George Takei grew up in an internment camp much like the one that was in Heart Mountain Wyoming. On Tuesday he visited an old barracks that was used in the camp. Takei was keen to point out what was not there. He remembered the black tar paper on the outside walls. He remembered the pot stove that almost kept them warm in the winters. Most of all he remembered the irrational fear and racist actions of our government.

To those who might not recognize the name George Takei, he played Sulu in the classic Star Trek TV series. Recently he is one of the biggest icons in social media for being an actor, director, and advocate. Politically he speaks for human rights both in the Japanese-American relations and the LGBT community. His social media posts are generally positive tech/pop-culture humor with a side of puns.

Driving to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, he tried to put himself in the place of that American citizen being relocated. He described the landscape as bleak and desolate. Although Takei spent parts of his life in a camp in Arizona, this place was all too real. It was if he time traveled back to that place where he and his family were labeled an “Enemy Alien” or “Non-Alien.” The fact was he was an American born citizen, yet he and others like him had to endure this irrational racism of the US Government in World War II.


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