IN REVIEW: My Lost Freedom

June marks the anniversary of a quiet but profound Supreme Court decision—Yasui v. United States, issued June 21, 1943—which upheld the government’s wartime curfews on Japanese Americans, a ruling that would not be formally overturned for decades.

Nearly 500 Japanese Americans from Yolo County were forcibly removed and incarcerated during World War II following Executive Order 9066 in 1942.

Yolo County had an active Japanese American farming community, especially in West Sacramento, Woodland, and Davis. When the removal orders came, families were sent to temporary assembly centers like the Arboga Assembly Center near Marysville or the Sacramento Assembly Center before being transferred to permanent camps like Tule Lake or Gila River.

Families lost farms, homes, and a sense of identity that has taken generations to heal from. In this context, George Takei’s new children’s book My Lost Freedom gains added resonance. The 2024 release skyrocketed to New York Times Bestseller-status and recently claimed a 2025 CALIBA Golden Poppy Award.

Reviewed here by retired orthopedic surgeon Jeffrey Nakano, whose parents were incarcerated, the book becomes not just a historical narrative, but a personal and timely reminder of freedom taken and what is still reckoned with.

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By: Jeffrey Nakano

I saw many similarities in Takei’s story and the one I’ve learned about my parents. Having to leave quickly with only those possessions you could carry, initial internment at an assembly center which was previously a race track, a long train ride when the camps were completed and then reassignment to Tule Lake.

When Mr. Takei talked about playing and catching tadpoles, it reminded me of the stories my Dad told about going ice skating on the frozen ponds at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, playing golf, and sneaking under the barbed wire fence with friends to go hiking and picnicking. I don’t think the guards were quite as vigilant in Wyoming as they were at Tule Lake.

The main difference was that my parents were in their later teens and early twenties when they were sent off to camp. They knew that this was not going to be a vacation.

At first they thought they might be in the camps for the rest of their lives—not much to look forward to for a young person starting out in the world.

Questions 27 and 28 were difficult for my parents. My father was like Mr. Takei’s father, born in Japan and came to America as a child, but declared by American law to be ineligible for citizenship due to his nationality. He was blind in one eye so he would not qualify for the military, or at least not for combat, but he answered no to question 27 because he didn’t feel it was fair that he should be in an internment camp. Since he was not a citizen he was also concerned he would be sent back to Japan after the war and renouncing allegiance to the Emperor of Japan might jeopardize his status in that country, too.

The story of Japanese internment is still not widely known by the American public, but because of activists like George Takei and organizations such as the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the facts about an episode in our nation’s history when America failed to live up to the ideals of our founding forefathers are available to any who will take the time to try to learn from our mistakes. so that we can fulfill the vision they had for America to deliver “liberty and justice for all.””.

When I was in elementary school, stories of America’s heroes like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, DavyDavey Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Kit Carson emphasized the heroic American spirit. Is it so bad to teach children that America is not infallible – but that even when America makes mistakes she can own up to them? 

The subtle and not-so-subtle discrimination my parents experienced growing up in America instilled a sense of determination in them. Determination to show that they were just as good as the rest of American society and deserved to be in this country.

In my opinion, that implied inferiority was the driving force behind the young Japanese-American men who volunteered for military duty and became the 442^nd regiment mentioned in the book.  According to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, tThe 442nd Regimental Combat Team, distinguished itself as “the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the US military.”

It was not an emotional experience for me to read this book, it was more like an educational episode to learn Mr. Takei’s perspective on his captivity.

I think my lack of strong feelings about my parents’ imprisonment is directly related to how they talked about internment when my brothers and I were growing up. They spoke so positively about the experience on those rare occasions it came up that—and I hate to admit this—I thought they were talking about a summer camp until I was nearly out of high school. I never heard them speak about camp in a negative fashion until I was much older. They explained that as children, they never wanted us to feel like we were “second class” citizens. In retrospect, I understand now that they wanted to shield us from how they must have felt.

My parents always told me and my brothers that in order to succeed in American society, we would have to be better than our competition. Being “just as good” would not be sufficient because of the racial discrimination we would face. They also said that what we did would not only reflect upon our family, but also on the entire Japanese people.

America has changed and as a result, my wife and I were able to raise our children to be the best they could be, but not because they would be discriminated against or that they represented an entire group of people. I would like our grandchildren to be proud of their heritage: English, Irish, Japanese, and Korean. 

The publisher states that the book is for children ages 6-9, and initially I thought perhaps the topic Mr. Takei was writing about – the unjustness of incarcerating American citizens based purely on racial identity – was a little too mature for this age group. But after further consideration, I think the book may provoke age-appropriate discussion between parent and child, and perhaps both age groups will learn something. 

Mr. Takei was able to take the complex issues of internment (why it happened, how it affected a group of Americans, and why it was wrong) and explain those issues so that a child would understand and learn from that episode in American history.

America is the greatest country in the history of the world, but America has made mistakes in the past and continues to make them. Doing the “right” thing is not always easy to discern at the time, so it is important for Americans to stay vigilant, to continue to re-examine their decisions, be willing to change their actions, and to admit error.