George Takei was 5 years old when he heard U.S. soldiers, who carried rifles with bayonets, pounding on the door of his home in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
In 1942, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, soldiers instructed his parents to quickly pack their belongings and vacate the house. His family could \u201ctake only what we could carry and nothing more,\u201d Takei said, as they and other Japanese Americans were jammed into buses and sent to live in horse stables at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. Takei, his younger brother and parents were later moved to the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas, enclosed within layers of barbed wire fences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all categorized just, arbitrarily, as \u2018enemy alien,\u2019\u201d Takei told The Seattle Times in a recent interview. \u201cThere was no due process, no trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Takei\u2019s childhood experiences of living in incarceration camps during World War II, he said, are burned into his memory, inspiring the 2019 graphic novel \u201cThey Called Us Enemy,” by Takei, Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott,\u00a0and\u00a0illustrated by Harmony Becker. Now, patrons of more than 190 library systems, over 50 of them in Washington state<\/a>, will read the work as part of One Book, One Coast, billed as “the West Coast\u2019s largest book club.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI’m always delighted to have people read my book,\u201d said Takei, the actor, activist and social media influencer best known for portraying helmsman-turned-captain Hikaru Sulu on \u201cStar Trek.\u201d \u201cI’m still a little shocked when I learn that there are other Americans that know very little, if anything, about the imprisonment of innocent citizens of Japanese ancestry simply because we happen to look like the people that bombed Pearl Harbor.\u201d<\/p>\n The wartime experiences of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans<\/a> stand at the forefront of the first One Book, One Coast, which started April 1. Partnering libraries \u2014 including those under The Seattle Public Library<\/a>, King County Library System and more \u2014 will host educational activities and programs that supplement \u201cThey Called Us Enemy.\u201d LA County Library in California, which organized One Book, One Coast, chose the book for participants to read because it covers a \u201ccritical yet overlooked chapter of American history\u201d and promotes inclusion and justice, according to the library system. The reading program will close with an author talk with Takei at East Los Angeles Library, with a livestream available on Zoom<\/a> on May 31 and watch parties at several local library branches<\/a>.<\/p>\n Starting this month, The Seattle Public Library<\/a> is hosting several events with Japanese American historical preservation nonprofit Densho and local authors Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura and Scott Kurashige. The public can expect to learn more about the personal accounts of incarcerated Japanese Americans<\/a> and the history of anti-Asian violence in the U.S.<\/a>, said Stesha Brandon, the literature and humanities program manager at SPL.<\/p>\n One Book, One Coast grew out of One Book, One County<\/a>, which LA County Library initially launched with 18 neighboring library systems across Los Angeles County in 2024. While planning for this year\u2019s One Book program, the library system said it aimed to extend the reading program to partners across the West Coast.<\/p>\n Though LA County Library has led the organization of One Book, One Coast, SPL helped expand it and offered insights from its past citywide reading programs. In 1998, Seattle became the first city to host a One Book, One City program called If All of Seattle Read the Same Book \u2014 now Seattle Reads<\/a> \u2014 a concept that has spread across the country and internationally, allowing community members to engage in literature through reading and discussion.<\/p>\n \u201cSeattle has voracious readers,\u201d said Kai Tang, director of library experience and engagement at SPL. \u201cWe are one of two UNESCO cities of literature in the U.S.<\/a> We have some of the highest readership in the country, and so we get a really robust response when we have programs like (One Book, One Coast).\u201d<\/p>\n From April 1 to June 6, all participating library systems will have unlimited digital copies of \u201cThey Called Us Enemy\u201d available on the Libby app by OverDrive, according to Heidi Daniel, executive director of King County Library System. KCLS and SPL<\/a> will also offer digital copies through Hoopla. Patrons can place holds on physical copies or see where physical copies are located on their local library\u2019s online catalog, Daniel said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether you’re in Timberland Library, Tacoma or in Seattle \u2026 we’re having the same conversation, and I just think that there’s power in that,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n For Densho\u2019s event with SPL on April 4<\/a>, the organization, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, will cover<\/span> the importance of protecting the oral histories of incarcerated Japanese Americans \u201cin an increasingly more contested political environment in which history is being actively distorted or erased,\u201d said Naomi Ostwald Kawamura, the executive director.<\/p>\n The programming of One Book, One Coast \u201clocalizes the incarceration story,\u201d said Abe, co-author of the graphic novel \u201cWe Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration.\u201d On April 8<\/a>, Abe will discuss works written by incarcerated Japanese Americans at the Central Library, pulling from \u201cThe Literature of Japanese American Incarceration,\u201d<\/a> an anthology he co-edited.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the West Coast that was the exclusion zone for the forced removal of Japanese Americans during World War II. We were defined by our residence here in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and L.A.,\u201d Abe said. \u201cSo it’s the perfect choice by LA (County Library) to \u2026 focus on not only just the geographic experience that encompasses all three states, but also choosing a work about incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n