Yet another children’s book ban: 'They called us enemy'

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei - subject of a series of book bans in the US

In 2019 American actor George Takei published a children’s book about his own childhood: They called us enemy. It’s a graphic memoir that vividly depicts his family’s internment in Japanese-American camps during World War Two. It’s been repeatedly banned in US public schools, most recently in Tennessee.

Banning of 'They called us enemy'

You can watch him talking about it here. You may recognise Takei, who played Lieutenant Sulu in the globally famous American sci-fi series Star Trek. Both the content and the title beg the question as to what it takes to be American.

The highly regarded Kirkus Reviews tellingly said of the book: ‘The creators … highlight the dangerous parallels between the hate speech, stereotyping, and legislation used against Japanese Americans and the trajectory of current events.’

Can you see where this is going? I suspect that the censors also resent Takei’s human rights advocacy for refugees and LGBTQ+ people, and disapprove of his sexuality.

They called us enemy is just one of many thousands of book bans in US public schools – PEN America calculated the number to be 10,000 + in the school year 2023-24 and I’ll be surprised if the 2024-25 numbers aren’t much higher. But children’s book censorship in various guises is on the rise everywhere. In the UK and Europe it’s more likely to take the insidious form of book challenges, where parents pressurise school librarians to withdraw certain children’s books not just from their own child, but from all. In some school libraries I hear that students pull LGBTQ+ authored books off shelves and throw them on the floor. The pain felt by fellow students must be visceral.

We only have to look at history to see where this is heading if we don’t sit up and pay attention. Less than a century ago, the Nazi party destroyed around a hundred million books before and during the Holocaust, as a form of cultural annihilation. As Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, said in his superb Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack:

‘We should all see attacks on books as an “early warning” signal that attacks on humans cannot be far behind.’

Why is it happening?

Censorship is a part of a repressive power strategy, even if those responsible are far from transparent about their goal. It’s about the erasure of truth, the denial of history, the promotion of lies and the crushing of particular groups of people – particularly, at the moment, LGBTQ+ and racialised minorities. It’s a form of propaganda that discourages empathy and mutual respect. Censors will usually argue that they’re protecting children – but from what? Truth, understanding and empathy?

Children’s books may seem a trivial thing to worry about given the current state of the world, but I can’t help wondering if those whipping up the calls for book bans have a long term goal – to create adult citizens who are less able to empathise and less likely to question authority. Compliant model armies of the future. This will be much easier to achieve if children and young people aren’t exposed to a wide range of nuanced stories and non-fiction, if they’re discouraged from critical thinking, if they’re taught to believe that ‘different’ is wrong.

If I’m right, it’s not just children but childhood that’s under threat.

What’s the impact?

For authors there’s bound to be personal pain and reputational damage, not to mention financial losses and blighted careers. It’s likely that some self-censor their own work, which is a kind of muzzling – a denial of voice, identity and truth.

The biggest impact may be on the children and young people. The harm done isn’t only to those children today who grow up never seeing themselves in stories, it’s a harm inflicted on all children and young people who are deprived of a range of books that teach them deep truths and the power of empathy. We know from the history of Section 28 in the UK that LGBTQ+ people experienced shocking discrimination and long-lasting deep shame because narratives about (or including) them were withdrawn from schools.

It's an abuse of human rights. Under the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example, children have as much right to freedom of expression as adults do – including, ‘the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.’

What can we do?

We need to be vigilant – to track and record all book bans and challenges in the UK and Europe as PEN America is doing in the US. More difficult will be to find out where the inflammatory rhetoric is originating – is it the far right Moms for Liberty group, for example? – and which algorithms are stirring reaction among parents and young people.

Sharing knowledge is powerful. We need to hold those responsible to account, because otherwise they deny what’s happening and it goes under the radar.

Support school librarians and your local libraries, as well as local bookshops. Remind the authorities that authors and children have rights. Show them that censorship doesn’t go unnoticed.

Follow all organisations working in this area – like English PEN, CILIP and the School Library Association in the UK, PEN America, PEN International and the International Publishers Association, which has an active Freedom to Publish committee, Index on Censorship and Banned Books Week.

I’m looking to develop a book on the human impact of children’s book censorship. Please do get in touch if you’d like to share your thoughts.

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*Nicky Parker is the author of “These Rights Are Your Rights” and co-wrote “Know Your Rights and Claim Them” with Angelina Jolie and Geraldine Van Bueren. Both books were written as part of an Amnesty International global project.

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