A Topaz Childhood

By this time I was 10, but I had to go back to the 3rd grade instead of the 5th grade because I’d forgotten all of my English. I was so embarrassed, especially since I had to go back to the same school I attended before the War. Before camp I had a good friend, Louise; she even wrote me a note while I was at Tanforan Assembly Center. But now I couldn’t even make eye contact with her. I was a different person, feeling ashamed. It was difficult assimilating back to “civilization.”

My older siblings said: “Don’t tell anyone even among the Japanese community that we were in Tule Lake since we were branded ‘disloyal’.” Plus, hearing people say “Japs live here” in the mixed neighborhood… I think back and wonder “How did I survive that double whammy of discrimination?” However, within a matter of months, my English came back and I got new friends; but the stigma of being two years older than my classmates, etc., stuck with me all through high school. I attended summer school and told my counselor that I wanted to graduate as soon as possible. I was 19 years old when I graduated from San Mateo High School in 1955.  

My father died in 1953 so college was not in the picture. I was so envious of my friends who did go on to college. Brother John was in college, and Ben and Roy served in the Korean War and went on to college with the GI Bill. Even my younger brother Yosh quit community college and joined the Air Force. My older sisters had gotten married by then so someone had to stay with our mother and “bring home the bacon.” Some of my older siblings did chip in to help out with my meager salary from Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, where I worked in the stenographer pool. Working in San Francisco was the best thing for me: I finally blossomed and got out of my shell. I worked my way up to be a secretary to a college recruiter in the personnel department and worked there for eight years before getting married.

In hindsight: I am glad the evacuation happened when I was young because children are resilient, and as long as I had my family around me, I felt relatively secure. But for my parents, given only a few months to get rid of all of our belongings except what each could carry; and my older brothers and sisters, some in high school about to graduate, where normally you would look forward to making plans for a job or college–their future was unknown. How difficult it must have been for them. Yes, my whole camp experience had a major impact on my life–a mixture of both good and bad!

I’m now 86 years old. As I age, there will be inevitable changes; but I shall flow with those challenges with a grateful heart and a settled mind.

---

¹Question 27 asked if subjects were willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty. Question 28 asked if subjects would renounce loyalty to the Emperor of Japan. The questionnaire was a misguided attempt by the government to determine who was loyal and who was not; in reality, it penalized those who were Buddhist, Japanese speaking, and angry over the loss of their constitutional rights; and it caused tremendous divisions within the community.

About the contributor:  Michiko Takeshita Mukai was born in 1935 in San Mateo, CA. At the age of six, she, her seven siblings and parents were incarcerated in Tanforan Assembly Center, then Topaz in Utah and later, Tule Lake, CA. After the War, she returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from San Mateo High School. She worked for Pacific Bell, then married and had two sons. She worked as a teachers’ aid in the San Mateo Elementary School District for 14 years. Her grandchildren are now grown, but she still dog-sits their “babies.”

Copyright Michiko Mukai, 2022. All rights reserved.