Hi, my name is Monica Takuma. I am a sophomore in high school and as a person who can relate to the people that don’t like reading, it is my job to introduce you to some books that I really enjoyed. I hope that you also get a thrill out of reading these books. As of today, I would like to introduce the incredible graphic novel, They called us enemy by George Takei. This graphic novel takes place in World War II as the perspective of a Japanese citizen living in the United States. In the eyes of the author’s 5-year old self, we learn the injustice and dehumanization that the Japanese-Americans faced in the US. Take a second to imagine what it’s like. What if you wake up tomorrow with the armed force at your door telling you you have to leave without further explanation? What would it be like having “tags” on you like you’re some sort of cattle for sale? This book takes you inside the war and gives you the real experience of what life was like for a Japanese-American.

I’m sure that when I mention historical fiction, we think of the boring, “fictional” books that are actually like reading a history textbook. So, when I say that this graphic novel is historical fiction, you might get PTSD from all the boring I Survived books you’ve been forced to read in the past.

However, coming from a person who hates reading books like these, I can confirm that They called us enemy is like no other historical fiction book. Other than the fact that it is also a graphic novel, making it way easier to read, this book is far more deep and interesting than a typical historical fiction book with random dates and random characters. Even though this book does have a specific genre, I can assure you that anyone would thoroughly enjoy this book.

As the new semester starts, this is the perfect opportunity to grab this book from the nearest library when your English teacher assigns you to read another book. It is an easy read, with many visual images and I guarantee that you won’t put the book down once you start reading it. It has many heartbreaking scenes but is a very important historical event that happened in the past that we can hopefully learn from thanks to books like these.