There is perhaps nothing more American than the assertion that life is what you make of it. Such is the ideology underlying the proverbial American dream — that each of us is the master of our destiny, provided we are willing to work hard and persevere through whatever challenges we may encounter.

However, history reveals that the story of the individual is also simultaneously the story of the nations and systems that shape and surround us. "I've been called many things in my life. I've been called legend and idol, all of these preposterously exaggerated words," said activist and actor George Takei. But before he’d even had a chance to forge his own identity — when he was still only a child — the country he calls home labeled him "enemy."

As the third speaker in Bucknell’s 2024-2025 Forum series, which is focused on the theme "World in Transition," Takei shared how his familial history was molded by a particularly dark chapter in American history — one that he still sees echoing across the political landscape today. Following a private question-and-answer session with students, he delivered a keynote address on Jan. 28 to a packed house in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts.

George Takei attended a question-and-answer session with Bucknell students before delivering the keynote address at the Bucknell Forum. Photo by James T. Giffen, Marketing & Communications

World-renowned for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series, Takei's acting career spans six decades and includes more than 40 feature films and television shows. His advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community has been a driving force in his life, and his 2019 New York Times-bestselling graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, which details his firsthand account of growing up in an internment camp, was the first-year Common Reading for Bucknell's Class of 2026.

"It all began on December 7, 1941, when Japan launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor," said Takei, who was just shy of five years old when the actions and reactions of two nations, soon to be at war, dramatically shifted the trajectory of his life. Only months later, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast into internment camps. The US government relocated Takei and his family from their Los Angeles home first to the horse stalls of Santa Anita Park, then to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas and, finally, the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California. "They categorized us as 'enemy alien.' We were neither. We were not alien. We were Americans, and we were not the enemy," said Takei. "It was a horrible time for Japanese Americans."

Takei has chronicled the events of his life both in a 1994 autobiography and the 2012 Broadway show Allegiance. When asked by a student why he chose to publish They Called Us Enemy as a graphic memoir, Takei expressed his desire to ensure that young readers don’t forget this part of American history. "There are many younger Japanese Americans who know that their parents or their grandparents were in camps during the war, but that's all they know," said Takei. "They have no idea of their family history. It's a blank. So I feel a compulsion because this is an American story."

For Takei, the strength of American democracy — of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" — also belies an inherent weakness. "People make mistakes," he said. "Even great presidents make mistakes." His words reminded the audience that history is not an inanimate collection of dates or facts. Rather, it is the sum total of actions and reactions — mistakes, triumphs and all — of individuals.

Takei closed his address by detailing how he has personally become involved in trying to shape the political systems that, in turn, shape our lives. "I have come to understand that as noble and as precious as our American ideals are, they can also be very fragile," said Takei, recounting the words he delivered as testimony during a 1981 congressional hearing on reparations for Japanese-American survivors of internment camps. "Democracy can only be as good or as strong or as true as the people who make it so."

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The Bucknell Forum speaker series will continue this spring with Kevin O'Leary on Feb. 18. O'Leary is a Canadian businessman, investor and star of the reality television series Shark Tank.