On pages 140-155 of “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei describe what we are learning about characters in the story(George Takei and/or his family)

In this section, the interlude featuring a teenage George questioning his father is powerful, in part because it is brave of George to admit that he was wrong for being so combative, and also because it demonstrates how little agency Japanese Americans had at this time in history. George at this age (a typical rebellious teenager) is unable to comprehend how his father could “passively” go along with internment, failing to understand even when his father explains that they were forced by the soldiers at gunpoint to leave their homes. Looking back on this moment, George says that he still feels guilty thinking of this conversation because his father knew “the anguish of those dark internment years more intensely” (142) than he ever could. George was just a boy while they were interned, and as the reader has seen, his parents were very careful to protect him from the real extent of their misfortune. His parents suffered in silence, in ways that he cannot possible imagine.

In addition to those protesting on the inside, George uses the example of the Quaker missionary to show how ordinary American citizens stood up against the oppression they witnessed. “Some people saw injustice for what it was and sought to do something about it” (145), he explains. Bringing books and other supplies to the camp was a bold move during this time of rampant xenophobic hysteria, and the Quaker even had his car shot at, but this did not stop him from doing what he knew was right.

In hindsight it seems difficult to understand why Fumiko would renounce her American citizenship, but she clearly felt it was the only way to ensure her family could stay together and be safe. The authorities were sewing seeds of anxiety among the internees, implying they would not be safe on the outside, and Fumiko and Takekuma have three small children to think about. Furthermore, they have been treated like enemies of the people within these camps, they surely assumed they would be treated just as poorly outside, and perhaps substantially worse. Then, after having renounced her citizenship in the home she knows, Fumiko learns that her parents are likely dead after the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The artists depict her weeping in her husband's arms, a truly distressing image of a woman whose world is crumbling all around her.