On this day 82 years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in the height of insanity of racism after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, signed Executive Order 9066. It ordered all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to be summarily rounded up and imprisoned within 10 barbed wire prison camps, with no charges, no trial, no due process. One day, a few months later, we saw two soldiers marching up our driveway, carrying rifles with shiny bayonets on them. They stopped up the porch right in front of our window and banged on the front door. My father answered, and one of the soldiers pointed the rifle at him, right in front of us, and ordered us out of our home. I had just turned five in April; it was May when they came to take us away. My father gave my brother Henry and me two heavy suitcases. And we brought them out onto the driveway and waited for our mother to come out. When she did, she had our baby sister in one arm, a huge duffel bag in the other, and tears were streaming down her cheeks. That is one morning that is seared into my memory. I will never be able to forget all the innocent people, my family included, who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, most of who were law abiding U.S. citizens, who were suddenly categorized as ‘enemy aliens.’ Today, I hear terrifying words from political leaders today that once more raise the specter of what happened before, right here in America. Donald Trump and his allies are talking about rounding up 11 million people and putting them into mass detention camps before deporting them. There won’t be time for due process, to sort out who is documented and who is not. Homes will be lost. Businesses, too. Families will be torn apart. Lives will be ruined, over fear and ignorance, all to serve the ambitions and agendas of politicians. I know, because I lived through it. I say, never again. Not while I have one ounce of fight still left in me. Join me. Fight this madness. Help keep America from repeating the mistakes of its past.
What a horrific experience - even more horrific to think the US Supreme Court upheld the imprisonment of Japanese Americans in internment camps in the landmark case, Korematsu v. United States. Who knows what Donald Trump would actually do re: rounding up Mexicans and other aliens snd putting them in csmps before deporting them? He is such s wack job snd spouts off all sorts or crazy ideas, but I am with you. We can not chance it and should make sure Trump should never sees the WH again.
@GeorgeTakei the problem we face is not a bit similar to the prejudice your family suffered. the problem we face today is allowing uninvited and unvetted people into this country. it is not a perfect country, but it would be accurate to say it is essentially "loco'.
@GeorgeTakei Hey, you left out the part that he was a Democrat!!!
@GeorgeTakei This action was a full frontal attack on our Constitution and I am sorry your family was caught up in it. However, unlike your family, the migrants Trump wants to remove are here illegally - they have no right to be in the country. That is an entirely different situation.
And here you are stumping for the political party that did it. George, your only claim to fame is a bit part on a 1960s television show. You thinking that your status among a bunch of amped up nerds makes you an authority on political matters is laughable. Try and remember that Hikaru Sulu is a made up character. You just wore his clothes for a little while. Now shut up and entertain me.
@GeorgeTakei Here's how victims of *Japanese* internment camps looked at the end of the war:
@GeorgeTakei Absolutely terrible George. And you are so right, many people have no idea what our country would be like under trump - with no due process on any matter.
@GeorgeTakei Serious question…. Democrats did that to you. Without mentioning Trump, why do you support them so vehemently now?