George Takei made a stop in Hope during his Vancouver book launch to honour the memories of Japanese-Canadians who were interned in the nearby Tashme camp.
On Monday, Sept. 2, Takei visited Hope’s Tashme Museum, which looks at the history of the Tashme internment camp, located in the Sunshine Valley near the town.
The camp opened on Sept. 8, 1942, and was designed to house 500 families of Japanese-Canadian men who were separated from their families and sent to work on the Hope Princeton Highway. The camp was one of the last ones established in B.C., and one of the largest.
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Takei, 82, is best known for his role of Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek: The Original Series and is also a strong human rights activist. He was in B.C. over the long weekend for the launch of his newest book They Called Us Enemy.
The book, written as a softcover graphic novel, relays Takei’s experience as a four-year-old Japanese-American boy growing up in an American internment camp.
Takei was in Vancouver Tuesday (Sept. 3) for his evening book signing at Indigo Books on Robson Street.
grace.kennedy@ahobserver.com
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George Takei (centre) speaking with David Inassa, executive director of Tonari Gumi, the Japanese Community Volunteers Association (left) and Ryan Ellan, curator of the Tashme Museum during his Monday visit to Hope. (Brian Dodd/Contributed)
