His new graphic memoir, THEY CALLED US ENEMY (Top Shelf, 204 pp., paper, $19.99), gives a detailed, wrenching account of what happened to thousands of Japanese-Americans in the wake of Pearl Harbor. And George will grow up to be none other than the “Star Trek” actor George Takei, now 82. George’s family, of course, is Japanese-American - his mother born here, his father unable to apply for citizenship despite living in the country for a quarter-century. “I thought everyone took vacations on a train with armed sentries at both ends of each car,” George remembers later. 8, America enters World War II.īy the following autumn, as a result of Executive Order 9066 the family will be on a real train, tagged “like cattle” and bound for Fort Rohwer, Ark., the easternmost of the 10 internment camps established by order of President Roosevelt. Roosevelt immediately declares that all Japanese in the United States must register as “alien enemies.” The next day, Dec. Before “Silent Night” ends, though, the program comes to a jarring halt, with news of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Mother nurses a baby, while another tot plays with a train set. It’s a peaceful domestic scene on a Sunday in Los Angeles, 1941: 4-year-old George helps his father trim the tree, as carols curl out of the radio.
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