February 3, 2024: “The Aftermath”

The story of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans did not end with the closing of the camps.

Harue Minamoto’s five-part memoir concludes this week with an unsparing account of what it was like to return to the West Coast after the War.

1: Japanese American family returns to home in Seattle after camp. Windows are boarded and "No Japs Wanted" has been painted in large letters on the walls. 2: A child sits in doorway of a dilapidated shack that served as temporary postwar housing in Southern California. 3: Three Japanese American men lift and document personal belongs stored in crates in the basement of a local church. — ^{1: A Japanese family returning home from a relocation center camp found their home and garage vandalized with anti-Japanese graffiti and broken windows in Seattle, Washington, on May 10, 1945. AP photo. 2: A child sits in the doorway of one of the converted barracks buildings at the Lomita Flight Strip in Southern California in this undated 1945 photo. Credit: Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley via Online Archive of California. 3: Personal effects arrive at Oakland West 10th Methodist Hostel and are checked by Saburo Sasaki, Joseph Aoki, and John Yamashita. Oakland, CA, 6/18/45. Charles E. Mace, WRA Photographer. Courtesy of the U.C. Berkeley Bancroft Library.}

After wresting her family home back from the unscrupulous grip of non-paying renters who made off with many of the family’s stored possessions, the Minamotos were faced with a flood of desperate acquaintances and strangers who, like them, were returning from camp, but unlike them, had nowhere to go.

Read “The Aftermath,” by Harue Minamoto

If you missed parts 1-4 of Harue’s memoir:
Part 1: Forced Removal
Part 2: Tanforan
Part 3: First Winter in Topaz
Part 4: Dust-up in the Desert

The Topaz Stories Team

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)

February 3, 2024: “The Aftermath”

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