Previous
Mama
Henry is George’s little brother and Mama and Daddy’s middle child. He and George are extremely close, both emotionally and in age (though the memoir never states outright how old Henry is, he appears to be only a year or two younger than George). Henry follows George in everything he does. Like for George, living in an internment camp is a “great adventure” to Henry. At Camp Rohwer, George and Henry amuse themselves catching beautiful insects and, as they’re still young children, their needs and desires are relatively simple. They want candy, to meet Santa at Christmastime, and they’re able to find joy in the simple pleasures of seeing snow for the first time or taking a ride in a jeep. Like George, Henry struggles to adjust when the family leaves the camp for the Alta Hotel in Los Angeles. Following the family’s move to a Mexican American neighborhood, Henry fades from the narrative.
Henry Takei Quotes in They Called Us Enemy
The They Called Us Enemy quotes below are all either spoken by Henry Takei or refer to Henry Takei. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
They Called Us Enemy Quotes
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.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Childhood memories come rich with sensations...
... Fragrances, sounds, colors, and especially temperatures. That golden afternoon when Daddy took the family on that wonderful jeep ride...
... Is a fond memory that glows radiantly with warmth.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Our childhoods continued to be made up of grotesquely abnormal circumstances...which would eventually become our “normal.”
It had become routine to line up three times a day to eat lousy food in a noisy mess hall...but the routines of incarceration had all been thrown out. Now we found ourselves in constantly noisy surroundings with a perpetual stench.
But children are amazingly adaptable. We would survive this experience too.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire They Called Us Enemy LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Henry Takei Character Timeline in They Called Us Enemy
The timeline below shows where the character Henry Takei appears in They Called Us Enemy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
They Called Us Enemy
Two little boys, George and Henry, sleep peacefully in their bedroom—but suddenly, Daddy rushes in, turns on the light, and tells...
(full context)
...from the soldiers, who remain in the open doorway. He crouches down to George and Henry and tells them to wait while he helps Mama and their sister—then they’ll take their...
(full context)
...is, to Daddy, “as great as a prime minister, even a king.” Later, George’s brother Henry (named after Henry VIII) arrives, and finally, Mama gives birth to a daughter, Nancy Reiko....
(full context)
Mama and Daddy do whatever they can to battle the unsanitary conditions. They take George, Henry, and Nancy Reiko to shower every day. But Nancy Reiko still comes down with a...
(full context)
...town, the guards force the passengers to close the shades. Being so young, George and Henry don’t understand. They think this is just the way things are. On the second day,...
(full context)
Daddy leads George and Henry off the train. George promptly picks up a handful of dry dirt and throws it...
(full context)
...back to the exercise break, people mill around while soldiers lean against the train whistling. Henry and George giggle as one man urinates, and then a soldier shouts for everyone to...
(full context)
Mama offers Henry and George their own water canteens. To George, this isn’t anything exciting or worth remembering....
(full context)
...and sees a group of old, weathered Black men sitting on a bench. He and Henry are awed, but Mama snaps the shade closed before a soldier notices.
(full context)
...the train passes the border into Arkansas. Soldiers begin to shout, “Roar,” confusing George and Henry—they imagine lions dressed as soldiers. But the soldiers are actually shouting “Rohwer,” the name of...
(full context)
...Daddy leaves Mama with the children while he goes to find their lodging. George and Henry look past the barbed wire fence into the foreboding woods. They hear something making a...
(full context)
When Daddy returns after finding their unit, George and Henry are still peering into the woods. Some young men arrive to help the Takei family...
(full context)
At the same time, George and Henry have the whole of the camp to explore. They amuse themselves catching beautiful butterflies, but...
(full context)
One day, two older brothers named Ford and Chevy approach George and Henry. Ford asks George if he wants to learn a magic word that will give him...
(full context)
...is perplexed; sakana means fish and this doesn’t seem very magical to him. He and Henry exchange a confused look as Ford says again that George has to say it just...
(full context)
...that he has to shout for everything he wants and then say “sakana beach” quickly. Henry asks him to get bubble gum, and Ford warns him that if he says it...
(full context)
One day at breakfast, Daddy asks George and Henry if they’d like to go on a special outing outside the fence. He’s arranged to...
(full context)
Finally, Daddy pulls up in the jeep and honks the horn. George and Henry climb into the jeep and honk the horn, yelling for Mama to hurry up. Mama...
(full context)
As dusk arrives, Daddy speeds back to the camp. Mama turns around to see Henry asleep on George’s shoulder. She motions for George to not wake Henry up, and he...
(full context)
...It seems like magic to him. On the day of the first snow, George and Henry are the first ones out of the house and they immediately pelt Mama and Daddy...
(full context)
...bursts into the mess hall and asks each child—including Ford and Chevy—if they’ve been good. Henry and Nancy Reiko stare up at Santa with big eyes and accept their gifts.
(full context)
...to sit on the real Santa’s lap. But George chooses not to spoil it for Henry and Nancy Reiko, so he stays quiet. He figures the real Santa couldn’t get past...
(full context)
...camp for disloyals.” Guarding the camp are battle-ready troops, machine gun towers, and tanks. When Henry asks George why they’re at Camp Tule Lake, George says it’s because Mama and Daddy...
(full context)
...other downside is that their unit is far away from the latrines. One night, when Henry has to use the toilet, George races with him across the camp. They return when...
(full context)
...of being informants and sometimes the fights escalate to include insults and punches. George and Henry watch a fight wide-eyed and don’t understand why one man called another “inu,” which means...
(full context)
Since Daddy knows everything, George and Henry ask him about what they saw and heard. Daddy explains that the man called the...
(full context)
...every day the tensions between the guards and internees increase. One day, Daddy, George, and Henry see guards carry off a man. Another guard yells at the surrounding crowds to go...
(full context)
In October of 1944, Mama leads George, Henry, and Nancy Reiko past a man speaking. He shouts that America treats them like garbage,...
(full context)
...go ahead to Los Angeles and see if it’s safe. If it is, Mama, George, Henry, and Nancy Reiko will follow. Daddy leaves the week before Christmas. Though George remembers every...
(full context)
...them, but he feels an instant connection to the city of his birth. He and Henry race to Daddy as soon as they catch sight of him.
(full context)
