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Showing posts with the label World War II

"They Called Us Enemy" by George Takei (published 2019)

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George Takei's graphic novel - illustrated by Harmony Becker and co-written with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott - is an important entry into American history that, for the most part, has not been delved into at depth (and very much should be). Takei's graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy , chronicles his life's memory beginning with a short childhood spent in California and then only a little bit later, the rest of his childhood spent in Japanese Internment Camps set-up by the U.S. government during World War II due to a attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese government. Takei's journey is an astounding glimpse into a world fraught with racial politics; the problems with defining people, especially immigrants, by their ethnicity, and the extreme, wieldy, power an unlawful government has to wreak havoc on a person's identity, physical and mental, by means of vocabulary (images of the wartime propaganda are shown), ideological impositions on/of "law" (the j...

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand (published 2010)

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Unbroken is, hands down, the most engrossing book I’ve ever read. Most war stories I’ve either read or watched, like Black Hawk Down (1999, book) by Mark Bowden, Pearl Harbor (2001, movie) directed by Michael Bay, Apocalypse Now (1979, movie) directed by Francis Ford Coppola or the book the movie was based of off, Heart of Darkness (1899) by Joseph Conrad, In The Land Of Blood And Honey (2011, movie) directed by Angelina Jolie, or Full Metal Jacket (1987, movie) directed by Stanley Kubrick are no doubt great cultural artifacts, but all left me feeling troubled, paranoiac about war, saddened, confused, and even distressed. All of those save for maybe Forrest Gump (1994, movie) directed by Robert Zemeckis cannot compare to the overwhelming grip of hopefulness that Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken (book, 2010) had me feeling the entire time I was reading it. It is not only the most engrossing war book I’ve ever read, it is the most engrossing book I’ve read. Ever. Part of the reason for th...