To The Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei - Contents

Contents

The book begins in the spring of 1942 as Takei and his family are on a train traveling towards the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas. Takei recounts the four years his family spent in Japanese American internment, his experiences there, and the aftermath of those experiences. The book also provides background and research into the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were interred in similar camps. Takei's parents were identified as "disloyals", and sent to the maximum security Tule Lake War Relocation Center in northern California. Takei's family left Tule Lake in 1946 and he describes their tough time readjusting to life after being in the internment camps. He excelled in his early studies and skipped the third grade. He recounts an incident from fourth grade where the teacher referred to him as "that little Jap boy", and the emotions he still carries looking back on that event.

Takei describes the labor of picking strawberries as a teenager, and how this gave him new understanding of the word "backbreaking". While working, Takei discovered a plan by other Japanese American strawberry farmers to cheat Mexican laborers that had been working with them, and he went and confronted the Japanese American workers to demand that the Mexicans be paid the same. This event gave him an understanding of the importance of activism and the difference that an individual can make. He later became motivated to get more involved in activism and representing others, running for elected office in junior high and high school, volunteering for civic, state and federal political campaigns, and ultimately running himself unsuccessfully for a Los Angeles City Council seat vacated by Tom Bradley in 1973.

Takei entered architecture school at University of California, Berkeley, but told his parents during his freshman year that he wanted to become an actor. His parents told him they would support him if he first got a college degree, and he went on to obtain a degree in theater arts from UC Berkeley. Takei played a Japanese soldier wrongly accused of the murder of his fiancee at a production of Made in Japan at Playhouse 90. He received some acting advice from Harry Guardino during a live TV performance of the play. He went on to receive roles on Perry Mason and The Bridge on the River Kwai, and in a civil rights play called Fly Blackbird!.

He recounts a chance encounter with William Shatner shortly after filming the pilot to Star Trek, where at first Shatner did not recognize him. He also recounts other tensions between himself and Shatner. Takei played character Nim in John Wayne's The Green Berets, and when he returned to Star Trek found that some of his lines had been given to a new character, Pavel Chekov, played by Walter Koenig. He recounts his jealousy at hearing this news. Takei describes the filming of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and his attempts to inject more substance into his character of Sulu. When he heard that there was a plan to replace the original Star Trek cast with new crew members for Star Trek V, Takei rallied fans at twelve consecutive Star Trek conventions, and Paramount Studios dropped plans to change the crew. In Star Trek VI, Takei's character Sulu is Captain of the starship Excelsior, and plays an integral role in rescuing the starship Enterprise.