Play Book Tag discussion

George Takei, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek TV show and movies, shares his experiences as a young Japanese American during World War II and what life was like in the Japanese American Internment Camps.

I’ve only ever read one other book about the Japanese American Internment Camps during WWII. I don’t remember what it was called but I know it was fiction. I also know that I was in middle school when I read it and it was the vehicle in which my teacher taught our class about this part of US history. My family has a special connection with the Japanese culture so when I read about this era in our history, I was dumfounded. I almost didn't believe it was real.

Reading about George Takei and his family’s experience was very eye opening and heart wrenching. Even with what I was “taught” and what I read about, I didn’t know most of what Japanese Americans went through in these camps. I didn't know they were bullied into renouncing their citizenship or joining the military after they were first rejected as alien enemies.

I used to think so highly of FDR. Even though he pulled the US out of the Great Depression like George's father said, I'll always think of him as the one who wrongly incarcerated 120,000 people because of their race and ancestral nationality. It’s so disheartening that humans are capable of treating other humans like this.

Takei also produced a play on this theme, called Allegiance. I saw it in Los Angeles a few years ago. I missed the opening in San Diego which featured Lea Salonga alongside him in the lead roles.

If you're interested in a YA historical fiction book on this subject, check out Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata. I love all her stuff, and got my copy autographed at the LA Times Festival of Books years ago.

Great review Jenni, I have been thinking about reading this. Looks as though I may be adding it.

PBS covered Japanese internment camps, more specifically one family who was basically torn apart by allegiance to Japan vs US during WWII, it was part of their Asian Americans series... maybe episode 2? If you are interested!

I would like to read this sometime.

We didn't learn anything about this when I was in school, not surprising as I think most kids didn't (on the whole).

I thought I had this on my TBR, but apparently I didn't. Added. Thanks for the awesome review, I'll have to be in the right headspace for this one.

Annapi, I’d love to see Allegiance sometime. Maybe I’ll be able to sometime in the future. Thanks for letting me know about Weedflower. I’ll take a look at it. I think the one I read in middle school was Journey to Topaz because Topaz was in my home state but I’m not sure.

Joanne, I hope you like it.

Meli, thanks for letting me know. I’ll see if I can find the series you’re talking about. I’d like to learn more, especially what happened to other Asian Americans since most white people can’t tell Asians from one nationality to another.

My best friend is Korean. She was adopted as a baby and she told me she never learned about the internment camps in school either. She was much older when she found out about them. It was a huge shock to her.

Joi, I’m not Asian (obviously) and I needed to be in the right head space. I can only imagine how you must feel when you think about this part of US history.

I just finished this. It's my first graphic novel and I liked it although I much prefer "real books." I thought he did a good job though, of showing this piece of American history. (It was conveniently left out of my education 55 years ago.) No matter how often I read about it I'm still shocked and saddened.

Jenni Elyse wrote: "George Takei, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek TV show and movies, shares his experiences as a young Japanese American during World War II and what life was like in ..."

I know what you mean about FDR. "Great leaders' are only human and almost always imperfect. Doesn't mean they don't do some great things. It's hard for me to read about Nelson Mandela's weaknesses...

I honestly can't say if the camps were discussed in my high school history classes, but as I went to high school in California, (almost 50 years ago) I think it was. I definitely remember my (white) parents making vehement justification for the internments (and for Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Interesting because in all other things, my father hated Roosevelt.

The first ( and still the best) fictional story of the camps that I read was in Michener's Hawaii. It was also the first time that I'd read of Japanese American heroism on the European front.