George Takei is best known for his portrayal of Mr. Sulu in Star Trek, but the actor is also celebrated for numerous other accomplishments, including decades as a community activist. In 2019, he added the title of award-winning writer of books for young readers with the publication of the graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy (Top Shelf Productions, 2019). Among other honors, the title was named the winner of the Will Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work, was the winner of an American Book Award, and was listed as an ALA Notable Children’s Book for Older Readers. In 2024, Takei retold this highly moving story of being imprisoned in an internment camp with his family during World War II—a pivotal historical experience that also directly affected many thousands of other Americans—in My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story (Crown Books for Young Readers, illustrated by Michelle Lee). The picture book makes Takei’s powerful account accessible to an even younger audience.
Here, Takei talks with Lisa Bullard about childhood events that inspired his life’s mission, offers helpful tips to young writers, and discusses the importance of engaging with the world.
Will you share the moment that everything changed for your family?
It was the month of May 1942. I had just celebrated my fifth birthday a few weeks before. One quiet morning, my four-year-old brother, Henry, and I were just gazing out the front living room window at our neighborhood. Suddenly, we saw two US soldiers marching up our driveway. We were alarmed! They carried rifles with shiny bayonets on them. They stomped up the porch and started banging on the front door with their fists. We were terrified!
You tell this story and what follows it for teen readers in They Called Us Enemy. In My Lost Freedom, you share it with younger readers—those who are close to the age you were when these events took place. How did anticipating that younger audience affect the way you told the story in this picture book?
I think any four- or five-year old child can be frightened and shocked by such a scene. The horrors that followed, our family being forced out of our home at gunpoint, made to live in a horse stable for a few months, then herded onto a train and being told by our father that we were going on a “vacation in the country,” which turned out to be a barbed-wire prison camp in the swamps of Arkansas, are real events that children can comprehend with careful explanation. It could serve as an early introduction to the complexities of life.
But also, as a five-year-old, I considered the swamp where we were incarcerated as an exotic adventure land and a fascinating learning experience.
[My Lost Freedom] could serve as an early introduction to the complexities of life.”
What do you hope that young readers will take away from reading My Lost Freedom?
I hope the big question young readers ask will be, “Why did these people get imprisoned?” I myself did not begin asking that question until I was much older, but young people nowadays seem more sophisticated. When I became a teenager, I had many after-dinner conversations with my father, and he responded quite candidly. I remember him often quoting from President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Spreads from My Lost Freedom
What discussions do you hope the book might generate in classrooms?
We the people of a democracy have the responsibility for our government. When the Constitution of the U.S. is being violated, we the people need to stand up and speak out. The internment of innocent Japanese Americans who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor was unjust and against the Constitution. It was more than forty years later that President Ronald Reagan apologized for the “grave error” and authorized a “token redress” of $20,000 to the survivors of the unjust imprisonment.
Have there been any surprises in the way young people have responded to your story?
So many readers, not only young people, were surprised by the subject of my writing, the unconstitutional imprisonment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War simply based on race. I was a child when we experienced this event, but I had parents that shared our family history with me, and I’ve felt it my mission in life to remind my country of this shameful chapter of our history. I felt that others should never experience this kind of event.
I was a child when we experienced this event, but I had parents that shared our family history with me, and I’ve felt it my mission in life to remind my country of this shameful chapter of our history.”
How would you compare/contrast your picture book and your graphic novel?
Both They Called Us Enemy and My Lost Freedom are, in the most basic sense, picture books. They Called Us Enemy, however, is really a comic book. When I was a teenager, I loved comic books, and the target reader for They Called Us Enemy is teens and up. Thus, that form.
My Lost Freedom targets two generations, parents and their kids. Thus, the story told with big two-page pictures and text for parents to read and explain to children. The parents and the kids have a shared experience, reading and examining the information-crammed pictures.
What is the most important way your early years shaped you as a writer? As an activist?
I’ve found that as an activist one must communicate with people to be effective. You must inform people on issues, move them to action, organize happenings. All this is basic writing; where, what, when, why. The next ingredient is passion; feel, think, stir. Before you know it, you’ve become a writer.
Your books are a huge inspiration to today’s young people, some of whom are going through their own tough experiences. What’s your best advice for young writers who want to share difficult personal, family, or community stories with others?
If young writers passionately want to write about their personal, family, or community stories but find it challenging, they must first ask themselves, “Why is it so difficult?” Is it your community? Could it be your family? Or, reflecting deep down, could it be you yourself? Once you’ve wrestled with that challenge and dealt with the obstructions, I hope you will find your way to being the writer that you are.
If young writers passionately want to write about their personal, family, or community stories but find it challenging, they must first ask themselves, ‘Why is it so difficult?’”
Spreads from My Lost Freedom
What encouragement do you have for young people who are wondering how to pursue their own dreams? Or for those who are still trying to identify what dreams to challenge themselves with?
Those who have dreams to pursue are already off and running. They now have the inspiration and the aim. I hope they can hear my enthusiastic applause urging them on.
To those of you who are searching for your “dream” to spur you on, I urge you to engage with the world around you. Volunteer for causes, help with charitable projects, become involved in issues in your community, your state, or country.
To those of you who are searching for your “dream” to spur you on, I urge you to engage with the world around you. Volunteer for causes, help with charitable projects, become involved in issues in your community, your state, or country.”
Is there anything else about your childhood/adolescent experiences that you’d like to share with readers?
I have a new book titled It Rhymes With Takei (Top Shelf Productions, 2025) that will be out and available at your local booksellers on June 10. It will be about my early years up to today that I have never discussed and written about publicly, that I have kept closeted.
It Rhymes With Takei
This upcoming full-color graphic memoir, from the same team behind George Takei’s award-winning bestseller They Called Us Enemy (artist Harmony Becker and co-writers Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott), tells the untold story of Takei’s journey from closeted actor to international gay icon. It Rhymes With Takei will offer an unprecedented view into the heart of this beloved star and a celebration of the warp-speed changes he has witnessed in one lifetime.
