Genre: Graphic memoir
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
This was the other book we read last month for book club. (If you've been paying attention, we've been reading two books per month through the summer. It's been an interesting endeavor!) I found it to be very interesting in learning about what happened to George Takei's family during World War II and how they ended up in the interment camps.
It's a great look from a young boy's point of view. He didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on, but he sure did feel the pain from his parents. He makes a big deal about the fact that he really questioned his father later on... and wanted answers to why they did what they did and suffered what they did.
But as a young boy, he adapted well and the whole experience was quite an adventure actually. And it turned out they felt very safe in these camps and built up quite the life for themselves. That was one of the most interesting parts to me... that once they were freed and let out to go about their lives again... that was almost a worse adjustment than going in. And they felt very afraid of everyone.
But yeah. It's so depressing the way we all have treated each other over the years. And so scary that this sort of thing very well could happen again. I'm glad George Takei has taken this experience and made it sort of his life's campaign.
Anyway, another great book and story that I never would have read except for book club! I love that!
I need to read this one. I find books about the Japanese-American incarceration during WWII heartbreaking, but fascinating. I just read WE ARE NOT FREE by Traci Chee and it was very sad and eye-opening. It's fiction, but it did have one character who said he felt homesick for the camps after they were freed because that's where he had made a life. When he got "home," everything had changed so much that his old life was just gone. So sad.
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