CNN
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George Takei has a very personal view about current US immigration enforcement efforts.
The “Star Trek” star appeared on an episode of Audie Cornish’s podcast “The Assignment” to promote his new graphic memoir, “It Rhymes With Takei.” He talked about being held as a five-year-old child with his family in an internment camp for Japanese Americans by the US government during World War II.
Takai is the author of several books and has shared his story before, but he sees an urgency in making sure that people know their history, so the horrors his and other families endured won’t be repeated.
“Our democracy reflects the people and if the people are cowed and silent it fails,” he told Cornish.
The actor turned activist has his own rich history of advocacy on multiple fronts, ranging from immigration to LGBTQ+ rights. The man who at one point was closeted about his sexuality now understands the importance of representation.
He explained to Cornish that he was a teen who had fallen in love with acting when he saw his favorite movie star “heartthrob” actor Tab Hunter lose work after a tabloid reported that Hunter was gay. It was a cautionary tale for Takei.
“You could not aspire to be an actor, to be hired by a producer in a Hollywood if it was known that you were gay,” he said. “And so I put myself in my own self created, invisible barbwire prison camp. The term then was ‘closeted.’ I was visible in other social and justice issues, but I never touched my own situation because I desperately, passionately wanted to be an actor.”
Takei came out in 2005 amid the fight for marriage equality.
He has used his popularity as having starred as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu in the beloved “Star Trek” franchise to give voice to what he views as injustices.
These days, he’s raising his voice about the policies of the Trump administration.
“We have what I call ‘Klingon in the White House,’” he said. “This authoritarian, self-important, singularly minded person there advocating for erasure.”
Takei also has his memories of how he and his family were treated during World War II.
“They categorized us as ‘enemy alien.’ We were neither,” he said. “We were American born, educated, patriotic Americans and yet they had this falsity and they fanned the flames of hatred. The whole country was swept up.”
The camp where he and his family were forced to live was the result of an executive order. He said his father had shared with him how important the constitution is and often quoted President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
Now as an adult, Takei recognizes that then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed the executive order that led to the camps got “swept up” in the “hysteria” of the time and “panicked out of ignorance” about the Japanese Americans who resembled the people who bombed Peal Harbor.
“This is where teachers and librarians are the pillars of democracy,” Takei said. “They can teach them this truth that people, even great presidents, can be stampeded by hysteria. And that’s what we’re going through right now.”
Such truth is vital, according to Takei, given what he sees as the lies told by politicians that are believed by voters until it’s too late.