When I was a little boy in Topaz, around three years old, my friend Kaiyo and I squatted down for a better view of some nearby ants, and we poked sticks at their perfectly rounded, cone-shaped homes.
Our glee rapidly turned to panic as we became overwhelmed by a sea of very angry, stinging ants. I discovered that those Topaz ants were a lot smarter and meaner than us. It was a day to remember!
About the contributor: Mich was almost two when his extended family was imprisoned at Tanforan Assembly Center in 1942, and later at Topaz. His dislike of hot summers, windy days, sandstorms, and canned red beets likely results from his formative years at Topaz. After graduating from the University of California, he was an engineer and researcher at NASA, developing telemetry control systems. For this work, he was awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Service and NASA Medal for Exceptional Engineering.
Copyright 2016, Michio Aoyagi. All rights reserved.