Isolation and separation from society have escalated their way to becoming pretty much a national issue. During quarantine, we were struck with the words of staying home or isolating ourselves. A virus that forced us to stay at home induced a period of self-isolation and caused many activities to be canceled or shut down. Many schools were even shut down due to the safety concern of students as they talked about the virus was brought up. This was the real first time that everyone was affected by the virus and quarantine which lasted for an extended period of time, consuming many months of school.

Quarantine really came to my mind when I was reading through the graphic novel “They Called Us Enemy” since they were essentially isolated from society and were forced to live under harsh conditions. The graphic novel talked about Japanese Internment Camps which dealt with how the Japanese were taken away from their homes since they were considered spies and placed many of them in these “prisons”. It was disheartening to see them get mistreated and lose their freedom in the US which was an opportunity for people to look for new opportunities. 

Similarly to the Play Mountain Podcast, children weren’t able to roam freely and truly express their own childhood as parents had to control them and make sure they were safe. Society has changed and made safety a bigger issue than before which caused the quarantine to happen. However, this shouldn’t be taken as a bad thing because making sure society is safer helps people realize that safety should always come first and be the first priority. In the Play Mountain Podcast, many of the intricate playground designs brought up were rejected because of safety issues, and is all logical as to why they were rejected.

Childhood and youth ness was taken away by the unfortunate events of the Coronavirus, putting every nation on lockdown and a quote from George Takei illustrates his early life.

“You know, I grew up in two American internment camps, and at that time I was very young.”- George Takei

What was done had to be done to ensure the protection of the citizens and the people. Taking measures of quarantining and lockdowns as well as placing Japanese people in Internment camps, essentially ensured peace and resolvent. While Japanese internment camps were aligned with prison and endless torture, they stayed in the camps to ensure their own safety, similar to how people had to quarantine to ensure that they could stay healthy and avoid the contagious virus.

This specific panel from the graphic novel “They Called Us Enemy” talks about moving to a new life, which was similar to how people felt when quarantine started which caused people to adapt to a new environment and lifestyle.