The Topaz Stories collection includes many stories about resilience, gratitude, friendship, and acts of kindness–stories that people want to remember from the years of chaos and hardship.
Then there were the stories people wanted to forget. The dark, unresolved stories that no one wanted to attach their names to. The stories no one wanted to publicize. From this need to censor, by both the War Relocation Authority (who wanted to project an image that the camps were safe and pleasant places) and the Japanese American community itself (that believed it needed to be utterly irreproachable in order to prove their Americanness), many stories disappeared.
“The Other Stories” is a brief ode to such stories. It is the only story in our collection that has received pushback. It was originally included in the exhibit at the Utah State Capitol, but withdrawn when I was requested to rewrite it without mentioning what the story was about; the subject matter was considered unsuitable. And so a story about censorship was censored.
Read it here on our website.
The Topaz Stories Team
Plan to visit the Topaz Stories Exhibit in Salt Lake City before it closes on December 31, 2022.
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
Follow us on Instagram @topazstories
Media Coverage:
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)