“Star Wars” actor and political activist George Takei plans to publish a picture book next spring about his childhood in a Japanese-American internment camp.
Crown Books for Young Readers announced Wednesday that Takei’s My Lost Freedom, illustrated by Michelle Lee, will be published on April 30, 2024. Takei, 86, spent three years in three different concentration camps during World War II. The internment camps were established after President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 authorizing the forcible removal of those deemed security risks on the West Coast, resulting in the incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans.
“My childhood behind barbed wire is the reason I became an activist,” Takei said in a statement. “It’s clear that stories about the injustices faced by Japanese Americans should also center on young children and their caregivers.” Told in a way that can be understood. Especially in today’s political climate, it is my mission to convey this chapter of American history to children so that we all can grow up understanding democracy and the fragility of our participation in it and importance.”
Takei’s previous books include “Oh Myyy!: There Goes The Internet,” about his massive social media following, and the autobiography “To the Stars.”
Crown Children’s Books is a brand of Random House Children’s Books.
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