‘Star Trek's' George Takei likens US internment camps of Japanese to Trump detaining illegal immigrants
During a podcast interview on Thursday with CNN host Audie Cornish, the actor, who played popular sci-fi character Sulu, compared his experiences of being a marginalized Japanese American in World War II to illegal immigrants being detained by the Trump administration.
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'But politicians lie, and people believe that lie because there's hysteria rampant at that time,' the anti-Trump actor said, mentioning the chaos during America's war with Japan. 'And in our time today, right now, people got swept up by a lie and elected him. And now people have regrets. People must speak out.'
As The Associated Press recounted in a 2024 article, 'On Feb. 19, 1942, following the attack by Imperial Japan on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry to WWII, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry who were considered potentially dangerous.'
4 Takei compared his experiences of being a marginalized Japanese American in World War II to illegal immigrants being detained by the Trump administration.
CNN
4 This 1945 photo provided by the Texas Historical Commission shows an aerial view Crystal City Family Alien Internment Camp in Crystal City, Texas.
AP
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The report added, 'Japanese Americans were forced into hastily built barracks, with no insulation or privacy, and surrounded by barbed wire. They shared bathrooms and mess halls, and families of up to eight were squeezed into 20-by-25 foot rooms. Armed U.S. soldiers in guard towers ensured nobody tried to flee. Approximately two-thirds of the detainees were American citizens.'
Having been born to two Japanese parents, the actor lived this and has shared his experiences with the public.
During his interview with Cornish, he said, 'Even great presidents can get swept up in the hysteria of the times because, to Roosevelt, the West Coast of the United States was just like Pearl Harbor. It was open. Unprotected and vulnerable. And here were these people that looked exactly like the people that bombed Pearl Harbor. And so, he panicked out of ignorance.'
4 An unidentified immigrant is detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents inside the Federal Plaza courthouse following his legal proceedings on June 27, 2025 in New York.
AFP via Getty Images
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4 In this April 1, 1942, file photo, U.S. Army medical corps members assist a Japanese woman in Seattle to the ferry at Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound after she collapsed during the evacuation of more than 300 Japanese from the island.
AP
Takei continued, noting that 'teachers and librarians are the pillars of democracy' and are the ones who can protect society from getting caught up in a political frenzy.
'They can teach them this truth that people, even great presidents, can be stampeded by hysteria. And that's what we're going through right now,' he said, suggesting people are getting caught up in Trump's hysteria.
Cornish fleshed out this comparison, stating, 'You have a president who is now saying he's carrying out mass deportations because it's popular, or saying that he has popular support for going after undocumented migrants. And it made me think, as I was reading your book, about the fact that a majority of Americans at the time, in the '40s, supported the removal of Japanese Americans.'
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She asked, 'And so how does your experience of that inform your thinking of the way the president is saying now — that there's somehow, there are at times popular support for these kinds of actions?'
He replied, 'The important thing – and my father taught me this when I was a teenager, I had many, many after-dinner conversations – Americans need to speak out… But politicians lie, and people believe that lie because there's hysteria rampant at that time. And in our time today, right now, people got swept up by a lie and elected [Trump]. And now people have regrets. People must speak out.'
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