One of the attendees at the Topaz Stories reception at the Utah State Capitol was Jonnie Wilson, who flew in from San Diego.
Jonnie was the determined angel who discovered a letter among her mother’s things in 2000. The 12-page handwritten letter was from her mother’s friend, Ann Ichiyasu, written in Topaz and dated November 1942. It detailed the hardship of the family’s forced removal to Tanforan, and then Topaz.
Jonnie knew the letter was important and tried for years to locate Ann’s family so she could return the letter to them. She finally found Ann’s daughter, Diane, and returned the letter to her. Diane has since donated it to the Topaz Museum. The first page of “Ann’s Letter” is on display in the artifacts case at the Topaz Stories exhibit, running to the end of December 2022.
In November 2021, Diane and Jonnie met for the first time. They posed with photos of their mothers – old friends, reunited.
Read “Ann’s Letter.”
Image 1: Jonnie Wilson and page one of Ann’s letter at the Topaz Stories exhibit, 2022.
Image 2: Ann’s Letter, page 1. Courtesy of the Topaz Museum.
Image 3: Diane and Jonnie meet in November 2021. Diane holds a photo of her mother, Ann, and Jonnie holds a book of poems by her mother, Loverne Wilson Brown, with Loverne’s photo on the cover.
All images courtesy of Ruth Sasaki.
Join us for two upcoming events about the Topaz Stories project in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Plan to visit the Topaz Stories Exhibit in Salt Lake City.
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
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The Topaz Stories Team
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)