To an older generation, George Takei is likely best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the TV show Star Trek and the many movies spun off from it. To a younger generation, Takei is arguably better known for his wide-reaching social media presence. More than ten million people have liked his Facebook page, and he boasts more than 2.5 million Twitter followers.
George Takei: They initially invited me to participate at their opening. Unfortunately, I had a conflicting engagement so I had to pass on it, and I regretted it and thought that was it.
There’s a whole section of “Then They Came for Me” about Japanese life in Chicago, how Japanese-American citizens adjusted after World War II and also how they shaped aspects of the city, the imprint Japanese-Americans made on the city of Chicago itself. From your experiences following the internment camps, what was the adjustment like for you and your family after World War II?
I personalize that story. I was a child, and I grew up in two of those camps. The first one was in southeastern Arkansas, a camp called Rohwer. And we were transferred from there after a year and a half into another camp in northern California, right by the Oregon border. So I talk about that experience, and I was a child then, so I talk about my real memories of those two camps, but I also talk about my teenage days when I tried to find out the true story behind my childhood imprisonment.
Right.
Did you have any idea back then that Donald Trump being president was even possible or that he even had that ambition? When Trump announced his candidacy, did you have any premonitions based on your prior experiences that his presidency would be such a disaster?
