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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.
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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.
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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.
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Get the entire They Called Us Enemy LitChart as a printable PDF.
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:
