While I was reading, “They Called Us Enemy”, something that came to mind the whole time was why were these Japanese Americans being treated so poorly if they weren’t causing trouble and working just as hard as the other white citizens of America. A scene in this graphic novel that stood out to me was page 32. It showed how the children were so innocent and to me that represented the innocence of the Japanese, they didn’t do anything to be treated so poorly, to be out in concentration camps to be treated like dogs as they were watched over in every second of their lives. But the bottom of this page stood out to me the most, it showed the devastation of the parents when they found out that they would be moved from their nice home in Los Angeles that they worked so hard for to a stinky, rusted, old horse stable where they would be treated like animals locked behind a cage. Buried and hidden from their own free will.

To see that they worked so hard and had done no harm only to be humiliated truly broke my heart. To compare this to a situation that is going on today, which is hate against AAPI, I just want to say that none of this should never have happened and the fact that it is going on today still is devastating. You would think that we would’ve learned by now to keep the peace, to live amongst one another in harmony. Now, being an Asian-American in tis society completely scares me, I worry so much for my older family members seeing the things that go on the news. The question that I have raised is, “Why are we still being treated like this if we are working just as hard to live normal lives here in America.”

My parents were immigrants from Vietnam and came here to live a better life, my mom was barely a teenager when she came from Vietnam and my dad was the 14 at the time. My dad came here on a boat where they were robbed by Thailand pirates and many of his female family was kidnapped. He went through so much hardship to create a better future for themselves and eventually me. They eventually met each other and built a family and had a stable job and they bought the most beautiful home where I grew up in and I am still currently living in.

As a child, I hated being asian. I would constantly be picked on for having small eyes, my parents speaking a different language to me, the food I would bring to school, the kids said it would smell. So, I told my mom to stop bringing my food and to sign me up for school lunch. To this day, I regret telling my mom that. My mom worked so hard on the lunches that she enjoyed making for me and I threw it all away. I was spoiled growing up. I didn’t realize how hard my parents had it and no looking back its just regrets. Growing up I wanted the approval of the peers around me that I completely neglected the hard work of the people that love me the most.

Now after reading this graphic novel and seeing the hate being spread amongst AAPI, I never hated being asian, I just wanted to fit in, for people to see me as normal. But here is the thing I am normal. But I’m also different and it is okay to be different. I am proud to be an Asian-American here in the States and I will stand up for what is right. We should’ve learned from the past that what was going on with the Japanese in concentration camps was wrong and we will not make that mistake again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybJoJsLxuD8 – Honey Nut Cheerios