Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
George Takei discusses internment, a life of activism
Listen
• 5:47
Actor George Takei.
(
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
)
Actor and activist George Takei delivered a petition with at least 317,450 signatures Monday night to the president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, opposing President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration, and the targeting of anyone based on their religion or national origin, the actor told KPCC.
The delivery of Takei's petition follows a court decision last week not to reinstate Trump's travel ban.
Takei presented the petition at an event titled "Never Again" at Los Angeles City Hall. He hopes the effort will show his supporters' solidarity with the national Muslim community while raising awareness of the Japanese-American internment camps in America during WWII.
"We need to know our history, we need to learn the lesson of our history and that lesson is: Never again must we do something so unconstitutional, with no due process," he said.
Support for LAist comes from
When Takei was 5 years old, his family was detained in the post-Pearl Harbor Japanese internment camps.
"We were innocent, without charge, without trial, we were put in American prison camps in the United States of America," he said.
The experience has led to a life-long pursuit of activism for the actor, who shared his story with KPCC before delivering the petition.
On being detained:
When a surrogate of Donald Trump talks about a Muslim registry, again, I recognize that's the way it began with us. The government gathered a database. It was a registry, and then they came down with a curfew. All Japanese were ordered to be home by 7 p.m. and stay home until 6 a.m. in the morning. We were imprisoned in our homes at night. and then we discovered our bank accounts had been frozen. We couldn't get access to our life savings. So we were financially straight-jacketed. And then the soldiers came for us.
On growing up as an activist:
When I became a teenager, I became a voracious reader with a particular interest in history and civics. I read about the shining ideals of our democracy, and I couldn't quite reconcile that with what I knew to be my childhood imprisonment. After dinner, I had many long and sometimes heated discussions with my father. Because I was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. And so I gave my father a hard time. I would organize my friends. and go downtown and demonstrate at the federal building.
Support for LAist comes from
On discussions about democracy with his father:
Through those long discussions and many discussions, I learned from my father, who was one who bore the weight the anguish and the loss and the pain of the internment the most. He said, 'Our democracy is a people's democracy. And that people's democracy can do great things,' he said. 'Those ideals that you're reading about were articulated by people — the founding fathers — but people are human beings who are fallable.' ...
In our people's democracy, both nobility and fallibility are woven in together, side by side. Our democracy is dependent on people who cherish those ideals and actively engage in a participatory democracy.
The next Sunday afternoon [my father] took me down to the Adlai Stevenson for President campaign headquarters and I saw and understood how electoral politics worked.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
Censorship has long been controversial. But lately, the issue of who does and doesn’t have the right to restrict kids’ access to books has been heating up across the country in the so-called culture wars. -
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity.
-
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
Best of LAist