BY KAREN BOSSICK
Actor/activist George Takei and others will take part in a special Q&A with Community Library patrons at 5 p.m. today—Friday, Feb. 19.
The special event commemorates The Day of Remembrance on which President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast.
Takei will discuss the 50-minute documentary “And Then They Came for Us.” He will be joined by Peabody Award-winning director filmmaker Abby Ginzberg and activist Satsuki Ina. Both were born in the Tule Lake internment camp.
The documentary features Takei and others who were incarcerated as a result of Roosevelt’s order. It also features newly rediscovered photographs by Depression Era photographer Dorothea Lange. And it brings history into the present, following Japanese American activists as they speak out against the Muslim registry and travel band.
Even this week, Takei has been interviewed by multiple news sources about the harassment of Asian Americans following the Trump Administration’s frequent references to the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus.”
The event is also being made available to public libraries throughout California in Anaheim, Berkeley, Chula Vista, Los Angeles, Marin, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Watsonville and Whittier.
To join the webinar, go to https://us02web.zoom.us/w/82923460857?tk=QVC86-HTCnzmGKRwCoz85DhBA19R-SW_pw9OOpk0qww.DQIAAAATTp-Y-RZyRXZrTURMZ1NXR2tPNE1yaUprTUFnAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_Tvs8yzqJQ62B3VuEP8S8Jw
Submit questions to librarywebinars@cityofberkeley.info
The Zoom discussion can also be watched on YouTube via www.comlib.org
The movie, which is well worth watching, can be viewed ahead of the talk by going to https://gooddocs.net/pages/attcfu-ca-public-libraries