The Sun:All aboard with Mr Sulu
Hi George, could you tell me a bit about your role as chairman of the board of the Japanese American National Museum?
The Japanese started to emigrate to the United States in the 1880s and it's been the classic immigrant story, save for one element. Every immigrant group coming to the United States could one day aspire to becoming a naturalised American citizen, except those citizens coming from Asia and Africa due to racism. Despite that obstacle, the Japanese immigrant group lived the classic American dream - they worked hard, they saved, they educated their children and built a home for themselves in America.
Then after Pearl Harbour suddenly, because we looked like the enemy and for no other reason, we were rounded up and put in 10 barbed wire internment camps with guard towers, search lights and machine guns. It is a dark chapter of American history, that most people in the US and Japan don't know about. I think it is important for Americans to recognise that our democracy can be fragile, and we need good people in our democratic process to defend those glorious ideals to stop it from failing again. So we organised a board for the Japanese American National Museum in 1985, opened our doors in 1992 and our third building will be completed next year. You can get more information from http://www.janm.org.
