Eighty years later, a childhood memory continues to haunt.
On April 11, 1943, a Topaz guard shot and killed James Hatsuaki Wakasa, a 63-year-old former chef, who was walking his dog near the fence.
As fear and anger swept the camp, some residents in Block 36, where Mr. Wakasa had lived, and near where he had been murdered, began to witness an eerie, recurring phenomenon in the desert sky after sundown. It went on for several days.
To Kiyoshi Katsumoto, a 7-year-old boy living in Block 36, it was a sight he would never forget or be able to explain–like the memory of James Wakasa’s death itself, seared into the memory of a community.
Read “Mystery at Topaz,” by Emiko Katsumoto (first posted on 10/30, 2022).
The Topaz Stories Team
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
Follow us on Instagram @topazstories
Media Coverage:
Read Internee’s story told with ‘Topaz Collages’ (Wheel of Dharma, Vol. 5, Issue 3, March 2023).
Watch Topaz survivors tell their stories (abc4 news, 4/22/2022)
Listen to the “In the Hive” podcast with interviews with Ann Dion, Jonathan Hirabayashi, and Topaz survivors Jeanie Kashima and Joseph Nishimura (KCPW, 4/28/2022)
Read How a Utah exhibit about Topaz Camp looks to find empathy in ‘an ugly stain on American history (ksl.com, 4/22/2022)
Read “Topaz Stories rise from the dust,” (Department of Culture & Community Engagement, 4/2022)
Listen to KQED Forum, Day of Remembrance interview with Ruth Sasaki, 2/15/2022
Listen to Max Chang and Ruth Sasaki interviewed (KRCL RadioActive, 2/9/2022
Read On Topaz Stories and ‘Authentic Voice’, the Discover Nikkei interview with Ruth Sasaki (10/14/2022)
Listen to Remembering the Japanese American Incarceration, the Topaz Stories podcast with Ruth Sasaki and Jonathan Hirabayashi (6/2/2021)