Ruth Sasaki (Left Behind, Good Friends, Journey and Arrival, A Telegram to Topaz, Structuring Chaos, Life Goes On, The Other Stories, Venturing Out, Kiyo’s Story, The Oda Boys, Go For Broke, Two Camps)
Ruth was born and raised in San Francisco after the War. The Takahashis, her mother’s family, were incarcerated in Tanforan and Topaz. A graduate of UC Berkeley (BA) and SF State (MA), she has lived in England and Japan. Her short story “The Loom” won the American Japanese National Literary Award, and her collection, The Loom and Other Stories, was published in 1991 by Graywolf Press. She shares her more recent writing via her website: www.rasasaki.com. Ruth volunteers as the editor and curator of the Topaz Stories Project.
Henry Sadaji Sugaya (Moonlight)
Henry emigrated to the U.S. from Chiba Prefecture in 1906. He worked as a farm laborer, a schoolboy, and an employee of Kitchener-Schmulian Co., a men’s clothing store in downtown SF. He and his wife Hatsu then worked as housekeepers (he as a cook, she as a maid) for a family in Burlingame, CA (later, Atherton) for 15 years until the forced removal. They were sent to Tanforan, then Topaz, where their son Hisashi was born in 1942. Henry was a cook and community council member in camp. The family returned to California in 1945, where Henry and Hatsu resumed working for their former employer. Henry passed away in 1986.
Patricia Shiono (The Honeymoon)
Born and raised in San Francisco, Pat was active in the vibrant Japantown community as a member of the Girl Scouts and Buddhist Temple. Pat received an AA degree from San Francisco City College and a BS, MS and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Hawaii. She worked at the National Institutes of Health as a perinatal epidemiologist, then became a founding member of the Packard Foundation’s Center for the Future of Children. After retiring, Pat helped create Kokoro Assisted Living in Japantown and worked to obtain National Historic Landmark status and National Park Service management for the Tule Lake Segregation Center. Pat is an avid golfer and cooks Nisei style Japanese dishes the way her mother and grandmother taught her.