In 2019, Setsuko Asano Ogami gave us a story about her father, Shichinosuke Asano, who was the prewar Japanese language editor of the NichiBei Shimbun in San Francisco.
In Topaz, Mr. Asano worried about the lack of Japanese-language reading material for incarcerees, as all books in Japanese had been confiscated at the beginning of confinement. However, as regulations relaxed, he began collecting books in Japanese, and created the Topaz Japanese Library. From scrap wood, he carved its sign, which hung over the door to the barrack apartment that housed the library.
In 2024, Shichinosuke Asano was the subject of an exhibit at the Morioka Memorial Museum of Great Predecessors in Morioka, Japan. We were honored to assist the museum curators with securing permission to use a photo of the Topaz Japanese Library sign carved by Mr. Asano in their exhibit, as well as a copy of Steve Fujioka’s map of Topaz City. Mr. Asano was originally from Morioka and maintained a close relationship with his hometown throughout his life.
Read Setsuko Asano Ogami’s story, “The Topaz Japanese library.”
The Topaz Stories Team
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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)
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)