They Called Us Enemy

Winter arrives, and George sees snow for the first time. During their first Christmas, he cannot wait for Santa Claus to arrive. He notices that the Santa who visits their Christmas party is Japanese but does not tell his siblings. He remembers meeting the “real” Santa the previous year in a California mall; that Santa had not been Japanese. George does want to spoil his siblings’ excitement, however, and keeps his knowledge to himself.

In January 1943 the US military encounters some of the harshest fighting of World War II. America needs more soldiers for the war. Rather than ask for help from the Japanese American citizens it is mistreating, the government decrees that “loyal citizens” (113) now have the right to participate in the military. Previously, Japanese Americans who were already serving prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor had been forced to surrender their weapons. Now they can have them back if they are willing to prove their loyalty—on the government’s terms.

A loyalty questionnaire begins circulating through the camps at the behest of the government. The questionnaire is filled with leading questions and constructed using unethical methodology, but questions 27 and 28 are particularly controversial. Question 27 asks if they are willing to serve in the US military at any time, despite having been incarcerated by the United States government. Question 28 asks them to swear “unqualified allegiance” (114) to America while disavowing all loyalty to the Japanese emperor. For George’s parents, who cannot answer in the negative without compromising their integrity, answer “no” to these questions, which classifies them as “No-nos.”

Some of the Nisei answered “yes,” however. Though they do not agree with the questions’ premises, they would rather serve in the military and prove their patriotism than languish in the camps. This results in an all-Nisei unit, the “442nd Regimental Combat Team” (117), which is later known as the 442nd Infantry Regiment.

A series of illustrations depict many young men who refuse to fight unless they can sign up at the local draft boards in their hometowns. They are willing to serve in the US military, but they are unwilling to pretend that they are being given a gracious chance to participate. They know they are needed, and they are sick of the camps, but they can’t agree to the narrow circumstances under which the government will allow them to serve. These conscientious objectors are then incarcerated at the Leavenworth prison in Kansas. George admires them and believes that they are just as heroic as the members of the 442nd.

On May 9, 1944, soldiers take the Takeis and others to Camp Tule Lake. This new camp is a maximum-security outpost designated for Japanese citizens deemed to be disloyal. They are not only seen as disloyal but hostile to American democracy. The Takeis qualify for imprisonment at Camp Tule Lake because they are No-nos. The camp holds 18,000 prisoners, and almost 50% of them are children.

At movie nights in the mess hall, George falls in love with movies. He empathizes with Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, whom he sees as similar to himself: someone who wants to be accepted and loved, but whose appearance makes it difficult for others to see him as he is.

George’s father resumes the community work he began at Camp Rohwer. He begins uniting the internees, tries to fix whatever can be fixed, and becomes a Block Manager again. However, tensions have brewed for too long, and he is unable to keep relations peaceful between the guards and some of the prisoners. Young men begin to protest their treatment in the camps. They demonstrate in crowds and chant anti-American, pro-Japanese slogans. If they are going to be treated as enemies regardless of their peaceful actions, they prefer to act as legitimate enemies.

Soldiers who already viewed them as radicals now see them as dangerous; they begin to treat all the internees more harshly. They arrest many innocent people, and the most aggressive protestors lose their jobs and are further disenfranchised within the already draconian limits of the camp. This loss of jobs also leads to infighting among the Japanese. Those who wish to keep a low profile suffer abuse at the hands of those who want to protest aggressively. The protestors accuse them of taking their duties and jobs, since the most disloyal internees lose their privileges as punishment.

Relationships continue to worsen between the guards and the prisoners. The narrative skips ahead to an older version of George, who is berating his father for being too passive in the camps. He says, “Daddy, you led us like sheep into a barbed-wire prison!” (142) and says he would have protested. He knows that his father is not the one who imprisoned them, but in his anger George blames his father anyway.

George will later realize that he could never understand what his father was going through or why he made the decisions he did. He remembers a day when he and his father are chanting in a crowd at Camp Tule Lake. A fight breaks out, and the guards crack down hard on the protestors. George remembers being frightened and his father pulling him out of the path of a vehicle. Takekuma says he took George there to show him that the right to assemble was essential to American democracy. As an adult, George believes this was when he first began participating in American democracy, even though he hadn’t known it at the time.