by Ruth Naruo Saito Hara
As if being pregnant weren’t enough to drive a person over the edge, sisters-in-law Michi Naruo and Mary Fukushima were also forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated in the Tanforan Assembly Center in the spring of 1942.
Michi was nine months pregnant and worried she would give birth on the bus—but she (just barely) made it to Tanforan before becoming the mother of the first baby born in Tanforan: her daughter, Judith.
Mary, on the other hand, was a few months behind Michi and worried that, if she didn’t give birth soon, she might be left behind when the rest of her family was transferred to Topaz in September.
Read Ruth Naruo Saito Hara’s story about the “First and Last Tanforan Babies.”
The Topaz Stories Team
Plan to visit the Topaz Stories Exhibit in Salt Lake City.
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)