AMERICAN SHOES | Kirkus Reviews

A fantastically heart-wrenching graphic-novel adaptation of actor and activist Takei’s (Lions and Tigers and Bears, 2013, and so forth.) childhood expertise of incarceration in a World Struggle II camp for Japanese People.

Takei had not but began college when he, his mother and father, and his youthful siblings had been compelled to go away their residence and report back to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removing” as a consequence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Govt Order 9066. The creators easily and cleverly embed the historic context inside which Takei’s household’s story takes place, permitting readers to concurrently expertise the every day humiliations that they suffered within the camps whereas offering readers with a broader understanding of the federal laws, lawsuits, and actions which led to and maintained this injustice. The heroes who fought in opposition to this and offered help to and inside the Japanese American group, reminiscent of Fred Korematsu, the 442nd Regiment, Herbert Nicholson, and the ACLU’s Wayne Collins, are additionally highlighted, however the focus at all times stays on the various sacrifices that Takei’s mother and father made to make sure the security and survival of their household whereas shielding their youngsters from realizing the depths of the hatred they confronted and hazard they had been in. The creators additionally spotlight the harmful parallels between the hate speech, stereotyping, and laws used in opposition to Japanese People and the trajectory of present occasions. Delicate grayscale illustrations successfully convey the extraordinary feelings and the stark dwelling circumstances.

A robust reminder of a historical past that’s all too well timed at present.

(Graphic memoir. 14-adult)