‘I Will Not Be Silenced’: An Interview with George Takei
In 2016, the Star Trek actor and LGBTQ icon foretold all of the Trump administration's human rights offenses
by Tom Blunt
[This interview was originally published by Penguin Random House in 2016. Since then, executive orders issued by Donald Trump have resulted in an average of 40K and 50K people being held in ICE custody every single day. Numerous human rights abuses have been documented; most recently a whistleblower has asserted that ICE detainees are suffering medical neglect and also undergoing forced sterilization.]
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Last week, Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly had to correct the co-chair of a Trump-supporting super PAC on the subject of America’s WWII internment of Japanese-American citizens. That co-chair, former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie, cited the camps as a “precedent” for the incoming administration’s proposed registry of Muslim immigrants and citizens. “You know better than to suggest that,” Kelly admonished. “That’s the kind of stuff that gets people scared.”
People are scared, and apparently with good reason. Mere days later, we watched as the Kansas Secretary of State visited the new President-Elect in hopes of securing a cabinet position, his outline for the Muslim registry plainly visible to anyone with a zoom lens. Other leaders are pushing back: NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio shared a video documenting one of the many recent incidents of anti-immigrant hatred, reminding his followers that New York “always has been, and always will be, a home to immigrants.” Meanwhile, officials in America’s so-called Sanctuary Cities have begun circling their wagons, bracing for a litigious onslaught in the months and years to come.
Few have been paying more attention to these developments than original “Star Trek” crew-member and author George Takei, who experienced the Japanese internment firsthand when he and his family were taken at gunpoint from their Los Angeles home and forcibly escorted to a series of “relocation centers.” Takei’s personal history served as the inspiration for the Broadway musical “Allegiance,” in which he also played two roles.
In an article for the Washington Post last Friday, Takei divulged more of these painful memories and issued a clarion call for the protection of all Americans’ rights. “‘National security’ must never again be permitted to justify wholesale denial of constitutional rights and protections,” he writes. “If it is freedom and our way of life that we fight for, our first obligation is to ensure that our own government adheres to those principles. Without that, we are no better than our enemies.”
Although the internment of more than 100,000 people was an incident the American government formally apologized for, eventually offering “symbolic monetary reparations” (Takei donated his check to the Japanese American National Museum), it appears that mounting fears of terrorism have begun to undo these lessons, eroding our resolve against injustice at a frightening pace.
In the following interview, Takei elaborates on his reaction to recent events, explaining what Americans stand to lose in the very near future if this dark chapter in our history is not revisited and explored in depth.
TOM BLUNT: These recent statements by Donald Trump’s transition team must be incredibly frustrating and personally alarming for you, having just spent so many years bringing your personal history with these very issues, Allegiance, to the stage. What was your instinctive, gut reaction to reading/hearing this news?
GEORGE TAKEI: It was wrenching. It reminded me of the moment I’d heard what Justice Thomas said in his dissent on the Marriage Equality cases – how the internment had not stripped us of our human dignity, and I had to remind myself that my quick words then served no one any good. Best to pause a moment and speak both from the heart and from a clear and resolute mind.
TB: In your excellent Washington Post article, you relive the experience of internment camp through the eyes of a five-year-old. How has revisiting this material artistically, as a grownup, affected your interpretation of these events, and of the actions of your fellow prisoners who were adults at the time?
GT: This has been a transformative experience for me, an opportunity to inhabit a world fully as an adult that I’d only perceived as a child. In the show I play two roles – that of the protagonist Sam as an old man looking back on his life, and of Ojii-chan, which means grandfather, who must watch his son and his grandchildren seek to endure the unthinkable. The show required me, as well as every audience member, to stand in the shoes of someone who has to choose between family and country, between trying to protect those we love and standing up for what we know is right. Many families who were interned faced this very questions head on. We didn’t shy away from them in the show, and that’s what made performing it eight times a week a thrilling and moving experience filled with self-discovery and historical poignancy.
TB: You pointed out here that Trump has personally addressed the camps; in 2015 he could not say whether he would have supported or opposed them, and “would have had to be there at the time.” At what phase was Allegiance at when these comments were made, and how did the experience affect your view of events in the presidential election to come?
GT: Trump made these statements in the late fall of 2015, when he was the GOP frontrunner – but there was a long way still to go in the campaign. It had never occurred to me or to any of those involved in the show that the actual question of internment would serve as anything more than a cultural parallel. Instead, we found ourselves, as we do now, rehashing questions that should have long ago achieved national consensus. Here was a man who was willing to resurrect those dark times directly and breathe life into a terrifying idea – that in the name of national security, we do things we do not like to whole groups of people, based on mere suspicion and gross generalizations. But even then, I did not dream he would actually go on to become president, with all the powers that attend that office.
TB: I read that a filmed version of the play will be screened this December. How can people who are upset by the turn things have taken ensure this film will be seen by as many people as possible?
GT: We have formed a group online called The Allegianites, who number over 34,000 fans, each of whom is helping get the word out about the importance of this film. I encourage all who are upset about the recent rhetoric to join us in this group online. These are crack social media footsoldiers who are amplifying word about our show and filling houses. Many are already sold out. We also are calling upon folks in every city and locality to bring friends and family to see the show together. This is an opportunity for an entire nation to sit for two hours together and experience our story, one that we hope is never forgotten and never repeated.
TB: I read the Manzanar Committee’s statement on these events, calling for the Japanese American community to unify against anything resembling the mass registration, arrest, or detention of U.S. citizens from ANY community. Is there anything you would add, or concerns you have that you don’t see addressed elsewhere?
GT: In 1942 our community felt isolated, cut off from communicating besides through mass media that had largely bought the administration’s propaganda and vilified us. We felt alone and without support. We could barely even get word to one another. Today is different. With social media and the speed of today’s communication, ordinary people can mobilize quickly. There are online petitions circulating to take a pledge, for example, to register with the government as a Muslim should it require members of that faith to do so. We have to be vigilant about how the Trump administration may try to divide us from each other, to say for example that only “certain” people will be affected, not whole communities. We must remind ourselves that an assault on any one of our liberties and freedoms is an assault on all.
And most importantly, should any terrorist strike or act of war occur in which American lives are lost, we must be on guard for any attempt by the government to turn that tragedy into justification for sweeping action.
TB: As an author and media personality, you’re known for your outspoken cultural commentary as well as your humor. As all these events unfold, how do you plan to spend the next few years? And where do you turn for positivity and support during painful or difficult times?
GT: I am grateful and humbled by the support of my fans and the strength of the community we have online, and I know that because of its sheer size and engagement, I have a responsibility to continue to speak out and call attention to any policies or actions by the incoming administration that would undermine the progress we have achieved or threaten vulnerable communities in any way. I expect and hope that I will be able to help organize and galvanize followers on Facebook and Twitter into more than just engaging with me on those platforms.
We need to take our passion and effect real change at the local, state, and federal levels, to help elect progressive leaders, and to stem the tide of division, fear and scapegoating. I am emboldened, not cowed, by the words and actions of Trump and his circle. I believe many others are as well. Together we will stand in opposition. I’m not going anywhere, and I won’t be silenced.
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