This is my grandmother in Miyajima in 1935. Ten years later, she would perish on August 6, 1945. I never met her.
My mother met her future mother-in-law on a trip to Japan in 1935, and told me stories about that meeting, retold in “Life Goes On.” There was one more story, about a telegram my Hiroshima grandmother sent to Topaz.
Her name was Sina.
Read “Life Goes On” and “A Telegram to Topaz” on our website. Also, “Her Name,” at rasasaki.com.
Note: The opening of the movie “Oppenheimer” has renewed interest in the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb, as well as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), due to expire in May 2024, which has paid compensation to “downwinders” exposed to excessive radiation from the Nevada test site, among others. A recent article in the Washington Post (subscription may be required) highlighted the plight of New Mexico victims of A-tests, who have never been eligible for compensation, yet whose families have been decimated by the effects of radiation exposure. Despite years of efforts to expand coverage to victims from outside the state of Nevada, it wasn’t until last week that such an amendment to RECA was taken up and passed by the Senate. It now faces the House.
Ruth Sasaki
Topaz Stories Editor
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
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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)