Their honeymoon was a day pass to Delta, the small town 17 miles from the concentration camp where they and their families had been incarcerated for several months. Otherwise they might never have met.
George’s family was from San Francisco; Michiko’s, El Cerrito, where her family ran the Contra Costa Florist. Michiko’s stepfather, Hikojiro Mabuchi, was a carpenter who had built many of the East Bay floral industry’s greenhouses before the War.
2: Sisters Clara Mabuchi, Michiko Masumoto and Akiko Asakura pose in front of their family’s Contra Costa Florist in El Cerrito, CA in April 1942–a last photo before being forcibly removed to Tanforan.
3: Hikojiro Mabuchi and daughter Clara in Topaz. All Images courtesy of Carol Yoshimoto.
In April 1942 Michiko and her stepsisters Akiko and Clara posed in front of their family’s nursery for a last photo before being taken away to Tanforan.
Six months later, they were in Topaz.
Read Carol Yoshimoto’s story about her parents’ courtship, “Galvanized Buckets.” Carol also writes about a treasured artifact created by her grandfather in camp in her piece called “Koi.”
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)