Star Trek's George Takei pens children's book detailing childhood in World War II internment camps
"My Lost Freedom," is an autobiographical account of his experience as a child.
George Takei, who portrayed Hikaru Sulu in the "Star Trek" series, details his experience growing up in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II in his new book.
Takei's children's book, "My Lost Freedom," is an autobiographical account of his experience as a 5-year-old in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II. The book aims to reach children and their parents.
The book recounts Takei's time as a child in a Japanese internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas, a dark chapter in American history.
"I remember the terror, the confusion, the chaos of being moved constantly from one place to another, one strange part of the country to another," Takei told ABC News Live. "And so that's my real memory that I have. But I didn't understand what that was all about."
ABC News Live interviewed Takei about his new book, which pays tribute to his parents.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Many of you know him best as Hikaru Sulu from the Star Trek series, but his journey extends far beyond the stars. His new book, "My Lost Freedom," details his experience growing up in Japanese-American internment camps during World War II.
Joining us now is a true legend, actor, activist, social justice icon George Takei. Sir, thanks so much for joining us.
GEORGE TAKEI: Good to be here, appreciate it.
ABC NEWS LIVE: You're teaching us things already, not just in this book. This book details a really, you know, a dark chapter, in this country's history and in your own personal history. Why did you want to tackle it in a children's book?
TAKEI: Well, I was a child then. I was 5 years old, and I wanted to share, share this story, as an autobiography that was published in 1994. I did also a graphic memoir because I wanted to reach teenagers and, as a teenager, I loved comic books. So I told the same story as, from the vantage point of a teenager, to reach them. But with this one book, "My Lost Freedom," I'm reaching for two generations. The parents and their kiddies.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Absolutely. Because it's not just the kids reading it, it's the adults reading it to the children and having a conversation.
TAKEI: Exactly.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Opening up a conversation. I'm wondering, I know you wrote about it. You know, in the book that came out in 1994. And this is a different way of talking about it. Is it painful to relive this period or is it cathartic? Therapeutic in a way.
TAKEI: I think for my parents, the greatest pain was felt. I was 5 years old. Four years, five, six, seven, eight, four years of my life, in imprisonment. My brother was a year younger than me. And our baby sister went in as an infant. And so the first four years of her life was behind those barbed wire fences.
ABC NEWS LIVE: How did your family keep hope going?
TAKEI: So I remember the terror, the confusion, the chaos of being moved constantly from one place to another, one strange part of the country to another. And so that's my real memory that I have. But I didn't understand what that was all about. And as a teenager, out of camp and a few years having elapsed, I was very curious about my childhood imprisonment, and I went to libraries to look for books on it. Couldn't find a thing.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Do you think it had anything to do with you growing up, you know, having the career you had, but being the activist that you have turned into. Do you think it shaped you in that way?
TAKEI: Well, as I said, those after-dinner conversations that I had with my father, he said, and he loved quoting from the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln's historic speech: "Ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people." He said, "those are noble words. That's what makes American democracy so singular." But those words are also the weakness of American democracy because it's a people's democracy and people are fallible human beings, and they get swept up by the hysteria of the time and by racism and the president is also a human being. His other were tens of thousands of people that look just like the people that bombed Pearl Harbor. Living on the West Coast.
ABC NEWS LIVE: That weren't those people.
TAKEI: And he signed an executive order ordering all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to be rounded up with no charge, no trial, no due process, in the most un-American way to be. Rounded up and imprisoned in barbed wire prison camps in some of the most hellish places and most desolate places in the country.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Yeah, it was a, it was a hugely dark time in this country's history. And to be able to put it in a book like this, to not only teach children, but the adults who are reading it to them, is really spectacular thing.
TAKEI: Well, I had to simplify it.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Absolutely
TAKEI: We don't deal with the loyalty question.
ABC NEWS LIVE: George, thank you so much; we so appreciate you coming in. You can purchase "My Lost Freedom" wherever books are sold
Related Topics
Related Stories
ABC News Live