quan@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Tony Quan) (01/30/91)
(Adapted from a Reuters article by Michael Miller) George Takei, known to TV fans as "Mr. Sulu" on Star Trek, knows what it is like to be shunned because of a war that was none of his doing. At the start of World War II, when he was 2, the Japanese- American actor and his family were placed in an internment camp and held until after the war ended in 1945. Takei says he empathizes with the plight of Arab-Americans. He notes that prejudice is not limited to Iraqi-Americans, but to all Arab-Americans because it is almost impossible to tell an Iraqi-American from any other Arab-American. Says Takei: "I remember that during the 2d World War, Chinese-Americans were issued badges saying they were Chinese and not Japanese. Your were automatically suspect because of your features, your ethnicity." The Bush administration says it has no plans to establish internment camps. Officials in Washington have said their war planning did not include placing restrictions on Iraqis, rounding up suspect pro-Iraqi operatives or putting Iraqis in internment camps. "We've learned our lesson," a Justice Dept. spokesman said, referring to the highly controversial use of detention camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. "We have no plans to go around the country and arrest people." Still, Takei expresses concern. Says the actor: "I read this chilling report of the FBI descending on Arab-Americans and interviewing them, ostensibly for their protection. As it turned out, they were being questioned on their possible connections with terrorist organizations." He adds: "My father was questioned in the same way, except in those days they used the word 'sabotage' instead of 'terrorism.' Then came internment. Having lived through that experience, I know that we must not, cannot, repeat such a mistake." Terrorists, says Takei, should be punished, but the innocent must not be caught up in a frenzy of retribution. Says Takei: "They should be questioned and charged, if there appears to be a case against them, and tried, and, if found guilty, they should be punished. But just because they are Arab- Americans, to descend on them and question them and to make them suspect can suddenly make their neighbors feel, well, there's something wrong with the Hassams or the Habibs. I think that would be an outrage." Takei says his time behind barbed wire in a camp outside LA did not affect him immediately. "It was all I knew. When you've known nothing else but barbed wire, it is no more frightening that a chain-link fence surrounding a school yard," he said. But later, as he went through school, the effects of those 4 years became apparent. He explains: "To a child being incarcerated behind barbed wire means being in jail, and people who have been put in jail are people who have done something bad. So I grew up with the feeling that there was something shameful about my background." When the federal government finally acknowledged its World War II mistake in 1988, 43 years after the war, with an official apology and $20,000 compensation to the internees and their descendants, Takei's parents were already dead. "It was my father who suffered the pains, the pangs, the most," Takei says. "He passed away in 1979, so he did not get that apology. He did not have the satisfaction of knowing this question about him was cleared up." -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited by Jim "The Big Dweeb" Griffith - the official scapegoat for r.a.s.i. Email submissions to trek-info@dweeb.fx.com, and questions to trek-info-request@dweeb.fx.com