This book is an important reminder of how the Enemy Aliens Act of 1798 was used to violently incarcerate thousands of American citizens during WWII. The book also talks about how we need to make sure that never happens again. Takei’s first-hand account of his experience is full of pain, joy, reflection, and optimism. Now, let’s get into the specifics of why this book is bound to be one of your go-to books for years to come.
More Engaging and Personal Than a History Book
As a country, we gloss over this part of our history. My best example of this is the terrible article in CommonLit that they pulled from the US National Archives. The title “Japanese Relocation During WWII” says it all. As if we merely asked them to relocate the same way we relocate a classroom for state testing. TCUE helps to overcome these vague generalizations that minimize the damage done. Takei’s first-hand account personalizes the history so it is no longer happening to people we don’t know. This is a real person telling his experiences as they happened to him.
They will remember the images of Takei and his little brother peeking through the window at soldiers with guns, forcing them out of their home. They will remember the images of the security towers, the barbed wire fences, and the horse stall housing. All images that are typically kept out of textbooks. Again, just look at the image used in the CommonLit article. It’s a handful of teens in nice preppy clothing standing outside of a few cabins but most of the camp is cut out of the image. The focus is on the people who look content. Takei’s TCUE pulls back those curtains and shows the whole story in a way no US history textbook I’ve seen ever has.
Storytelling at Its Finest
Takei is well known for his acting abilities (see Star Trek) but he’s now also known for his storytelling. They Called Us Enemy (TCUE going forward) is the winner of the Eisner Award and the winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature.
The first page shows two young boys, Takei and his little brother, in a deep slumber and suddenly woken up by their father. Soldiers with rifles are at their door ordering them to vacate the house within 10 minutes. Readers are hooked from the beginning and just as young George gradually learns the details about what is happening, the reader learns along with him. Details about Executive Order 9066 and the history of Takei’s family are woven into the story as it goes so readers aren’t bogged down at the beginning.
There is a bit of time hopping, but nothing your students won’t be able to follow, especially with a little help from you. And while Takei’s time at the camp ended when he was still a child, he details how the event impacted him as a student back in public school, as a teenager grappling with his past, and as a US citizen today in a political climate that is once again leaning towards using the Enemy Aliens Act of 1798–the very law that made his incarceration possible back in the forties.
Graphic Novels are Challenging But Still Accessible
Well, some are, and They Called Us Enemy is one of them. The content is tricky. Sure, some parts are easy to follow, especially with the visuals aiding in comprehension. But the book also contains quotes from politicians that are full of upper-level vocab words and references to historical events your students may or may not be familiar with. The book is also told mostly from the perspective of a small child. Readers will need to infer since the young narrator doesn’t always understand what is happening in the text.
Luckily, there are aspects of a graphic novel that appeal to readers regardless of how challenging the text is. For one thing, there isn’t nearly as much text to get through. For some students, a plain novel with nothing but pages and pages of words is too daunting. It’s an impossible task that they will not attempt. But a graphic novel? They’re often more willing to give it a chance. The images draw them in long enough to get into the story. The text is still difficult, but with the help of the visuals it’s no longer impossible.
The Illustrations Are Worthy of Analysis
People today are bombarded with visual news. We no longer sit around the radio and listen; we see all the images that go with advertisements, news coverage, etc. Because we are living in a world where we are bombarded with visuals at all times, we need to be teaching our students how artists (or the creators of whatever visual media we’re consuming) can manipulate our thoughts and emotions based on how they portray certain events or messages in their visuals. What does the artist want you to focus on, and what do they want you to overlook/ignore?
The image above is the cover analysis assignment I do with my students to help them to start critically analyzing the media they’re presented with. I want them to understand why they feel a certain way when they see images portrayed just so. You can get a copy of my materials (answer key included) at my TpT store.
Selective Visual Analysis
I usually don’t have students combing through every detail of every panel. For one thing, they’re not all works of art. Some panels just exist to keep the plot going or to explain some necessary detail. Another reason is that students don’t have the stamina for it. Just like we don’t close read an entire novel, we don’t close read the entire graphic novel. When using a graphic novel, I go through and pick out the panels/pages I want to analyze, the same way I’ll pick out paragraphs for close analysis. One of my favorite TCUE pages to analyze is the one right before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The family is decorating the tree and having a sweet moment together, oblivious to the terrible future ahead of them.
For this page I focus on the following:
-The font used for the song
-The word “peace” cut off by the radio’s announcement that there officially is no peace in the world
-The word bright placed over the lit-up tree
-The image of the content mother and baby
It’s all done so intentionally and deserving of careful attention to all the details. I include both visual analysis and overall comprehension in my guide question pages which you can get at my TeachersPayTeachers store.
Perfect for Project Based Learning
As a final project, consider having students create a presentation that fills in all gaps from your American history book. If it’s anything like the ones used in my district (and the one mentioned in Takei’s own high school experience) there is very little about Japanese concentration camps.* And what is there, much like the CommonLit article, it is biased and glosses over some of the darker aspects of our history. Have students work in groups to document what is in the textbooks, determine what critical information is missing, and create a presentation that fills in the missing information. They can use pictures from the text to support their presentation or you can take a trip to the school library to pick up books/talk about researching credible resources.
Another real-world project I have my students complete is revising the CommonLit article. Take out all the euphemisms and in plain English explain what really happened, without any bias towards the US. This one is tricky. I spend a lot of time working with my students on what euphemisms are and how to spot them. However, this is so important when teaching our students critical thinking skills. It’s worth the extra effort and hopefully students will use the skills they’ve learned for years to come.
*Look up concentration camps for clarification on why I use this term instead of internment.
