They Called Us Enemy

A few months later, a Quaker man named Herbert Nicholson begins delivering books to several of the camps. The books come from Vronman’s Bookstore. Nicholson soon expands his services, “delivering books, donations, personal effects, and even a loved one’s cremated remains” (147). The camp directors allow Nicholson’s visits, but one day he is attacked on the road while making deliveries. An illustration on Page 146 show a truck chasing Nicholson’s truck, with men in the back firing at him with guns. Nicholson continues his deliveries, and George later understands how he endangered himself for the prisoners.

On July 1, 1944, Public Law 78-405 is codified into law. The bill states that Japanese American citizens who are willing to renounce their citizenship can be repatriated to Japan, even though many of them have never been there and were born in America. George describes it as “the ‘right’ to become ‘enemy aliens’” (149).

On December 18, 1944, the newspapers report that the camps will close within six to 12 months. This frightens many people in the camps; they no longer have homes to return to or hope of resuming their former jobs. George’s mother renounces her citizenship. She hopes that if enough of them follow suit, the government will have to rethink its strategy. Her theory is that if enough of them renounce their citizenship, Washington will not be able to deport them all, given the logistical challenges such a venture would require.

In August 1945 George’s parents learn of the United States’ nuclear attack on Hiroshima. Another bomb destroys Nagasaki three days later, and Japan surrenders on August 14. The camps are slated to close, but George’s mother, having renounced her citizenship, is now scheduled to return to Japan on November 15. She is also worried that her parents were killed in Hiroshima and has no way of knowing if they survived.

An idealist California attorney named Wayne Collins has been fighting for the Japanese’s rights for years. He manages to delay the deportation of George’s mother (and many others) only two days before her departure. However, it will take years for her to regain her US citizenship.

George’s father decides that when the camp closes, he will go to Los Angeles for a while to see if it feels safe. If he decides that the situation is acceptable, he will bring the family there. The family celebrates their final Christmas at Camp Tule Lake without him, as Takekuma left for LA the week prior. On March 6, 1946, they reunite with him in the city. They live in a hotel on Skid Row near large groups of drug addicts and alcoholics. The experience traumatizes George and his siblings, and his parents know they can’t stay there for long.

George’s father opens a small employment agency, but it requires too much work for too little reward, and Fumiko insists that he close the shop to focus on their family. Six weeks later they move to a small house in Eastern Los Angeles. Fumiko learns that her parents survived the Hiroshima bombing, but an aunt and cousin were killed.

George begins attending elementary school. He dislikes his teacher, Mrs. Rugen, because she is prejudiced toward the Japanese. One day he overhears her referring to him as “That little Jap boy” (171).

As a teenager, George decides to research the internment camps. He is disturbed to find that his history and textbooks do not mention the camps. He learns most of his history about the camps from conversations with his father. These are also the conversations—shown earlier, in flashbacks—during which he voices his frustrations about Takekuma’s passivity.

The narrative skips forward to when George becomes interested in theater. He enrolls at UCLA to study acting. He joins the cast of a play called Fly Blackbird, which focuses heavily on themes of social injustice. During his involvement with the play, he meets Nichelle Nichols, the actor who would later play Nyota Uhura in Star Trek.

On June 18, 1961, George performs several songs with the cast at a rally where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is speaking. King’s words inspire George, who is grateful to meet him backstage after the speech. George joins King during a march in the streets of Los Angeles.

In 1962 George is at Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign office. He learns that Eleanor Roosevelt is coming to visit. His father leaves two hours before she arrives, claiming that he is ill. George is thrilled when he meets her, but he doesn’t understand until later that his father was not sick. Rather, he could not bring himself to meet the woman whose husband interned the Takei family and so many others.

After several more acting roles, George meets Gene Roddenberry, who offers him the role of Sulu on Star Trek. It is the biggest opportunity George has had. The role appeals to him most because Sulu is a positive representation of Asian culture, which is uncommon at the time.

The greatest benefit of the role is that it gives George a way to reach millions of people, across generations, with his influence. He is able to speak about social issues to a larger audience than he ever could have without Star Trek.

In 2015 George stars in a play about the internment camps called Allegiance. After one show, a woman named Florence Kubota visits him. She was his father’s secretary in Camp Rohwer.

In 1988 President Ronald Reagan makes a formal statement apologizing for America’s treatment of the Japanese in the internment camps. He also enacts legislation guaranteeing a $20,000 check for each surviving member of the camps. George does not receive his check—which is included with an apology letter—until 1991. His father died in 1979 and never lived to see America admit to its mistreatment of Japanese citizens.

The narrative addresses the cases of several Japanese Americans who lost their appeals after refusing to obey the relocation orders. Fred Korematsu’s conviction is not overturned until 2018. Finally, George pays tribute to his father and gives him credit for his successes, saying, “Nearly everything I’ve accomplished is because of him” (202).

In the epilogue George and his husband Brad visit the cemetery that serves as a memorial to Camp Rohwer. George quotes President Barack Obama:

Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other. That my liberty depends on you being free, too. That history can’t be a sword to justify injustice or a shield against progress, but must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past (203).

The final page illustrates the small tote bag that held what few possessions the family could fit in it when they were taken from their home.