George Takei Visits Internment Site

George Takei, Star Trek‘s Mr. Sulu, recently visited the site of the internment camp he and his family were in during the second World War.

I joined a pilgrimage to a former U.S. internment camp where my family and I, together with 18,000 other Japanese Americans, were imprisoned during World War II. The camp is in northern California, almost at the Oregon border. It has an almost mockingly poetic name, Camp Tule Lake. It was there in a barbed wire camp built on a wind-swept dry lake bed that I spent two and a half years of my boyhood after a year and a half in another internment camp in Arkansas. (via MeFei)

It’s funny that we forget how Takei was probably one of the first positive Asian-American actors (and characters) on American television. Sure, some of the characters from M*A*S*H had some weight on that show – but Star Trek‘s vision of an integrated future was pretty much a trailblazer for network TV.


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2 responses to “George Takei Visits Internment Site”

  1. JC Avatar

    What a good story to share. I especially like the following quote: ” I resolved as an American to work to ensure that the fundamental ideals of this nation shall prevail over today’s challenges of terrorism. “

  2. Tim Z. Avatar

    Gene Roddenberry was a true visionary, and he was someone who defied all attempts to stereotype him. He was a Southern Baptist from Texas who got the TV bug when he was a sergeant with the LAPD.
    He was able to get away with a lot more criticism of contemporary society by doing it in the context of science fiction.

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