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."
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Edited by Jim "The Big Dweeb" Griffith - the official scapegoat for r.a.s.i.
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