to the logic that allowed for unlawful internment of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans. In this part of the narrative, he returns to the idea that America does not always learn from its past mistakes. He also brings to light the racism that underpins many aspects of American society. Though the acknowledgment that the Supreme Court’s initial ruling in Korematsu v. United States was wrong is important, its connection to an order banning another minority group is troubling to him.