George Takei

Today on the B&N Podcast George Takei joins us to talk about They Called Us Enemy, the harrowing true story of the author's childhood experience of imprisonment, along with his family, in the infamous prison camps in which thousands of Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during the second World War. Takei is of course known to millions of fans worldwide for his portrayal of Mr. Sulu in the legendary TV series Star Trek as well as the series of films that followed; but he's know to many others for his presence on social media, where he mixes humor and activism. He's made the awareness of the story of Japanese Americans in the camps a particular cause -- and in this new book, collaboration with illustrator Harmony Becker and co-writers writers Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, Takei takes readers with devastating directness into the experience of a child whose world is about to be transformed by nightmarish events. It's a powerful, immediate work, and as George Takei  noted when he joined us in the studio, its importance is not only in remembering the past, but in helping us recognize the events of the present.