Eddie Oda’s 24th birthday was on February 18, 1945. But he didn’t live to see it.
Photos taken by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) of life in U.S. concentration camps of WWII were heavily censored and favored smiling “residents” engaging in “normal,” everyday activities. This is not your WRA photo. It’s a photo of a Topaz funeral, taken on February 21, 1945–three days after Eddie Oda would have turned 24.
Eddie was an orphan from the Sacramento Delta who was taken in and raised with his two brothers by the Takahashi family (my grandparents). My grandparents and mother are standing behind the coffin. Eddie had survived a teenage brush with tuberculosis, only to be sent with the Takahashis to the dusty Utah desert. This time he didn’t survive.
Eddie’s younger brother, Harry, was serving in the L Company of the 442nd Regimental Combat team. He was denied leave to attend his brother’s funeral.
Read “The Oda Boys” by Ruth Sasaki.
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Media Coverage:
Watch “Utah Historians Run Exhibit on Japanese American Internment,” abc4 News, 2/19/2025).
Read “Utah Once Said ‘Never Again’–Do We Mean It? Deseret News, (2/26/2025).
Read “Topaz Stories Exhibition: A Way to Remember the Past.” SUU News, 2/7/2025.
Read ‘Topaz Stories’ exhibit travels Utah showing human side of WWII internment (KSL.com, May 24, 2024)
Read ‘Topaz Stories’ mines the history of a Japanese American internment camp (ParkRecord, May 18, 2024)
Read Remembering Japanese American Internment–Day of Remembrance (Rosie the Riveter Trust blog, March 24, 2024)
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) (This video appears to have been taken down, and abc4 has not responded to inquiries as to why.)
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 on Brad Westwood’s “Speak Your Piece” podcast featuring Ruth Sasaki and Jonathan Hirabayashi (6/2/2021)