Allegiance

by Laurie Lyda  Rowan Public Library

When it was announced that George Takei’s Broadway musical “Allegiance” would be shown on Dec. 13 at selected cinemas nationwide, I immediately purchased tickets and encouraged friends and family to do the same. For any who were unfamiliar with the historical events that inspired “Allegiance,” I shared materials from my personal library, and I also located materials that are part of Rowan Public Library’s collection.

While many know George Takei from his role as Hikaru Sulu on “Star Trek,” not as many know that he and his family, along with other Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans, were interned on American soil during World War II. Takei, who was born in Los Angeles, has often shared his experiences. His 1994 autobiography “To the Stars,” which is part of RPL’s collection, begins with his family’s forcible relocation and internment at Camp Rohwer. In the TED Talk, “Why I love a country that once betrayed me,” Takei shares that for his four-year-old self, “being in a barbed wire prison camp became my normality.”

As an adult, Takei has sought to remember and share stories of the interned and the consequences they suffered because of that internment. “Allegiance,” based on his family’s experiences, is a culmination of this passion. Takei, who also stars in the musical, stated in an “Entertainment Weekly” interview, “So many people around the globe have never heard about this dark part of our nation’s history, and it is an honor and privilege for me to help tell this story so that we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. I am deeply grateful that almost 120,000 people experienced the Broadway production during its run, an eerie reflection of the number of Japanese-Americans who were directly impacted by the events depicted in ‘Allegiance.’”

Takei is not alone in his mission to preserve and remember. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s “Farewell to Manzanar” (1973) recounts her family’s internment at Manzanar Camp. Using her recollections and in-depth research, Wakatsuki Houston and her co-writer and husband James D. Houston share “a story, or a web of stories…tracing a few paths, out of the multitude of paths that led up to and away from the experience of the internment.” Yoshiko Uchida’s “Invisible Thread: An Autobiography” (1991) includes chapters about her experiences at Camp Topaz and the effects of becoming “prisoners of our own country.” (Uchida’s “Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese American Family,” which is not currently in RPL’s collection, recounts their story in more detail.)

            Others examine the topic through a historical lens. Karen Latchana Kenney’s “Korematsu v. The United States: World War II  Japanese-American Internment Camps” (2013), part of the Landmark Supreme Court Cases series, walks readers through how legislative actions were used to inhibit the rights of Japanese-Americans. Latchana Kenney reminds us that the Korematsu decision, which expanded government powers and allowed the denial of an ethnic group’s civil liberties, “is commonly condemned as a civil rights disaster.”  In “Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II” (2015), Richard Reeves uses survivor interviews, private letters and memoirs, and additional archival research to tell “an American story of enduring themes: racism and greed, injustice and denial—and then soul-searching, an apology, and the most American of coping mechanisms, moving on.”

In addition to the aforementioned print books, a search of the NC Live database (accessible via the “Online Tools” link on the RPL website) using the terms “Japanese American internment camps” yields numerous scholarly articles, news and magazine articles, and Ebooks. NC Live can be accessed from any RPL branch as well as from your home. To access off-site, you simply need your library card number and PIN (the four-digit number you selected when receiving your library card). A librarian can assist with locating online materials and/or resetting your PIN. Call 704-216-8228 or visit www.rowanpubliclibrary.org for additional help.

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. screening of “Allegiance” on Dec. 13 can be purchased via Fathom Events website and at selected cinemas. The show includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, including one with Takei.