Inside the Life of George Takei's mother ·
David Craig
Fumiko Emily Takei is the mother of George Takei. Fumiko Emily Takei is a highly accomplished actor, author, and director who is a charismatic champion for the arts, community engagement, and social justice. He was cast as Hikaru Sulu in the original “Star Trek” television series, taking his place within the diverse, futuristic ensemble cast. At a time when most Asian-appearing actors were cast as untrustworthy villains, Takei’s Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu indicated a tremendous step forward for Asian Americans on television.
Fumiko Emily Takei: Bio Summary
| Full Name | Fumiko Emily Takei |
| famous as | George Takei’s mother |
| Age | 89 years old at the time of his death |
| Date of Birth | 29 September 1912 |
| Place of Birth | Florin, Sacramento County, California, USA |
| Zodiac sign | Libra |
| Date of death | 25 May 2002, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA |
| Nationality | Japanese American |
| Ethnicity | Japanese |
| Children | Henry Takei, Nancy Reiko Takei, George Takei |
| Spouse | Takekuma Norman Takei |
Who is George Takei’s mother, Fumiko Emily Takei?
Fumiko Emily Takei was born on 29 September 1912 in Florin, Sacramento County, California, USA. Her father was a successful farmer yet despite his success, his children were required to go to a segregated and thus inferior school in the rural Florin school district. At the age of 8, Fumiko was sent to Hiroshima, Japan, for her education and later returned to the United States when she was 20.
In 1935, Fumiko Emily Takei met and married Takekuma Norman Takei who was born in Japan but educated in the United States of America. She had her American citizenship by virtue of her birth. but her husband was not a citizen yet when they met and married. Takekuma had a thriving dry cleaning business in Los Angeles.
ALSO, READ; Takekuma Norman Takei: What happened to George Takei’s father?
A year after their union, the couple started their family- The couple’s first child, a boy they named Furuto. Heartbreakingly, they lost him a few months after his birth. It was a devastating loss that Fumiko never forgot throughout her life.
A second child was born a year later, An Anglophile, Takekuma named his George, for King George VI because the baby was born in 1937, the year of the Royal coronation. The couple went on to have another boy- Named Henry for King Henry VIII and a girl- Nancy Reiko for a friend they admired.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, changed the lives of Fumiko Emily Takei, her husband, and their three children cataclysmically. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which directed all Japanese Americans to be evacuated from the west coast. The Takei family was ordered out of their home on Garnet Street by armed soldiers and forced to stay in the horse stables of nearby Santa Anita Race Track.
ALSO, READ; Henry Takei: Where is George Takei’s brother now?
Later, the Takei family was transported two-thirds across the country to the swamps of southeastern Arkansas to a camp bristling with barbed wire fences, guarded by tall sentry towers, euphemistically called, Rohwer Relocation Center.
ALSO, READ; Nancy Reiko Takei: Where is George Takei’s sister now?
To Fumiko, as to all women in the camp, life was intolerable. Everything was public. The walls of the barracks were paper thin. Intimate conversation was well-nigh impossible. The latrines had no partitions—just a row of toilet pots. The shower was a long, barren room with a line of spigots and no dividers. Everything was devoid of privacy, George Takei revealed in his tribute.
What happened to George Takei’s mother Fumiko Emily Takei?
At the end of World War II, after leaving Tule internment camp, The Takei family was left without any bank accounts, home, or family business; this left them unable to find any housing, so they lived on Skid Row, Los Angeles for five years. In 1950, just four years after returning from the camps, Fumiko Emily Takei and her husband were able to save enough to buy a three-bedroom house back in their old mid-Wilshire neighborhood.
ALSO, READ; Brad Takei: Who is George Takei’s husband?
Fumiko Emily Takei passed away after a prolonged illness on May 25, 2002, in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. She was 89 years old at the time of her death. She was laid to rest at the Forest Lawn Memorial ParkGlendale, Los Angeles County, California, USA per her Findagrave page. Her husband Takekuma Norman Takei passed away years earlier on September 22, 1979, he was 79.
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