Something that came to mind while reading “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei was that the hate towards Asians shown in the graphic novel still happens today in society. The discrimination towards the whole group of Asians because of certain Asians is clearly seen today. For example, in the graphic novel, the bombing of Pearl Harbor caused the Americans to treat all Asians poorly as a whole. The Americans would discriminate the Japanese people and would treat them like scum. This situation can be compared to the Coronavirus situation in todays times. Just because the virus originated in Asia does not mean that all Asians should be held accountable. Especially those in America since most didn’t go to China and bring the virus over. Nothing bad has happened to me firsthand thankfully, but I see stories on the news and on social medias of the tragic actions happening to other Asians. There have been some severely violent stories such as Asian people getting beat up for no reason at all. I’ve even seen personally on someone’s Instagram story that this one girl lived near racist neighbors who would yell slurs and hurtful sayings towards the girl’s family. It was frightening to see and realize that something like that could happen to my family at any moment. Especially since I live in a white-dominated neighborhood and both of my neighbors support Blue Lives Matter and they’re both Trump supporters but there hasn’t been any trouble with them. Reading “They Called Us Enemy” and seeing this type of slander and hate towards Asians instantly made me think of what is happening in today’s times.

In this panel, we can see a little girl reading the sign that says “No Japs” and clearly looking scared. At that age, she shouldn’t have to worry about her safety like that. For all we know, this little girl and her mother are completely innocent but because people generalized all Japanese citizens with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all Japanese are treated the same, and that’s being treated like trash. We as a society need to unite and overcome this animosity towards all Asians. It’s not fair that Asians are treated this way, yet people use our culture almost daily in their lives. My culture is not your costume. It’s not okay for me to see people wear my culture’s formal dress as something casual. Even worse, I see the traditional dress become extremely whitewashed and that’s rude towards my traditions. I don’t understand why my people are hated so much yet at the same time our culture is taken away and ruined. Reading George Takei’s graphic novel really reached out to me because the situation happening in that novel is still happening in today’s times and it really bothers me that it hasn’t been fixed yet.