What can I even say? Everyone should read this book. I couldn't reconcile what I read in these books about the shining ideas of our democracy with what I knew to be my childhood imprisonment. I thought this was an excellent graphic memoir that should be required reading in history classes! I highly suggest you also check out George Takei's TED Talks on YouTube.
This is evident by the last couple of pages, which illustrate ICE detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border and Trump's 2018 ban on immigration from Muslim countries. Only through stories from his father, was he able to process the atrocities they went through.Īs we never fully addressed this atrocity (or hundreds more that we committed), we are thereby doomed to repeat them.
America has pushed this period of its history under a rug, thereby silencing all those who were there to witness it.
He desperately tries to research his past, though no book makes any mention of it. Takei touches on that throughout this graphic memoir. Our history books are notoriously white-washed, never delving into the parts of our past that makes white Americans look like the "bad guys." For example, I was never taught about these American concentration camps in my public school history class, though we spent every year of middle and high school learning about those in Europe. We are also shown the repercussions this period has on American politics. Through flash forwards from the '40s to present day, we see the repercussions this terrible experience has on George as he finds his voice while processing what his country put him through. While his parents are just trying to get through the day and keep their family safe, young George and his brother Henry think they are going on a vacation or an adventure. Seeing this all through a young child's eyes was even more heart-wrenching. We follow a four-year-old George Takei and his family as they are forced into concentration camps during WWII because of their Japanese ancestry. I've been a big fan of graphic memoirs ever since reading Persepolis, and this book is the perfect example of why.
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