Former Internee George Takei Engages Trump’s Rhetoric
More: The Pulse: Former Internee George Takei Engages Trump’s Rhetoric
Reacting recently to Donald Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich observed that there’s a straight line between the businessman’s presidential campaign rhetoric on immigration and an ugly chapter in American history.
“Say we’re going to pick 10- or 11 million people up and just shove them out of here,” Kasich told me. “You remember back in World War II, when they imprisoned Japanese and what a dark spot, a dark stain, it was on our history? The idea that we’re just going to deport all these people - first of all, it’s not going to happen, and it’s just not right.”
Which sadly suggests that George Takei’s timing couldn’t be any better. Star Trek’s beloved Mr. Sulu sees history repeating as he stars in a new, semiautobiographical Broadway musical about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Allegiance, which co-stars Tony winner Lea Salonga and is playing at the Longacre Theatre, tells the story of a family’s fight to stay connected to its heritage after this ugly period in U.S. history. Takei’s family was removed in 1942 at gunpoint from its home on Garnet Street in Los Angeles and taken to a relocation camp in Arkansas when he was 5. The ordeal did not end until he was 81/2.
“To characterize all immigrants coming from south of the border with that broad brush as criminals and rapists is the same thing that happened to us,” Takei said in reference to Trump.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20151206_The_Pulse__Former_internee_George_Takei_engages_Trump_s_rhetoric.html#7eq1XirssHIqRd85.99