Jan. 27, 2024: Days of Remembrance

(L): A collage showing a black and white photo of a Japanese American baby half covered with cloth, sitting on a cot against a black background, next to a hanging bare light bulb. The "frame" of the photo is the window of a barrack. (M): Three Japanese American girls around seven years of age with arms around each others' shoulders stand outside in the bright sun. In the background is a barrack. (R): A photo of a white, dome-like fireball formed by the Trinity atomic bomb test in New Mexico in July 1945.
(L): Infant on the bed. Collage by Jeanie Kashima, 2021. Courtesy of Jeanie Kashima. (M): Michi Mukai with friends in Topaz concentration camp, 1943. Courtesy of Michi Mukai. (R): The expanding fireball and shockwave of the Trinity explosion, seen .025 seconds after detonation on July 16, 1945. U.S. Department of Defense.
  1. Topaz Collages are now on exhibit at J-Sei in Emeryville, CA. Textile artist Jeanie Kashima shares a collection of collages that she created incorporating family photos taken in Topaz. The exhibit is from January 22 – March 30, 2024. Artist talk on  March 16 at 2 pm. Gallery hours at J-Sei are MWF 10-1 and TTh 1-5. Read Jeanie’s story “Topaz Birth.”
  1. Wait list for “Topaz Stories: Through the Eyes of Children” at Rosie the Riveter Visitors’ Center, Richmond, CA, Feb. 24, 2024, 1-3 pm. Registration is full. Our sponsors are seeking a larger venue. If you would like to be added to the waiting list, please email us at topazstories@gmail.com. 
  1. Jan. 27 is a National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders of atomic testing. Downwinders are people who lived downwind from the nuclear tests conducted from 1945 at the Trinity site in New Mexico to the Nevada tests in the 1950s and 1960s. The high exposure to radiation wiped out generations of family members due to cancer and other radiation-inked illnesses. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), initially passed in 1990, provides compensation to some downwinders of the Nevada test site, but the Trinity downwinders have never been acknowledged or compensated by the government. RECA expires this year. For more information, follow these links: The Atomic Bomb’s First Victims Were in New Mexico and Extend and Expand RECA.

The Topaz Stories Team

Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
Follow us on Instagram @topazstories

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)

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