Star Trek’s George Takei on his life’s mission: to tell his Japanese-American story as often as he can

‘I consider it my mission in life to educate Americans,’ says the Star Trek actor on the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II in camps

He has a new picture book for children out about the years he spent interned as a child and the unfairness of being ‘seen as different from other Americans’

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In his new children’s book, Star Trek actor George Takei details the three years he spent in internment camps as a child during the second world war. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 4:15pm, 31 May 2024Updated: 6:48pm, 3 Jun 2024

The incarceration of 120,000 Japanese-Americans, including children, labelled enemies during World War II is an historical experience that has traumatised, and galvanised, the Japanese-American community over the decades.

For George Takei, who portrayed Hikaru Sulu aboard the USS Enterprise in Star Trek, it is a story he is determined to keep telling every opportunity he has.

“I consider it my mission in life to educate Americans on this chapter of American history,” he says.

He fears the lesson about the failure of US democracy has not really been learned, even today, including among Japanese-Americans.

American troops supervise the movement of Japanese-Americans from their homes to camps during World War II. Photo: Getty Images

“The shame of internment is the government’s. They’re the ones that did something unjust, cruel and inhuman. But so often the victims of the government actions take on the shame themselves,” he says.