This week Harue Minamoto writes of her family’s arrival in Topaz in October 1942. Nine months pregnant, with no furniture in her family’s barrack “apartment,” she lived out of her suitcase for weeks, also using the suitcase as a place to sit.
As principles toppled, incarcerees began stealing lumber to create makeshift furniture. On a snowy Christmas Eve, baby Gay made her entrance into the world. Harue cried tears of joy and regret: joy at the delivery of a healthy girl, and regret because her daughter had been born in a concentration camp.
Read “First Winter in Topaz”–Part 3 of Harue’s memoir.
The Topaz Stories Team
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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)