In today’s modern world, we are constantly adjusting to different situations and changes in society. However, through all of this, we may forget to view an important aspect of the world: how children view it. It’s no surprise to anyone that children and adults are very different from each other. But how many of us have taken the time to ask ourselves how children view different situations in contrast to adults? How do they process important obstacles that appear in our lives? How do they view problems with society as a whole? Do they even have any thoughts on them at all? Two pieces of media that explore these subjects well are the graphic novel “They Called Us Enemy” and the podcast episode “Play Mountain”. Exploring these subjects and how children react to them may be an important way to further understand younger generations.

“They Called Us Enemy” is a powerful graphic novel written by George Takei that explores the Japanese American incarceration during WWII, and how Japanese Americans and other racial minorities in America were treated during and after the war. The novel is a recollection of Takei’s own experiences as a Japanese American child during the war. An example of how children behaved and reacted towards times of war and the Japanese American incarceration is depicted in the story of how young George responded to his family being forced to sleep in horse stalls. He reacts with wonderment, saying “We get to sleep where the horses slept! Fun!” Another depiction of young George’s behavior during WWII was how he reacted to riding the train to a camp, and how he viewed the train ride as fun with snacks from his mother and books that his father read to him. All while he was oblivious to the obvious racism and unfair mistreatment directed toward Japanese Americans during the war. We even see young children in the camps that are interested in the war. We see in the novel how the children reenact the battlefield, pretending to be Japanese and American troops. Overall, throughout “They Called Us Enemy” and Takei’s recollections of his childhood we discover how children behaved towards the war and the obvious racism towards their families. It wasn’t until George grew older after the war that he began to understand the blatant mistreatment of his family because of his race. The novel shows how differently children view the world in contrast to their parents and other adults, especially when it comes to the most serious hardships such as war and racism.

Another piece of media that explores children’s perspective on the world is the podcast episode “Play Mountain”. The episode is about an artist named Isamu Noguchi, and his different approach to designing a playground for children. In today’s world, most people can agree that many of the playgrounds that we see today are very similar to each other. You can say that children today can look at a playground and look at a slide or swing set and they’ll know exactly what the one single function of it is. In today’s playgrounds, there is very little room for children to think creatively about what they’re looking at. There’s really only one way to look at modern playgrounds because children can’t think for themselves when they are playing. It also doesn’t help how little variation there is between playgrounds across the country. Noguchi had a different idea. He envisioned a playground that didn’t have a specific way to play. He called his idea Play Mountain. It would give children the ability to think for themselves while playing. It would give children a chance to develop different understandings of how to play with more abstract structures that didn’t have any specific rules or ways to play. Noguchi’s idea would allow children to approach the world in their own way, without the instruction of adults. He believed that even if adults couldn’t figure out what to do or how to play, the children would. Overall, Noguchi’s idea would allow children to use their unique way of thinking to find their own way of play and fun. Their fun wouldn’t be created out of what adults made, and instead would be created as a result of how they viewed their own surroundings.

In conclusion, we can understand how children can view the world differently from adults. These pieces of media show that children view the world vastly differently from older generations. Whether it’s on the subject of war and racism, or something as simple as a playground. Children have a unique ability to process the world around us in their own way separate from adults. Which is something that may be missing from the older generations in today’s world.