Interviews

1. Father’s Influence

2. Response to 9/11

3. Allegiance Musical

4. George & Brad's Wedding

5. Asian Stereotypes

6. George's Mother & Brad

7. Civil Rights Involvement

8. Coming Out Publicly

(b. 1937) Actor, Activist

Allegiance Musical

We developed a musical, Allegiance, which is about the internment of Japanese Americans, and we opened first in San Diego, at the Old Globe Theater. I was surprised by so many younger Japanese Americans who came to talk to me after the performance, and said to me, “I knew my parents or my grandparents were in camp, but that's all I knew. I didn't know anything about what happened in the camp.” They didn't know about the "loyalty questionnaire". They were deeply moved and they were shocked by what their parents or grandparents went through.

So it's an important story that our own people, they younger generation, don't truly understand. And it's an important story that other Americans throughout the country have never heard about. They're shocked when I tell them I grew up in two barbed wire US prison camps.

Allegiance (play) imprisonment incarceration musicals war World War II camps

Date: February 3, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki, Janice Tanaka

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

George Hosato Takei was born in Los Angeles in 1937 to an Issei father, Takekuma Norman Takei, and Nisei mother, Fumiko Emily Nakamura. He was only five years old when his family was rounded up along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans and sent to concentration camps by the U.S. government following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

He earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theater at the University of California, Los Angeles and embarked on a career in theater, television, and film. In 1966 he was cast as U.S. Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu on the groundbreaking TV series Star Trek.

In addition to his acting career, Takei has been highly active in public and community service, including serving on the board of the Southern California Rapid Transit District and has been an active and generous member of the Japanese American National Museum Board of Trustees since its inception.

Since coming out as gay in 2005, Takei has become an effective advocate for LGBT rights, speaking widely about his own experiences, holding public figures accountable for homophobic comments, and serving as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign. Takei has enjoyed a renewed wave of popularity in recent years thanks to the infectious humor and warmth of his Facebook page, which has over eight million followers.

Updated May 2015