George Takei: Children ‘ripped from their mothers’ arms’ in America is worse than internment camps
NEW YORK, NY – MAY 19: Actor George Takei onstage at the 18th Annual Webby Awards on May 19, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for The Webby Awards)
Actor George Takei has spoken out against the atrocity in America which is seeing children torn from their families and placed in cages as part of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on immigration.
In the last six weeks more than 2,300 children have been removed from their families by the Trump administration, and now the Star Trek actor, 81, has declared their separation is worse than what Japanese-American people suffered in internment camps during World War II.
Actor George Takei has written an open letter stating that the immigrant children being taken from their families and held in detention camps is worse than the internment camps (Jamie McCarthy/Getty)
In an open letter, Takei compared it to his experience during World War II, writing: “And yet, in one core, horrifying way this is worse. At least during the internment of Japanese-Americans, I and other children were not stripped from our parents.
“We were not pulled screaming from our mothers’ arms. We were not left to change the diapers of younger children by ourselves.
“When a government acts capriciously, especially against a powerless and much-reviled group, it is hard to describe the terror and anxiety.
“There is nowhere to turn, because the only people with the power to help have trained their guns and dogs upon you. You are without rights, held without charge or trial. The world is upside down, information-less, and indifferent or even hostile to your plight.
“And yet, with hideous irony, I can still say, ‘At least during the internment …’
“At least during the internment, when I was just 5 years old, I was not taken from my parents.”
The Trump administration is responsible for separating 2,300 children from their families (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty)
One detention facility in Texas, where immigrants who illegally tried to cross the border are being held, is being referred to as “la perrera,” which is Spanish for dog kennel.
Takei went on to state that even the largely uninhabitable places his family was forced to stay were better than what these children are being put through.
“My family was sent to a racetrack for several weeks to live in a horse stall, but at least we had each other,” he wrote.
“At least during the internment, my parents were able to place themselves between the horror of what we were facing and my own childish understanding of our circumstances. They told us we were ‘going on a vacation to live with the horsies.’
“And when we got to Rohwer camp, they again put themselves between us and the horror, so that we would never fully appreciate the grim reality of the mosquito-infested swamp into which we had been thrown. At least during the internment, we remained a family, and I credit that alone for keeping the scars of our unjust imprisonment from deepening on my soul.”
The 81-year-old highlighted that at least he had his parents to protect him while their human rights were being abused (Slaven Vlasic/Getty)
He added: “I cannot for a moment imagine what my childhood would have been like had I been thrown into a camp without my parents. That this is happening today fills me with both rage and grief: rage toward a failed political leadership who appear to have lost even their most basic humanity, and a profound grief for the families affected.”
Calling for others to take action, the Trump critic, wrote: “[…] unless we act now, we will have failed to learn at all from our past mistakes.
“Once again, we are flinging ourselves into a world of camps and fences and racist imagery — and lies just big enough to stick.”
