George Takei: They Called Us Enemy

On April 20, 1937 George Takei was born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. His father, Takekuma Norman Takei, was born in Yamanashi, Japan and emigrated to California as a teenager. His mother, Fumiko Emily Nakamura, was born in Florin, California and educated in Japan. 1.

1. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019),11.
2. Nserrano, “Los Angeles Skyline and San Gabriel Mountains.” Wikimedia Commons, December 9, 2007.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/California#/media/File:LA_Skyline_Mountains2.jpg 
3. っ, “Yamanashi City Center from Fuefuki River.” Wikimedia Commons, October 2005.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yamanashi_City_Center_from_Fuefuki_River,_Yamanashi,_Yamanashi,_Japan.jpg .
4. Dorothea Lange, “Florin, California.” National Archives Catalog, May 11, 1942.  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/537883 .
5. Adoromassy, “Echo Park Lake with Downtown Los Angeles Skyline.” Wikimedia Commons, December 4, 2016.  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/3/30/20190616154621%21Echo_Park_Lake_with_Downtown_Los_Angeles_Skyline.jpg .

The U.S. naval base located at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on December 7, 1941. 6.

Shortly after, on February 9, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This order authorized the creation of “military areas” in the U.S. Most of the west coast was then declared a military area and civilian exclusion orders were issued to Japanese Americans. These orders demanded that their recipients report for processing and removal from these areas. 7.

George and his family were forced to leave their home.

6. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019),15.

7. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019), 22-23.

8. U.S. Navy, “NH 50930 Pearl Harbor Attack.” Naval History and Heritage Command, December 7, 1941.  https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-raid/overall-views-of-the-pearl-harbor-attack/NH-50930.html .

9. Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority, “San Francisco, California. Exclusion Order posted at First and Front Streets directing removal of persons of Japanese ancestry from the first San Francisco section to be effected by the evacuation.” National Archives Catalog, April 11, 1942.  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/536017 

The Takei family, and many other Japanese Americans, were ordered to board buses at Nishi Hongwanji, the oldest Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, and dropped off at the Santa Anita Racetrack. 10.

The family spent several months living at the racetrack in a horse stall before being moved by train to another camp.

Their new home was Camp Rohwer. Located in Arkansas, at one time Camp Rohwer housed 8,500 Japanese Americans. 13.

As WWII went on, some Japanese Americans were allowed to leave the camps to serve in the American military, objectors were sent to prisons, and some left for war-ravaged Japan. But George’s parents, who refused to fight for the country who had incarcerated them, but still considered themselves Americans, were moved, yet again, to another camp.

Camp Tule Lake was a maximum security camp for people that had been deemed “disloyal.” 15.

In 1944, Bill 4103 was signed into law by the President. This bill allowed Japanese Americans to give up their citizenship. Near the same time, a lawsuit determined that “loyal” Japanese Americans could not be kept in camps. This created immense pressure to renounce American citizenship in order to stay in the camps and keep their family safe from strong anti-Japanese sentiment. 16.

10. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019), 23, 31-35.

11. “Nishi Honganji.” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1865.  https://collections.lacma.org/node/196949 

12. Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority. “Arcadia, California. Evacuees of Japanese Ancestry Line Up for Lunch at the Santa Anita Assembly Center.” National Archives Catalog, April 6, 1942.  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/537452 

13. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019), 58, 115.

14. Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority. “Rohwer Relocation Center, McGehee, Arkansas. Barrack scene at Rohwer Relocation Center.” National Archives Catalog, December 9, 1943.  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/538199 

15. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019), 126-127.

16. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019), 145, 154.

17. Russell Lee. “Japanese-American camp, war emergency relocation, [Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, Calif.] Library of Congress, 1943.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179117575/ 

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed on August 6 and August 9, 1945, the war quickly ended. Japan officially surrendered on August 14, 1945.

Japanese Americans were being allowed to return to their homes… but, like many others, the Takei family had no home to return to. George’s father returned to Los Angeles to find work and make a home for the family. In the meantime, George’s mother and two siblings waited at Camp Tule Lake. 18.

18. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019), 158.

19. “Atomic Effects.” Wikimedia Commons, August 22, 2005.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AtomicEffects-p42a.jpg 

George and his family were eventually able to reunite in Los Angeles. But the executive order that allowed them to be taken from their homes wasn’t struck down until 2018.

Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the order as unconstitutional when the case of Trump vs. Hawaii was brought before the Supreme Court when President Donald Trump tried to bar immigration from predominantly Muslim countries. 20.

20. George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Stephen Scott, ill. Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy, (San Diego: Top Shelf Productions, 2019), 200-201.

21. slowking4. “No Muslim Ban march from White House to Capitol Hill.” Wikimedia Commons, February 4, 2017.  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:No_Muslim_Ban_2040060.jpg 

22. PBS. “George Takei’s Life in an Internment Camp.” Pioneers of Television, March 25, 2014.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP3lWftprjQ