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George Takei Recalls 'Laughing and Crying' As He Wrote About His WWII-Era Imprisonment In New Book (Exclusive)
George Takei and his family were among the thousands of Japanese American citizens imprisoned by the U.S. government after Pearl Harbor was bombed during World War II. He recounts the experience in his new children's book 'My Lost Freedom.' Writing it, he tells PEOPLE left him 'laughing and crying.'
The Star Trek icon recounts in his new children’s book how he, his siblings and his parents were forcibly removed from their California home and imprisoned on American soil during World War II after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the event which brought the U.S. into the war. Even though Takei and his family members were U.S. citizens, “America saw us as the enemy simply because we looked like the people who did the bombing,” writes the actor, who was just one of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to suffer the same fate. The book, illustrated by Michelle Lee, recounts other emotional moments, including how Takei learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance while surrounded by barbed wire and soldiers on guard.
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