Explore The 2020 One Book, One San Diego Selections With George Takei And San Diego Public Library

Speaker 1: 00:00 He's famous for his role as Lieutenant Sulu in the iconic star Trek series. But George Takei has been on a mission to educate the world about the incarceration of Japanese Americans by the U S government during world war two, his graphic novel, they called us enemy tells the story of his childhood imprisoned in an American concentration camp. The book has been chosen as this year's KPBS one book, one San Diego selection, and George Takei joins us now. Welcome to midday, George. Speaker 2: 00:30 Well, thank you very much. Yeah. I love the name that you have for this program. One book one, San Diego, one San Diego suggests the whole city coming together. Speaker 1: 00:43 Well, how do you feel about having San Diegans come together in this one book program to read your personal story? Speaker 2: 00:49 Well, it's that coming together part that I am really struck by because the story I tell in a, they called us enemy is one where the polar opposite happened. The Japanese Americans are a small part of the United States, but, uh, it was a time when the whole nation was terrorized by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And we Japanese Americans, and to look exactly like the people that bomb Pearl Harbor, we had nothing to do with it. We're Americans, but we looked like them were the descendants of the immigrant generation that came here from Japan and overnight, this country looked at us with suspicion and fear and outright hatred, simply because of the way we looked. Speaker 1: 01:43 George, what do you remember the most about, about your personal experience in the club? Speaker 2: 01:48 I personally experienced, I was, I just celebrated my fifth birthday, April 20th, 1940 42. And I'll never be able to forget that morning. My parents got us up very early that morning and we would dress hurriedly. My brother and I were just gazing out, uh, from the front window out onto the neighborhood. And suddenly we saw two soldiers marching up our driveway. They carried rifles with shiny bayonets on it. And just that site was a scary, they stomped up the front porch and with their fists began pounding on the front door. And literally at gunpoint, we were ordered out of our home. It was a terrified morning that I'll never be able to forget. Speaker 1: 02:42 Let me bring us up to the present moment because the world is in a lot of turmoil at the moment. And we have seen Asian-Americans have been the targets of hate crimes and racism and discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic, which must particularly distressing to you. Speaker 2: 03:01 Well, it originated in a [inaudible] China and our president as decided to call the Corona virus, the Chinese virus, and he repeated it. It repeats that every opportunity he gets or the, uh, Kung flu and, you know, there are easily excitable, racist, ignorant people that pick up on it. There have been many, many reports of people being assaulted in San Francisco and Seattle a year in Los Angeles, uh, in that's a horrible situation happening, but it's, uh, it's a small echo of what happened to 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West coast. All Japanese Americans on the West coast were summarily rounded up. And when the camps were built, we were packed into railway cars and transported two thirds of the way across the country to the swamps of Arkansas. There were 10 camps throughout the United States and all the most desolate godforsaken places in the country. Speaker 1: 04:15 And your book really makes the point that even, although it seems shocking now, what happened then could happen again? Speaker 2: 04:23 It is happening to another, another group of people on the Southern border here are these, uh, Latino people, uh, Mexicans and, uh, El Salvadoran, Guatemalan fleeing the chaos and the terror of crime and, and dysfunctional government. Some women have seen their husbands shot right before their eyes and with their children. They fled to, uh, our Southern border they're seeking asylum, which is a human right. And our president, God condemned, condemns them as murderers, drug dealers, rapist. I mean, you know, with no basis. In fact, in fact at that, uh, at the I right after Pearl Harbor, they said we were all spies and saboteurs. We were all innocent. Speaker 1: 05:17 What do you think is the most potent force to help combat racial divisions? Speaker 2: 05:23 When we were incarcerated, the whole nation was swept up in that, uh, uh, hate against us, but what's happening. Uh, now on the Southern border is not the whole nation, uh, coming together against them. Uh, yes, the, our government is, uh, tearing children away from, uh, these mothers that are fled with their children. But there are those of us who, uh, are working against that kind of outrage. These are people who are asking for asylum, they're entitled it. And, uh, rather than accepting them with humanitarian compassion, their children are torn away from them. In our case, we were always together with our parents and these children separated from their parents are put in these cages, these pins, and it is I'm going, I'm sure going to affect their lives completely. They they're, they're going to have problems throughout their lives. Speaker 1: 06:24 So, George, how do you think that reading your graphic memoir the book they called us enemy? How can it help people prevent what happened then from happening again? Now Speaker 2: 06:36 I think we, humans are actually the human animal and we do, uh, revert to primitive reactions when something horrific happens and that terrorist sweeps across the country, we were seen as dangerous. We were innocent, absolutely innocent American citizens, that kind of irrationality happened in the United States. And the purpose of my writing this book, we cannot let that kind of irrationality sweep over our country. Again, something irrational is happening again in our country, not just what's happening with the Latinos on the Southern borders, but also the black lives matter protest, racial injustice and all of the various, uh, horrible things that's happening right now. The impoverishment and the hunger people lining up for food, this kind of thing can happen. But a nation of people that is mindful of their history that know our history will try to prevent that bring rationality, uh, to our thinking. So that's why, uh, I, I wrote a, they called us enemy as a graphic memoir. My intent, I wanted to reach the youth leadership, the young people, so that they get this information at that very formative stage and become the voters of tomorrow, the citizens of tomorrow, and, uh, contributing to making a better, uh, United States. And I think we are learning from all these, uh, opportunities to know something about our American history. Speaker 1: 08:32 Well, George, thank you so much for spending this time with us. Speaker 2: 08:36 Oh, thank you very much. Um, I'm looking forward to returning to San Diego and sharing my thoughts with the, the young leadership there. Speaker 1: 08:45 George tech Hayes book, they called us enemy is KPBS has one book, one San Diego pick this year. So get a hold of a copy and join in. There are several virtual events, some design specifically for young people, and George will kick off the series with a virtual discussion tonight Tuesday, September 22nd at 7:00 PM. You can sign up to join it and find more information about future events@kpbs.org slash one book. And for a longer version of this interview, go to kpbs.org/midday.