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(commotion and crashing noises)

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[SHIRO FLOYD MORI] Executive Order 9066,

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the origin of that kind
of reminds me of some of

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the things that are happening
today.

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We panic.

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We have hysteria,
when an incident happens,

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particularly if it's with
a minority group of people.

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We'd hoped we learned
from that experience,

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but I think today
we still have to be cautious.

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We have to hold our government
accountable.

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(film projector whirls)

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(typewriter clicking)

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(sound of explosions)

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[NARRATOR] On December 7, 1941,

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Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,

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causing the United States
to declare war

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on Japan.

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The war heightened
prevailing racist attitudes

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and anti-Japanese sentiment
grew.

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Many suspected
that their Japanese

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American neighbors
might be spies or saboteurs.

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The military pressed President
Roosevelt to take action

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and circumvent
constitutional safeguards

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in the name
of national defense.

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On February 19th, 1942,

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President Roosevelt issued
Executive Order 9066,

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which allowed the government
to forcibly remove

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and imprison persons
of Japanese descent,

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due to racial prejudice
and war hysteria.

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[GEORGE TAKEI] 
Executive Order 9066

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signed by President
Roosevelt makes me sad for him

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because he was the victim
of that hysteria.

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He reacted with fear

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and suspicion
with no basis and fact.

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[NARRATOR]
Though the United States was

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at war with countries
in both Europe and Asia,

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only states along the West
Coast - Washington,

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Oregon and California,
where large populations

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of Japanese Americans lived

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- were designated
military areas.

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This paved the way
for the forced removal

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and incarceration of over
120,000 Japanese Americans,

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entire families,
including women and children,

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to America's
concentration camps.

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Two thirds
of those incarcerated

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were American citizens.

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They lost their land,
their homes,

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their businesses,
their dignity.

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Everything.

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♪ somber music ♪

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(sound of train on tracks)

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Dalton Wells, just north of Moab,
Utah, was an abandoned

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Civilian Conservation Corps
camp from the 1930s

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that was retrofitted to house
Japanese American internees

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who protested
their imprisonment or asked

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embarrassing questions
about their government.

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49 men, American citizens,

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were essentially locked up
in solitary confinement.

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[KENJI BUNCH] Dalton Wells,
I had no idea it existed.

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Some stuff

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obviously went down there
and it's a weird sensation

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to be standing on
land that I had experienced

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something unjust

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and traumatic and,
frankly, un-American.

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I just kind of felt compelled

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to take my instrument out
and play Minidoka,

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the piece that I wrote after
visiting Minidoka in Idaho.

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That was kind of why
I wrote the piece,

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I wanted to offer
some kind of healing energy...

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for the people
who experienced that

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situation,
but also in a sense,

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for the land itself
to heal that spot.

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[NARRATOR] George Takei

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collaborated with Kenji on the work.

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George was only a child
when he was taken away.

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[GEORGE TAKEI]
We lived in a two bedroom house

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on Garnet Street
in Los Angeles.

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Early one morning, it was

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May, Daddy
came into our bedroom

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and quickly woke us up

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and dressed
my brother and me hurriedly,

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and he told us to wait
in the living room

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while our parents

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did some last minute
packing in their bedroom.

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Our baby sister
was in the cradle with them.

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So my brother and I were just
gazing out the front window

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out on the neighborhood,
when suddenly we saw

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soldiers
marching up our driveway.

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They carried rifles

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with bayonets on them.

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They stomped up
the front porch

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and with their fists
began banging on the door.

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We were terrified.

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The whole house
seemed to be trembling.

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Daddy answered the door,
and literally at gunpoint,

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we were ordered
out of our home.

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We were spit on

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and assaulted on the street.

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Our homes, our businesses,

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our cars were graffitied.

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The government came down
with a curfew.

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Our bank accounts were frozen.

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Our life savings were taken.

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And then the terror
intensified.

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♪♪

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[NARRATOR] Although Kenji Bunch
wasn't born in 1942,

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the whole time he was growing
up in Portland, Oregon,

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he heard stories
from Japanese American friends

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about the camps.

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Had he been born
40 years earlier,

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he himself would have been
forced to relocate to a camp.

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He studied music at the
prestigious Juilliard School,

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where he was the first student

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ever to receive dual bachelor
and master of music degrees

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in viola and composition.

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[GEORGE TAKEI] Kenji Bunch,

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the composer,
is an enormously gifted man.

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What I love about his music
is he's

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dealing with Asian Americans,
Japanese Americans.

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The sound is very American

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because
this is an American story.

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And here
I am, a Japanese American

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telling that story
with that music.

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He's a wonderful
composer of moving music.

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But beyond that, it's
a very American sound,

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and I am thrilled
to be a part of that.

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Despite the distant events,
many Japanese Americans

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and other Asian Americans
fear history

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is repeating itself today.

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From March 2020

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and continuing through 2022,

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incidences of anti-Asian hate,
including violent verbal

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and physical assaults,
even murder, on people

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of Asian
descent rose 339% in America.

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Escalated by

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outrage fueled by the COVID-19
pandemic.

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Labeled
by some as the Wuhan flu,

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kung flu or China virus.

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Many in the Asian
American community

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feel they are experiencing
the same kind of rage

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Japanese Americans
felt back in 1942.

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[GEORGE TAKEI] My father
always emphasized to us

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how our democracy
is very vulnerable,

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because it's a people's
democracy and it's the people

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who give it its meaning,
strength and substance.

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[NARRATOR] It is a truth
that art gives us meaning

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and helps us better understand
our world.

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Kenji Bunch and his music
are a part of that process.

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♪♪

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[GEORGE TAKEI] Good evening.

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I'm George Takei.

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Music is in our bodies,

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in our environment,
the sounds of nature.

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And to tell this singular
story,

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using the talent
of an enormously

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gifted Japanese American composer,

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and my personal family
experience,

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I think is going to be

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an important contribution
to American society

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and to moving it forward
to a better American society.

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[KENJI BUNCH]
We have to believe that

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a project like this,
even though

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it's just one concert,
one night

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in one part of the country
with one audience,

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I have to believe that that
that can make a difference.

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♪♪

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To coin a phrase,

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a super spreader of compassion
and an understanding

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and awareness of history and

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learning from mistakes
of history.

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[GEORGE TAKEI]
With the bombing of Hiroshima

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and then Nagasaki,
the war with Japan ended.

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America had won.

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But now our family,

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together with 120,000 people,

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face the new challenge
of rebuilding our lives

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in a nation
still hostile to us.

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The government
gave each one of us

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a one way ticket to anywhere
in the United States

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and $25 to build our new life.

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We were to forge for ourselves

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in a country
where they still considered us

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the enemy.

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Throughout the existence
of the United States,

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we've had the tendency
to make sweeping

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generalization without basis
and fact, on people

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that look or sound
or are colored differently.

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The creator of the show
that serves as my platform,

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Star Trek, the creator's name
was Gene Roddenberry.

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He coined the phrase

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infinite diversity
in infinite combinations.

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That's
what makes American society

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today, and hopefully
the future society

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that can embrace diversity
as a source of strength.

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And so diversity,

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and acceptance
of that diversity as a string,

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is going to make the society
a better,

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more equal, and more vibrant,
and stronger society.

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[NARRATOR]
The blame game has reappeared

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based on fear, prejudice
and misguided beliefs.

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What will it take
to move forward

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and stop making the mistakes of the past.

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♪ drum beat music ♪