Issue date: 5/21/08 Section: Campus

Though he has served as Star Trek's representative of Asia on board the U.S.S. Enterprise throughout the galaxy, on Tuesday George Takei related his life experiences as an Asian American to about 120 students and community members in Ryan Family Auditorium.

The Asian Pacific American Coalition brought Takei to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage month, which occurs every May. His 30-minute speech was followed by a 45-minute question-and-answer session.

Takei, who is best known as Mr. Sulu from Star Trek, used the Enterprise crew as an example of the importance of acceptance.

"(Star Trek series creator) Gene Roddenberry continually reminded us that the Starship Enterprise was a metaphor for the Starship Earth, and the strength of this starship was in its diversity - diversity of race, diversity of culture, diversity of ideological background - coming together and working in concert," he said. "It was an almost utopian dream, and it was science fiction."

At the time of the Star Trek crew's first flights in the 1960s, however, America's cities were embroiled in race riots and the Cold War was still intense. The progress society has made so far toward greater acceptance can then be represented in the International Space Station, a modern-day parallel to the Enterprise that sees Americans and Russians cooperating on a project that has contributors from many nations and cultures, he said.

Takei related the huge changes the United States has seen in his own time through the story of his childhood. After Pearl Harbor, Takei and his family were removed from their home and sent to internment camps, like all Japanese-Americans in the West. The internment of the Japanese was the culmination of a legacy of discrimination against Asians and Asian-Americans in the United States, he said, which included preventing them from owning land and excluding them from most professions.

Still, some Japanese men in the camps chose to enter the U.S. Army and fought in the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team while their families were still interned. The unit went on to become the most highly decorated unit of its size in the war, and though it would take years for Asian-Americans to receive the equality the Constitution promised them, their fight proved their belief in the American promise of freedom, Takei said.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools