(New York) Star Trek actor and political activist George Takei will release a picture book next spring that draws inspiration from his early childhood spent in internment camps for Japanese Americans.

Crown Books for Young Readers announced Wednesday that My Lost Freedom, illustrated by Michelle Lee, will be published April 30, 2024. Mr. Takei, 86, spent three years in three different camps during World War II.

These camps were established after United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 authorizing the forced removal to the West Coast of people considered a security risk, leading to incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans.

“It was because of my childhood behind barbed wire that I became an activist,” Mr. Takei said in a statement.

“It was clear that the story of the injustices faced by Japanese Americans also needed to be told in a way that young children and their caregivers could understand. Particularly in today’s political climate, my mission is to convey this chapter of American history to children so that we can all grow up knowing both the fragility and importance of democracy and our participation in it . »

Takei’s previous books include Oh Myyy! There Goes The Internet, which deals with the importance of its audience on social networks, and the autobiography To the Stars.

Crown Books for Young Readers is a collection from the American publisher Random House Children’s Books.