They Called Us Enemy Quotes

“Years later, the trauma of those experiences continued to haunt me. Most Japanese Americans from my parents' generation didn't like to talk about the internment with their children. As with many traumatic experiences, they were anguished by their memories and haunted by shame for something that wasn't their fault. Shame is a cruel thing. It should rest on the perpetrators but they don't carry it the way the victims do.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“That remains part of the problem—that we don't know the unpleasant aspects of American history...and therefore we don't learn the lesson those chapters have to teach us. So we repeat them over and over again.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“Shame is a cruel thing. It should rest on the perpetrators but they don't carry it the way the victims do.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“People can do great things, George. They can come up with noble, shining ideals. But people are also fallible human beings, and we know they made a terrible mistake. - Takekuma Norman Takei”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“Memory is a wily keeper of the past, usually dependable, but at times, deceptive. Childhood memories are especially slippery. Sweet and so full of joy, they can often be a misrendering of the truth. For a child, that sweetness, out of context and intensely subjective, remains forever real. I know that I will always be haunted by the larger, vaguely remembered reality of the circumstances surrounding my childhood.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“As with many traumatic experiences, they were anguished by their memories and haunted by shame for something that wasn’t their fault. Shame is a cruel thing. It should rest on the perpetrators but they don’t carry it the way victims do.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“Our Democracy is a Participatory Democracy. Existentially it's dependent on people who cherish the shinning, highest ideals of our Democracy and actively engage in the political process.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“The wheel of democracy turns slowly.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“Shame is a cruel thing. It should rest on the perpetrators... but they don't carry it the way the victims do.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy

“As a kid, I couldn't grasp the injustice of the situation.”
― George Takei, They Called Us Enemy