Star Trek’s George Takei tweets support for California apology to Japanese Americans
George Takei tweets support for California apology
Star Trek’s Sulu, George Takei, has expressed his support for a new California plan to apologize to Japanese Americans. On Sunday, Takei tweeted a link to an L.A. Times article titled “California to apologize officially for historical mistreatment of Japanese Americans”. Along with the link, he said, “Welcome, yet long overdue” and included a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Welcome, yet long overdue.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) February 17, 2020
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” — MLK, Jr.https://t.co/pIJkd6s0ZT
The L.A. Times article describes a plan by the California State Assembly, with Governor Gavin Newsome’s endorsement, to approve by resolution a formal apology to Americans of Japanese descent, for its role in the incarceration of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. The approval is expected to take place this Thursday, February 20th.
The text of the resolution, in part, reads: “Given recent national events, it is all the more important to learn from the mistakes of the past and to ensure that such an assault on freedom will never again happen to any community in the United States; [...] now, therefore, be it resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the Assembly apologizes to all Americans of Japanese ancestry for its past actions in support of the unjust exclusion, removal, and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and for its failure to support and defend the civil rights and civil liberties of Japanese Americans during this period.”
Takei himself was imprisoned in one such internment camp in California as a child. His recent graphic novel, the New York Times Bestseller They Called Us Enemy, is his memoir of that time.
