My parents were spat on in the street and yelled at. My father’s car was graffitied
GEORGE TAKEI IS ON A MISSION. But this time the Star Trek actor is not boldly going where no man has gone before. Now he’s boldly going where too many men went before, to ensure history does not forget them.
Takei is about to star in the British production of the musical Allegiance, inspired by his childhood as one of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans forced into internment camps after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Now a youthful 85, he says it remains the defining experience of his life – one that shaped him as an actor and an activist.
It’s 31 years since he played Sulu in the last of his six Star Trek movies, yet Takei is as prominent as ever. He is out spoken, has a huge social media following, and may be better known these days as an author (in 2019 he published They Called Us Enemy, a graphic novel about his internment) and an LGBTQ+/anti-racist campaigner than he is for Star Trek.
We meet in
