Summary: Pages 183–Epilogue

After Fly Blackbird!, George began to work in Hollywood. He was typically cast because of his nationality. But his life changed when he got a meeting about a series pilot, which might mean steady work. The meeting was with Mr. Roddenberry, a kind man who told him about the show that would become Star Trek. The part of Sulu, described as “strong, sharp, and likeable,” was to be played by someone who was Asian, to represent that part of the world. Often in Hollywood, Asian men were not portrayed favorably. So George decided he would really like the role. The pilot was picked up, and George got the role of Sulu in the television show and eventually in six movies. This gave him a vehicle to address social causes that need attention.

In 2015, George was in the musical Allegiance. This was a show about Japanese internment, with a mostly Asian American cast. More than 120,000 people saw the show—a similar number to those who had been interned in the camps. Florence, Daddy’s secretary in Rohwer, visited him after one show. George was able to introduce her to his husband, Brad.

Shifting in time, the narrative moves back to the speech at the FDR museum. George told the audience that President Reagan had apologized on behalf of the government for Japanese internment. In 1988, he signed an act that gave former prisoners $20,000. Reagan said that it was impossible to make up for lost time but that it was important to “admit a wrong.” George didn’t get his check and apology letter until 1991. He remembered that his father told him the wheels of democracy turn slowly. And the apology was too late for his father, who died in 1979.

When George was a teenager, his father had explained how President Roosevelt made terrible mistakes, like interning the Japanese, but also did great things, like helping the United States emerge from the Great Depression. American democracy is a “people’s democracy,” he would tell George, and people can do great things. These talks with his father shaped how he grew to see the world and have motivated him to share his story wherever he can.

George relates ways the story of Japanese internment still has ramifications today. He explains that Fred Korematsu, who tried to overturn Executive Order 9066 in 1942, appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court didn’t find the executive order unconstitutional until 2018, decades after Japanese internment ended. It was, in fact, a side note in Trump v. Hawaii, the case that allowed President Trump’s ban on immigration from Muslim countries. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent pointing out that the so-called “Muslim ban” used the same logic as Korematsu.

George received a Hollywood star in 1986. He loves that he can tell his story all over the world. He professes that everything he’s been able to do is thanks to his father.

The epilogue shifts to describe a visit George and his husband pay to the Japanese American memorial in Rohwer, Arkansas. On that visit, George remembered President Obama’s words that liberty depends on all people being free and that history can’t “justify injustice” but that we should learn from it to avoid repeating mistakes from our past.

Analysis: Pages 183–Epilogue

George’s life changes course when he meets Mr. Roddenberry, who goes on to cast him in Star Trek. This opportunity is unusual for the time in Hollywood—George will be able to play an honorable role written for an Asian American. It will also give him a platform from which to speak on social justice, educate about the past, and promote change, all of which Daddy has inspired him to do. George will be able to work on the ideals that Daddy has instilled in him because of this opportunity. He will also be able to be a voice for Japanese Americans.

An idea that Takei develops throughout this section is the understanding that it is important to recognize past wrongs. Though apologies and reparations can’t repair the hurt of the past, George posits that it was important that the US government eventually admitted that the internment of Japanese Americans was wrong. This was a step toward assuring that mistakes of the past are recognized and don’t occur again. There is a tension between George’s sense that the apology was needed and was a positive step and his grief that Daddy didn’t live long enough for the apology. This fact is particularly devastating considering that Daddy remained a proponent of American democracy. It also helps the reader realize how many internees likely never saw the US government apologize for the horrors they endured. And though George hopes that education and remembrance will help prevent similar tragedies, the case of Trump v. Hawaii shows that, in his view, the United States still struggles with underlying racism.

Ultimately, George’s work as a speaker and educator—and this graphic memoir itself—are ways in which he works to keep the past alive and achieve a better future.